BrightRock offering group risk cover – changeexchange.studio

Life assurer BrightRock is entering the employee benefits space by offering group risk cover to employers.

BrightRock has disrupted the individual life market with its needs-matched product, which matches clients’ needs at the outset and adapts their cover to their changing financial needs over time.

Schalk Malan, the chief executive of BrightRock, says the company is now ready to enter the group risk environment with a similar offering.

Malan says traditional group risk products have many of the same shortcomings that BrightRock sought to address when it entered the individual life market.

“They are standardised, commoditised and one-size-fits-all solutions that fail to meet employees’ and employers’ needs. At their core, the insurance structures offered to employees today are the same as they were in the 1980s, based on a flat multiple of salary model, which in practice, leaves most scheme members substantially underinsured at younger ages when they face the largest financial exposure, relative to employees at older ages, who are nearing their retirement age.

“This inefficient structure has meant that, to remain competitive, insurers have cut the benefits offered to employees, creating uncertainty for scheme members and undermining their sense of financial security. This has been happening in an increasingly competitive job economy where employers are struggling to attract and retain talent.

“Change is needed, and we believe BrightRock’s needs-matched philosophy positions us to change the group risk market,” Malan says.

* This news report was originally published on Saturday, 19 May 2018 in the Personal Finance section of The Independent on Saturday, Saturday Star, Pretoria News Weekend, Weekend Argus and IOL.co.za. Click here to read the online version.