The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) board has appointed a new consumer member to the Life Insurance Code Compliance Committee (LCCC).
Anna Meulman is currently a managing lawyer at the Consumer Action Law Centre (CALC), where she’s worked for nearly nine years. During that time, she’s served as a consumer member in AFCA panel determinations and represented a client in an insurance dispute as part of the Royal Commission.
Commenting on her appointment, LCCC chair Jan McClelland said: “Anna brings a strong understanding of the issues affecting consumers, including vulnerable consumers, in the financial services sector.”
“Her experience in consumer advocacy, complaints handling and legal assistance will be valuable as we continue our work monitoring compliance with the Code and promoting fair outcomes in the life insurance industry,” McClelland added.
Council of Australian Life Insurers (CALI) chief executive Christine Cupitt also welcomed Meulman, saying that her CALC experience will be valuable to the LCCC as it undergoes an independent review.
“Meulman’s experience at the Consumer Action Law Centre will bring an essential customer perspective to the Committee at a time when the industry is actively working to ensure the Life Code remains strong, practical and aligned with community expectations,” Cupitt said.
The LCCC has three members: a consumer member appointed by AFCA, an industry member appointed by CALI and an independent chair appointed by both. As consumer member, Meulman replaces Alexandra Kelly.
McClelland thanked Kelly for her service and recognised her “wonderful contribution to our work since the Life Insurance Code of Practice came into effect in 2017.”
“Underpinned by a strong commitment to consumer advocacy and education, she helped ensure consumer perspectives are reflected in our work promoting and monitoring compliance with the Code,” McClelland added.
Back in April, Peter Kell released his interim report for the Life Code independent review. While the report found that stakeholder feedback was generally positive, participants also identified numerous areas where the Code could be improved.
Of particular concern was the sustainability of mental health claims, which the report said had risen sharply over the past decade. The current Code includes a provision that industry members are committed supporting customers with a mental health condition, but the report noted that this statement “sits in an appendix to the code rather than as a key upfront commitment.”
This ambiguity, the report said, has led to differing views across stakeholder groups as to how mental health can be incorporated into (or excluded from) insurance products. Commonwealth law permits certain exemptions from disability discrimination obligations in the design of insurance products, but clause 2.1(b) of the Life Code requires that members “do not incorporate a blanket exclusion specific to mental health.”
“The primary difference in stakeholder positions on this clause related to whether the Code commitment allows blanket exclusions as long as these are consistent with the exemptions allowed under the [Disability Discrimination Act 1992] … or prohibits blanket exclusions altogether,” the report said.
Given that mental health is now the leading cause of total and permanent disability (TPD) claims, this has become an urgent consideration for life insurers. In August last year, Christine Cupitt said that Australia is “at a tipping point” and that “the entire safety net, not just life insurance, is under pressure.”
More recently, APRA’s executive director for life, private health insurance and superannuation, Jane Magill, said that TPD “is now being asked to solve an issue it was never built to address.”
Speaking at the 2026 All Actuaries Summit, Magill said: “The current form of TPD insurance is being tested by a sharp rise in mental health claims. They now account for one in three claims paid, and mental health claims for people in their 30s have risen by more than 700 per cent over the past decade, based on CALI data.”
“[A] solution will not come from waiting for perfect conditions or pulling one lever. It will require disciplined risk management and coordinated action across claims, product design and stakeholder alignment,” she added.
