Kinetic Super says the upgrades are intended to maximise members’ insurance protection at times when they can afford it and reduce it or switch it off when they can’t.
New members receive a Starter Pack that offers lower insurance cover with lower premiums. Once their super savings grow to $3,000 or more, they are automatically upgraded to the Booster Pack which provides greater insurance cover, Kinetic Super said in a statement.
“We identified the inherent need for insurance to offer greater flexibility for Australia’s contingent workforce who make up a large part of our membership,” Kinetic Super chief executive Katherine Kaspar said.
“Our tiered cover is particularly beneficial for younger Australians entering the workforce with smaller account balances, who generally can’t afford or don’t want high levels of insurance cover.”
Kinetic Super also introduced an insurance switch-off feature aimed at meeting the needs of a growing contingent of the workforce whose insurance premiums are switched off after a period of account inactivity.
Ms Kaspar said temporary or contract workers often have their super savings spread thinly across multiple accounts as they switch jobs frequently, and could be paying insurance premiums for each account.
“When an account balance is at the lower end, there comes a point where it can no longer sustain regular insurance premium deductions,” she said.
“If a member has changed jobs and not told their new employer to pay their super into their Kinetic Super account, causing their account to be inactive, we’ll switch off their insurance premiums to protect their savings if their account balance is $6,000 or less and they haven’t received contributions from their employer for 10 months or more.”
And what if there have been no contributions because the member is sick and can’t work, and then has their insurance switched off so they can’t claim either?
I’m not convinced that they did this for the reasons they said they have. This looks like they have done it because so many of their members are inactive that to stop their balance been depleted by insurance premiums and to stop the ato from taking the members funds over they have come up with a way to continue to take the admin fee so that fund stays sustainable. At the moment based on the average balance there has to he a huge upside on member retention because of these changes.