Sub Group Updates – Summer 2018-19

ALUCA REHABILITATION GROUP

The National ALUCA Biennial Conference was held in Tasmania from 11th October to 13th October 2018 at the Hotel Grand Chancellor, Hobart with the core theme being “Innov18 – Life Changing”. It was great to see a large presence of rehabilitation professionals being represented across the industry. There was a combination of plenary and concurrent sessions delivered by expert guest speakers on exciting, innovative and relevant content about the life insurance industry undergoing a period of unprecedented change driven by the Royal Commission review and new technology, a renewed focus on customer centricity and rebuilding the community’s attention on the social and economic good that that the life insurance industry provides. Rehabilitation was a key focus throughout the event with one of the many highlights being a panel debate on Life Insurers funding treatment “options for greater involvement by Private Sector Life Insurers in Worker Rehabilitation.” It was one of the largest attended Biennial events and feedback received was overwhelmingly positive. Thank you to all those that supported the events and we look forward to seeing a much stronger and growing presence of rehabilitation professionals at our next Biennial event at the Gold Coast in 2020.

Expressions of interests were sought for the ALUCA Rehab Subgroup members for 2019. Our new committee came into effect 1 January 2019. Congratulations to the ALUCA subgroup Members of 2019 which will be represented by our new chair Kim Phan (AMP), Vice Chair Josh Agar (MLC), Treasurer Trent McCormick (AMP), Communications Lead Amlan Sharma (AMP), NSW Committee Members Ben Crawley (BT), Karen Robertson (AIA), Swetha Purba (TAL), Dr Newman Harris (RGA), VIC Committee Members Joanna Else (MLC), Tom Notley (Superfriend), Rachael Wiseman (AMP), and QLD Committee Member Tamlyn Faulkner (QSuper).

I would like to acknowledge and extend my thanks to those members who will not continue in 2019.

  • Our Chair Jen Jackson (CommInsure),
  • Vice Chair Lena Kesoglou (MLC)
  • Nick Boyle (MunichRe)

Jen, Lena and Nick have made invaluable contributions to the ALUCA Rehabilitation Subgroup over the last 3 years and their expertise will be greatly missed.

The TPD working group has been rejuvenated for 2019. This team will be represented by our continuing members TPD Lead Lena Kesoglou (MLC), Linda Winterbottom (RGA), Alicia Gibbs (OnePath), Sumit Verma (TAL), Joanna Gregoriou (BT) and Margaret Black (formally University of Sydney). We welcome our new members Eleni Katsoulis (MLC), Tim Hulme (CommInsure), Sarah Gatenby (QSuper), Michael Deville (TAL), Stefanie Rugiano (AIA) and Nick Boyle (Munich Re).  The TPD working group is looking to undertake further work on areas related to Employability Assessments in 2019.

As noted throughout 2018, the Rehab Working Group have been collaborating across insurers, reinsurers and rehabilitation providers to develop a position statement to help drive best practice in occupational rehabilitation in life insurance. Feedback and comments have been received and the position statement is in its final version and we are looking forward to publishing the final version on the ALUCA website in early 2019.

We wish you a very Happy New Year and look forward to sharing knowledge, ideas and collaborating with you all in 2019.

Amlan Sharma
Communications Lead


ALUCA QUEENSLAND

ALUCA QLD wish all its colleagues around Australia a very healthy and happy New Year.

We celebrated the festive season on Friday November 30 at South Beach Social on the banks of the Brisbane river with over 70 people in attendance.

We saw a change of pace with our final speaker of 2018 in Matt Griggs, former pro-surfer now seasoned mind and high-performance coach. Having worked closely with high performers such as world surfing champions Mick Fanning and Stephanie Gilmour, his message centres around the importance of:

‘Clearing the mind, energising the body, and optimising performance’

He spoke passionately about quietening the ‘noise’, paying attention and being present in everything we do, and is a devotee of the Keelee meditation practice. It was a thought-provoking session as we wrapped up a bustling 2018 full of intense movement within the industry.

With three successful seminars in 2018, totaling 220 attendees, we look forward to working with our QLD colleagues and the broader ALUCA community in 2019.

Jody O’Sullivan
Secretary


ALUCA VICTORIA

Wasn’t 2018 a fabulous year? There was a lot going on (Royal Commission) but then you think about all the great work we have done in 2018, all the activity and effort and fabulous events and you realise the wheel keeps turning and we keep making this industry a bigger and brighter place to be. This is mostly down to all the fabulous people who work in our industry and who support organisations like ALUCA to promote excellence in Life Insurance.

The ALUCA Victoria committee had a busy 2018. Busy both in terms of events and in terms of moving and a shaking. Over the course of the year the committee has seen a few changes. Suzanne Whyte has plumped up the cushions on the Chair and Peter Murray has settled comfortably into his Vice-Chair role. Andrea Freeland is doing a stellar job as our new secretary and we have also snagged two fabulous fresh recruits, Stephanie Catalucci (MLC) and Gus Carfi (SuperPartners), who are already making a great impression.

So what did the committee get upto in 2018?

In April we saw the ALUCA VIC/ CMG joint legal session which talked about TPD – both the challenges of assessment and the issues with gaps in case law.  Held at the AMP building this was a great event for anyone interested in the intricacies of case law around TPD. Very pertinent to both our legal and claims colleagues but also noteworthy for the underwriters.

The ALUCA VIC mid-year event saw the fabulous Bill Monday present on organ and stem cell transplantation and the bio-printing of organs at the Eureka Tower in July. Bill is also a strong speaker and the venue and topic helped put the icing on the cake.

The September event had Peter Tilocca introducing the amazing work that has been done at OnePath to lift up the hood on underwriting by using data and analytics. Speaking at the Rialto Tower Peter created quite a stir and a flurry of questions about the impact of data analytics on insurance. What does the future hold?

The ALUCA VIC committee would like to thank everyone who has supported us in 2018. The speakers who have made our sessions so interesting, the venues who have made our events so special and to you, for attending and supporting our organisation – we hope you have benefited from our events as much as we have enjoyed hosting them.

Finally, the end of year event was held on 29th of November at the Duke of Wellington in Melbourne CBD to a sell-out crowd. Alexandre Andre talked about finding purpose and creating IMPACT in your life.  We hope that if you made it along you found the conversation inspirational. We wish you a Fabulous New Year and trust we will see you all again soon.

Gail Jones
VIC SUB GROUP COMMITTEE


ALUCA WESTERN AUSTRALIA

I would like to start with wishing your WA ALUCA Committee and all local members a very Happy New Year. I hope that you all managed to take some time off over the festive period, refreshed the batteries and look forward to seeing you at our events in 2019.

Special thanks go to the current committee of Gary Pellant, Steve Colliver, Katherine Matterson, Mark Birbeck and David Oliver. Without your help and support over the past 12 months we would not have been able to put on another strong year of Seminars over in the West. THANK YOU!

Our final event of the 2018 was held at Market Grounds in November (see attached photos). We were joined by ALUCA CEO Amanda McKernon who reflected on the past 12 months and told us of the exciting year ahead planned for ALUCA. This was our largest attended event for some time and I thank you all for supporting our events throughout 2018.

Your committee has met and plans for 2019 are underway. If there is any topic or area of interest please contact myself or one of the committee members, we would love to hear from you.

2019 is shaping up as follows: – (please keep an eye out on the ALUCA Website for updates as Speakers and topics are confirmed)

  • WA Seminar Thursday 14 March 2019
  • WA Seminar Thursday 23 May 2019
  • Mini-ALUCA Thursday 22 August 2019
  • WA Seminar (End of Year Event) Thursday 28 November 2019

Thank you and looking forward to seeing you in 2019

Stephen Chapman
WA Chair


ALUCA NEW SOUTH WALES

Seasons Greetings from ALUCA NSW committee!

2018 was a great year with record seminar attendances and the trend continued with an excellent end of year event. We wrapped up the year with an evening function at a great location – The Museum of Contemporary Art.

The evening started with a traditional welcome to the original owners of the land – the Gadigal people of the Eora nation from our ALUCA NSW committee chair Lisa- Marie McKechnie. Lisa-Marie then recapped the 2018 year and set the theme of the evening and for 2019 – resilience. With the disruption happening in the industry, this was the perfect theme, followed by a brief introduction to our key note speakers.

Jim Welsh – ALUCA Chair then joined the stage to thank the committees and members for the ongoing support. Jim provided a quick recap of 2018 which involved significant events like large insurers mergers, introduction of new players and scrutiny from regulators. Jim introduced our speaker Andrew Gill, Managing Director, Pacific life Re.

For most of us in this industry, Andrew is no stranger and it takes only 30 seconds for the audience to engage with his excellent insight and humour. Andrew impressed the importance of how resilience and restoring trust is so important for our industry.  His key messages were the need to consistently do the right thing, appreciate the efforts the industry has made continue to be curious and innovate. He left the stage with the audience thinking how the next 5-10 years are going to reshape the industry.

NSW Committee member Stephen Connolly closed the event by thanking our speakers and Tonja for organising a great event. Acknowledging the challenges faced by farmers, Stephen told the audience how the hay bales used to decorate the event will be donated to the farmers. A small but genuine gesture to our hard working farmers.

We had 130 attendees and members and found it a very relaxing and informative evening. We were fortunate to have all the Sydney based ALUCA board members attend the event.

The ALUCA NSW committee thanks all our ALUCA members, the ALUCA Board and sub committee members for all the support in 2018 and look forward to seeing you in 2019!

The ALUCA NSW committee will continue to bring great events to you and are excited about the year ahead.

The ALUCA NSW committee thanks all our ALUCA members, the ALUCA Board and sub committee members for all the support in 2018 and we wish you and your family a very safe and happy Christmas.

Enjoy a relaxing break and we look forward to seeing you in 2019.  The ALUCA NSW committee is excited about the next year and we will continue to bring some great events in 2019.

It’s a wrap!

Ami Barua
Committee Member