Sub Group Updates – Spring 2019

ALUCA VICTORIA

Spring is finally here!  The weather is getting warmer and it’s now the perfect time to get out and about. With that in mind, ALUCA Vic members left the office behind for the day and joined us for our flagship event – miniLUCA on Thursday 17th October at RACV City Club!  We assembled some amazing speakers from both inside and outside the industry to present on our theme “Rebuilding Trust” that was presented from a number of different lenses.

Our keynote speakers for the day were:

Nick Kirwan – in his role as Senior Policy Manager, Life Insurance, among other things Nick leads the policy work on the FSC Life Code of Practice and other matters relating to life insurance.

Katherine Gobbi – a passionate Leader who has extensive experience in personal injury claims management.   Her passion for the Customer is matched only by her passion for her People and evidenced in the culture she has built within EMLife – based firmly on the foundations of Integrity, Customer Centricity, Innovation, Empowerment and Alignment to a higher purpose.

Andrew Weinmann – an ombudsman specialising in life insurance disputes at AFCA. He provided insight into the topic of “fairness” and it’s application in the current environment.

Dr Pramodh Nathaniel – Managing Director of a leading online health education company, Ascending, Dr Nathaniel presented a case study approach discussing trust in the industry from a medical perspective.

Dr Melissa Weinberg – is a Psychologist, academic and research Consultant and discussed the science of happiness from the theoretical perspective of subjective wellbeing homeostasis. She revealed the latest insights into wellbeing and resilience, and translated the research into applied practical tips for maintaining and recovering wellbeing.

Jason McCartney – became a national hero in the wake of the Bali Bombings in 2002 and epitomises the Australian fighting spirit. His story is one of how he overcame adversity through amazing support from family, friends and teammates and triumphantly returned to AFL football.

More on miniLUCA in the next RiskeBusiness edition.

Suzanne Whyte
Chair – VIC ALUCA


WESTERN AUSTRALIA

ALUCA WA recently hosted our Triple Treat in August which turned into our largest attendance of the year. A big thank you to all of you that came out to support our event and my special thanks go to Karen Panting, one of ALUCA WA’s founding members for assisting the committee and ensuring that all the presentations and technology worked on the day. It really would not have turned out to be such a successful event without your help.

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Alissa Bernardi, Branch Manager at IPAR (WA) began proceedings when she very kindly shared her experiences as a Rehab Provider and provided a demonstration of how technology including biopsychosocial modelling is now being applied to assist claimants return to work.

Dr Bill Monday, Chief Medical Officer at Pacific Life Re began by inviting us all to hug a Geneticist. We can now all safely describe the difference between genetics and genomics along with the role our lifestyle has on our genetics. Dr Monday concluded with a timely update on the recently introduced Genetics Moratorium in the Australian life insurance industry.

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The Triple Treat concluded with Kelvin Brown sharing his truly inspiring and incredible story demonstrating that through leadership, teamwork and risk assessment (very close to our heart) all came together in the rescue mission of 33 Chilean miners in 2010.

We are currently making the final touches to our End of Year Event for Thursday 28th November. Please keep an eye out for the invites that will follow shortly. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as we celebrate another successful year of ALUCA WA.

If you have enjoyed our programme of events this year and would like to join our local committee please contact me through ALUCA or speak with me or one of the committee members at our next function. As we approach the end of the year your local committee will be planning our programme of events for 2020, we would love to hear from you about what you would like to see from us in the year ahead.

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See you in December

Stephen Chapman
Chair – WA ALUCA


CMG ALUCA

Spring edition of RiskeBusiness as we farewell Winter and the temperatures are rising again.

The ALUCA CMG held our second events for the year across Sydney and Melbourne in August and September 2019 all events sold out a week prior to the events.

Our presenter for this Session was Jo Hetherington, Head of Financial Health at TAL. Jo is no stranger to the CMG ALUCA team having presented in 2017 we asked her back to again present on all things Financial. This was an interactive session focused on ‘Making sense of self-employed Financials’ with the attendees working through case studies as well as being shown how to interpret financial information and link it back to Insurance product definitions. Those in attendance can now tell the difference between cash v accrual basis accounting and how to interpret a BAS statement!

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The committee teamed up with ALUCA QLD on the 12th September to co-host the Triple Treat event in Brisbane which was a tremendous success!  Together with ALUCA NSW we are also putting the final touches on the NSW PD Day to be held in October 2019.

We are also happy to announce we have two new members to our Melbourne based committee with both Anne La from AMP and Paula Ramsey from MLC joining the team in August 2019

We look forward to seeing you at our future events in 2019

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Myles Kennedy
Chair – ALUCA CMG


The ALUCA Rehabilitation Subgroup Annual Professional Development Day was held in Sydney and Melbourne on 6th September 2019. There was strong attendance across both events and feedback received has been overwhelmingly positive. We extend our thanks to all those who attended and supported these events. Our 2019 theme was focussed on cancer medicine, cancer rehabilitation and best holistic practices to support recovery for customers.

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The Sydney event was held at AMP Circular Quay Office, hosted by Kim Phan ALUCA Rehab Chair (GenRe).

Keynote speakers included Dr Judith Lacey who spoke about the recent advancements in cancer treatment, Michael Marthick, Exercise Physiologist who spoke about utilising a multidisciplinary approach in cancer rehabilitation and what the life insurance industry can learn and implement from the USA and UK frameworks in cancer care. Prof Paul Glare who spoke about pain management in cancer survivors and the need to use a bio-psychosocial approach when discussing return to work. Dr Margaret Black, Employability Assessment & TPD expert who provided her own customer experience being on income protection and TPD claim whilst recovering from cancer and her personal insights on what the life insurance community can do to enhance the customer experience with cancer survivors on claim.

The Melbourne event was held at AMP office, co-hosted by Rachael Wiseman (AIA) and Tom Notley (Super Friend).

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Keynote speakers included Dr Mitchell Chipman who spoke about medical oncology, palliative care and his clinical research into cancer recovery/rehabilitation. 

Kelly Spence: Accredited Exercise Physiologist who spoke about her extensive experience working on the EX-MED Cancer Program as well investigating the use of exercise as medicine for the management of cancer. 

Adam RamanauskasA premiership AFL player with Essendon at the age of 19 who retired at the end of 2008 after three successful comebacks from cancer treatment. Adam shared his experiences from his cancer journey and how he used exercise to assist with his rehabilitation. 

Planning for 2020 is currently underway. There will be a number of opportunities to join the committee and our associated working groups next year. We will be calling for expressions of interests in Nov/Dec and more details will be available then.

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Amlan Sharma
Communications Lead – ALUCA REHAB


ALUCA NEW SOUTH WALES

Greetings from ALUCA NSW committee. Our 2nd event was held on 15th August 2019 at Rydges World Square attended by 150+ attendees.

Our keynote speaker, Matt Battersby is vice president and chief behavioural scientist at RGA. Based in London, he is responsible for the effective development and deployment of behavioural science-informed models to RGA and to its clients for use in underwriting, claims, risk management and customer engagement.

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subgroup11The topic was “The science of decision making”; how behavioural science can bridge the communication gap with your customers and improve outcomes for underwriting and claims.  Matt provided a very informative and interactive session discussing how we can utilise behavioural science to tackle our biggest challenges in Sales, underwriting and ongoing servicing. His sense of humour and a great presentation kept the audience wanting more. The presentation is available on ALUCA website.

With the CMG committee we hosted the Professional Development Day on 16th October. More on this in the next RiskeBusiness edition.

Please note the NSW End Of Year event is being held on 10th December at L’aqua, Darling harbour. The invites will be out shortly so please ensure you save the date in your calendar.

Thanks for your ongoing support. See you at the next 2 events

Ami Barua
Marketing/Comms – ALUCA NSW


ALUCA SOUTH AUSTRALIA

The SA ALUCA had it’s main event on the 6th September (with a small group compared to other states) with Dr Paul Pers discussing how to communicate with influence for better outcomes for those blamers, shamers and complainers in both business and personal situations that we come across in our day to day lives.

Dr Quentin Malone discussed the need, and more often than not, the no need for back surgery and that how intensive weight training can turn an unstable back to full functionality.

Nick Linke then closed off the afternoon with some very interesting court cases scenarios surrounding discloses and the lack thereof and the interpretation that is made by the courts.

Ashley Hicks
Chair – ALUCA SA


ALUCA QUEENSLAND

Greetings from the sunshine state, where summer appears to have already arrived.

Our most recent breakfast seminar was another rousing success, and on behalf of the QLD ALUCA committee, I would like to acknowledge our local fraternity and platinum sponsors for their ongoing support.

Our guest speaker was Zurich CMO, Dr Zeshan Shaikh, who provided insight into both prescription and recreational drug use and its impact from an underwriting and claims perspective, as well as the societal ramifications. This was very well received and generated some interactive discussion within the group.

September 12th saw our annual Triple Treat event where ALUCA and CMG joined forces for the first time in QLD. Neurologist Dr Mark Paine, examined Concussion Syndrome, and its likely impact on insurance in the future.

Glenn Baird (Head of Mental Health at TAL), discussed the elements of ‘Bereavement’ and navigating conversations with grieving customers.

Our keynote speaker is known as ‘Sans Tattoo’ and what you might call a ‘rough diamond’. He’s experienced both locally and internationally as an entertainer and Verbal Judo Expert.  The audience loved him and won’t be forgetting this presenter in a hurry!!

Jody O’Sullivan
Secretary – ALUCA QLD