Australian life insurer TAL, one of the country’s largest life insurance specialists, has joined forces with Cover Genius to launch a new embedded life insurance product.
The partnership is designed to fill a gap in the Australian insurance market by offering simple, affordable, and entirely digital life insurance coverage to underinsured populations, including part-time workers, contractors, and casual employees.
The new product leverages Cover Genius’ embedded technology and TAL’s deep industry knowledge to create a seamless digital experience.
TAL provides a range of life insurance products, servicing millions of Australians and offering claim support that extends beyond death benefits to include recovery and illness. The company is recognised for its consumer-focused approach and commitment to broadening access to essential protection.
Through backd, employers can now offer Life, Income, and Illness protection through payroll platforms. This includes easy online registration, no underwriting, and 100% digital claims processing. The platform pays benefits ranging from $100 to $300 per day for Income Protection and up to $150,000 for Life Insurance.
The companies plan to expand backd beyond employer distribution and eventually offer the product directly to consumers through sectors like health and banking. The focus is on meeting the needs of digitally inclined, younger Australians who currently lack sufficient coverage.
An estimated 1 million Australians are underinsured for death and TPD, and 3.4 million lack sufficient income protection. Younger workers are especially at risk due to casual or contract-based employment with limited or no access to superannuation-linked insurance.
Data from Cover Genius indicates that Australians aged 25–44 are more likely to purchase smaller, flexible life insurance policies online. The new platform aims to capitalise on this trend, offering “bite-sized” cover via trusted platforms to ensure accessibility and affordability.
TAL group CEO and managing director Fiona Macgregor said, “At the core of our Cover Genius partnership is ensuring more Australians who want and need insurance can get it. To do this, cover should be tailored to their needs, and be easy to access, understand and keep.
“Life insurance is much more than death benefits. Last year, 74% of the 54,000 claims we paid supported the recovery of people with an illness or injury that prevented them from working.
“With backd, more Australians will get support critical to their recovery, addressing an important community need,” said Ms Macgregor.
Cover Genius CEO and co-founder Angus McDonald said, “Many people do not have life insurance either because they feel they cannot afford it, have not been offered it or think the process will be too complex.
“backd overcomes these issues, by giving employers a simple way to offer their employees easily accessible protection that suits their income and financial needs by simply embedding it into their existing HR or payroll platform.”
Mr McDonald added, “With backd, we’re providing the right cover, via the right channel, at the right price.
“Solutions such as bite-sized Life and Income Protection can also serve as a way to engage younger Australians who may not yet have seriously considered their needs but have come to appreciate the ease and value of purchasing embedded protection online for other things such as travel and music events.
“Making protection easy to understand, financially accessible and simple to access online through employers and other trusted partners is a logical next step in levelling the life insurance playing field.”
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