TAL, a leading Australian life insurance specialist, has extended its musculoskeletal underwriting education initiative to focus on underwriting the spine following neck pain.
This follows on from TAL's initial launch of support tools around underwriting the spine following lower back pain.
The initiative provides advisers and their clients with tools to better understand why underwriting exclusions for the spine are applied following neck pain and when clients may be eligible for an underwriting review. It also provides guidelines on how to manage neck pain and promote spinal health to help clients continue to lead fulfilling lives.
TAL Musculoskeletal Manager, Gavin Law, said, "Neck pain can be a considerable personal and financial burden, being one of the top five chronic pain conditions in terms of prevalence and years lost to disability. In addition, underwriting the spine can be challenging when customers have a history of neck pain because the pain can be caused by a number of disorders and involve any of the tissues in and around the neck.
"To help support our adviser partners to have well-informed client conversations about neck pain and spinal exclusions, we developed a suite of materials that explain the risk factors associated with neck pain, TAL's underwriting process, and ways to help customers improve their health and wellbeing. We also outline if or when a spinal exclusion could be reviewed and underwritten again," he said.
Advisers can access the spinal exclusion underwriting factsheets and 'Managing neck pain' information booklets from the TAL Adviser Centre.
TAL General Manager, Retail Distribution, Niall McConville, said that the education initiative was being well received by advisers, who used the tools to have informed discussions with their clients around their financial, physical and mental health.
"Advisers are always looking for new ways to engage with their clients. These tools can enable advisers to deepen their client relationships by equipping them to have knowledgeable discussions about managing and supporting their clients' ongoing health and wellbeing, which encompasses more than just financial health."
