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Lower fees and
improved insurance cover

We’ve improved our insurance cover. That means more savings and better cover for eligible members. Read on to find out how these changes could impact you. 

Published August 2024

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Hostplus
Content team
7 min read
Updated 07 Nov 2024
  • News

For all members

Lower fees

We’re pleased to advise that we’ve  removed the Trustee Fee from 1 September 2024.  
For a Hostplus Superannuation & Personal Super member with $50,000 invested in the Hostplus Balanced option, this means a saving of $16 p.a. That means more money in your account, where it belongs. 

What’s a Trustee Fee? 

In March 2022, we introduced a new Trustee Fee following changes to super law.  This fee is paid to the Trustee and held in a reserve for use in the event that the Trustee or its Directors incur penalties for breaches or similar events.  The Trustee Fee formed part of your administration fees and costs (0.0165% p.a. of your account balance) and investment fees and costs (0.0155% p.a. of your account balance invested in non-Choiceplus investments).

Good news for eligible members with Hostplus insurance cover

Enjoy lower insurance premiums and better cover

We’re delivering even better protection for eligible members with Hostplus insurance.

How?

From 1 October 2024, all Hostplus members with automatic Death and Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance cover will pay lower premiums.

This means, an average cost saving of 13% across all age groups. What's more - all eligible insured members will have access to enhanced terms and conditions.

Full changes with detailed explanations can be found in the Significant Event Notice dated 12 August 2024.

Our automatic insurance design is easier to understand

Our automatic (also referred to as default) insurance cover is currently referred to as ‘unitised’ cover. That means your level of Death and Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD) insurance is based on the number of units of cover you hold, which depends on your age.

From 1 October 2024, we’re simplifying this design for members with automatic Death and/or TPD insurance, to remove the reference to units. Your level of cover from 1 October 2024 will be the same as your level of cover on 30 September 2024, but it will now be based on your age rather than based on a number of units. 

And we’re changing the way we calculate your insurance premiums

Currently, the cost of your automatic age-based death and TPD cover is based on the number of Death and TPD units you hold (which change as you age), and your occupational rating. 

From 1 October 2024, the cost of your automatic age-based death and TPD cover will depend on your age and gender – male, female or unisex – your occupational rating and the level of cover you hold. This means your premiums will be more accurately tailored to your personal circumstances.

The result? Most members with automatic age-based death and TPD cover will pay lower premiums from 1 October 2024.  

It's important to note:

  • You will stay on the age-based unisex premium rates until you make a change to your cover, then male or female premium rates will apply.  
We’re also making it easier for members to qualify for TPD

We’re making our TPD definition less restrictive, enabling more members to be assessed under Part 1 of our TPD definition (“Unlikely to work in a suited occupation ever again”), by: 

  • raising the age limit from 65 to 67, and  
  • extending the period you can be unemployed from 12 months to 16 months. 
Members can now hold Income Protection cover later in life

We’re helping more members access Income Protection cover. From 1 October 2024, we’re increasing:

  • the maximum expiry age (when a member’s cover ceases) from age 65 to age 70 for our 2-year and 5-year benefit periods
  • the maximum entry age from 64 to 69.

This means older members can hold Income Protection insurance cover, with the aim to provide peace of mind later in life.

We want to make it clearer that you can change your occupational rating (and possibly pay lower premiums)

Occupational ratings are applied to different types of work and are used when calculating your insurance premiums. If you receive automatic age-based death and TPD cover, you’re currently assigned a ‘Standard’ occupational rating. This may not clearly reflect that you can update your occupational rating and possibly pay lower insurance premiums.

If you’re currently assigned the ‘Standard’ occupational rating, we will update this to ‘Unknown’ from 1 October 2024. If you're starting or recommencing automatic age-based Death and TPD cover from 1 October 2024, you'll be assigned the ‘Unknown’ occupational rating, unless we know what your occupation is. 

We’re also creating a new ‘Professional’ occupational rating for Income Protection, which may reduce your premiums

From 1 October 2024, if you meet the criteria for a 'Professional' occupational rating, your Income Protection premium rates will reduce. Currently, these members pay Income Protection premiums based on the 'White Collar' occupational rating.

And we’re covering more occupations to help us protect more members

We’re removing the ‘Excluded Occupation’ lists so that more members will now be able to apply for:

  • additional insurance cover if they joined through their employer
  • automatic Death and TPD insurance cover and additional insurance cover if they join us by choice.

We’re also introducing a new ‘Special Risk’ occupational rating which will apply to those members that can now access cover who were previously  excluded because of their occupation.

We’ve increased the amount of cover you can transfer into Hostplus

If you have insurance with other super funds or policies, you can apply to transfer this cover into Hostplus.

We’re increasing cover transfer limits for Death and TPD from a maximum of $1.5 million to $2 million.

If you’re transferring Income Protection cover, you can transfer the lesser of:

  • $20,000 (increased from $10,000) per month, for a maximum benefit period of 2 or 5 years
  • 90% of your pre-disability income (unchanged)
  • $10,000 per month for a maximum benefit period to age 65 (unchanged).
We’re improving additional cover for specific life events

Currently, members can increase their Death and TPD cover when a significant life event occurs (e.g. marriage, divorce, or taking out a mortgage). We’re now extending this offer to members with existing Income Protection cover.

We’re improving the special insurance offer for members

Eligible members can apply to increase their automatic age-based Death and TPD insurance, and opt-in to Income Protection insurance, without the need to complete lengthy paperwork or supply medical  information. We're improving this special insurance offer with the aim of providing more cover and more opportunity for eligible members to apply. 

From 1 October 2024, eligible new members can apply for a pre-packaged multiple of 2, 3 or 4 times the automatic age-based level of Death and TPD cover. We're also increasing the amount of Income Protection cover a member can apply for a maximum of $4,000 per month to a maximum $5,000 per month.

Members can apply within 60 days of the date their automatic cover commences (that is, when the member opts in for automatic age-based Death and TPD cover, or is 25 years or older and has an account balance of at least $6,000).