Meet our partners: Dean Kambouroglou

The TAL group insurance partner community brings together leaders from across the superannuation sector. We’re fortunate to be able to draw from the vast experience and diverse perspectives of our partners. This month we spoke to Dean Kambouroglou, Aware Super’s Senior Manager – Insurance, about how Aware Super’s insurance proposition is supporting the evolving needs of its members.

Tell us about your career, including your time with Aware Super and some of the recent initiatives you’ve been most proud of?

My career journey has been significantly influenced by my strong desire to understand and anticipate members’ diverse needs to build tailored solutions that deliver positive retirement outcomes. 

This journey started almost 12 years ago when I became a superannuation Contact Centre Consultant. Through my conversations with members, I heard firsthand their concerns around financial wellbeing and security, confusion over a complex and ever-changing system, and frustration with rigid and outdated processes, procedures and systems.

This fuelled my passion to champion better member outcomes and inspired me to prioritise what’s right above and beyond what’s readily accepted as the status quo. This has enabled me to step into roles spanning investments, insurance operations and product management, which have allowed me to exert influence and instigate changes that enhance member outcomes. 

In April 2024, I took on the role of Senior Manager, Insurance, at Aware Super. In this capacity, I am privileged to lead the strategy, governance and product design of Aware Super’s award-winning insurance in super proposition. 

Most recently, I led the review of Aware Super’s insurance arrangements. Following the review, Aware Super together with TAL, has delivered an aggregate premium reduction of approximately 21%. This has provided our members with significant savings through quality and value-for-money insurance. 

Aware Super has completed a number of mergers in recent years, which has resulted in a shift in its membership demographics. How is the fund responding to the evolving needs, including the insurance needs, of its diverse membership?

Aware Super’s mergers have been with funds that have had strong representation in our heartland (e.g. education, health, public sector), or where their make-up has consisted of retirement-ready cohorts. Changing community and member expectations, political and regulatory developments, an ageing Australian population and the maturing of the superannuation system have arguably contributed more towards the evolution of the insurance in super landscape.

To continue to understand and anticipate members’ needs within this highly competitive and dynamic environment, Aware Super has recently transformed its operating model. This new way of working recognises that a culture of innovation, inclusion and excellence is critical to effectively meet and exceed changing needs and expectations. 

As a result, the Aware Super insurance team has been empowered to seek out opportunities derived from human-centred design solutions, which will continue to help improving members’ retirement outcomes.  

What role does insurance play in Aware Super’s overall superannuation proposition to members? 

Insurance is a key component of Aware Super’s superannuation offering, providing members with financial protection and peace of mind. By 2032, 60 per cent of our funds under management will be owned by our projected retiree share. That’s double what it is today and provides us a very different perspective, motivation and insight into guiding members towards a healthy and financially secure retirement. 

At Aware Super, we recognise the critical role that proactive and preventative health and wellbeing services can play in helping Australians retire with dignity. As such, our health and wellbeing proposition (included as part of our insurance offer) reflects our long-term commitment towards improving the health of our members.  

To ensure we continue to offer super helpful and super simple solutions, we champion creative insurance propositions underpinned by a deep understanding of members’ insurance needs and underlying risk characteristics. With the support of TAL, we’re proud to be able to offer personalised and tailored insurance experiences, backed by quality terms and competitive pricing.  

Aware Super was first to market with TAL Connect. How has its implementation created value for your members? 

Aware Super is Australia’s largest digital-first super fund, taking the industry lead in using digital technology to improve and expand our member offering. This has been achieved through a deliberate strategy anchored around advancing innovation to create top-tier member-centric solutions for our over 1.1 million members. 

TAL Connect directly contributes towards our vision to reimagine retirement for members. The platform offers members the ability to meaningfully engage with their insurance through frictionless interactions via an end-to-end digital capability. This gives members super simple, personal and safe access to their insurance anywhere, anytime.

How can the industry work together to ensure that insurance in super continues to deliver the best-possible value to members in the future? 

A more cohesive safety net for all Australians that fosters improved health outcomes and contributes to the financial security of Australians in retirement will go a long way towards improving value to members. 

To help achieve this, a unified approach towards exploring and interrogating the relationship between insurance in super, public schemes such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and other state-based arrangements such as workers compensation, is required. A combined effort will help facilitate frank and open cross-sector dialogue and encourage diverse and innovative perspectives.

Through increased collaboration, and by gaining a better understanding of the interplay and overlap of these products, services and systems, we’ll be able to champion equitable and sustainable initiatives that better address the evolving needs of members with a disability, especially those with mental health-related disabilities.