Welcome to TAL News & Views

Welcome to the November edition of our newsletter.

Welcome to our last edition of TAL News & Views for 2024, as we wrap up a busy November and head into the holiday season. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our partner community for your ongoing support and the many initiatives we’ve worked on together throughout the year to improve the lives of members. 

At the recent Super Fund of the Year Awards in Melbourne, and it was great to see so many of our partners being recognised for their achievements. These included category wins for Rest in Accountability and Transparency, NGS Super for Service Quality, and Brighter Super for Member Education. Aware Super was the big winner on the night, taking home awards for Best Digital Offering, MyChoice Super of the Year, ‘Smooth Ride’ and the coveted Fund of the Year Award. 

ASFA 2024

The team and I had a fantastic time at last week’s ASFA Conference in Sydney, where we connected with many of you at the TAL expo stand and our partner dinner. Following the recent media and regulatory scrutiny around death benefit payment delays, it was an important time for us to come together as an industry and reflect on all the ways we’re collaborating to enhance service levels and deliver even better member outcomes. 

As always, the conference offered a wealth of insights from industry leaders on the key issues shaping our sector. Among the highlights was a timely panel session hosted by Jenny Oliver, TAL’s Chief Executive of Group Life & Retirement, on the future of insurance in superannuation. The panellists unpacked the political drivers and demographic trends that are likely to influence this debate in the coming years, as well as discussing how we can work together to ensure that insurance in super continues to play a valuable role in members’ lives. 

Read about the future of insurance in superannuation. 

Also, at ASFA 2024, TAL Chief Risk Officer Cameron Pelling participated in a panel session focusing on risk management and data security. With data threats on the rise, TAL has invested heavily in our cybersecurity infrastructure and capabilities, while working closely with our partners to meet our CPS 230 and CPS 234 obligations as a third-party service provider. 

Learn about TAL’s journey to safeguard member data.

Meet our partners: Dean Kambouroglou 

We’re always delighted to hear from our partners about their latest initiatives to support members. This month we caught up with Dean Kambouroglou, Aware Super’s Senior Manager – Insurance, to discuss his passion for member engagement and the role of Aware Super’s insurance proposition in meeting the diverse needs of its membership. 

Find out more. 

Introducing Health Scout

TAL is committed to enhancing member health through innovation, and our new Health Scout tool is designed to help members improve their overall wellbeing. By offering personalised health insights and recommendations, Health Scout empowers members to understand their physical health risks and encourages preventative action through health checks. Following a successful pilot, we look forward to rolling out Health Scout across our partner funds in 2025. 

Learn more about Health Scout.

Supporting meaningful initiatives

In the last financial year, TAL reduced our Scope 1, 2 and 3 (excluding investments) emissions by 32% from the 2019 baseline. We achieved this by moving our major electricity supply to an accredited renewable energy (Green Power) provider and sourcing products and services from carbon neutral certified suppliers. This is an important step towards our goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025.

In addition to our environmental efforts, we’re also committed to making a positive impact to the communities we serve. Since 2016 the TAL Community Foundation has contributed $7.5 million to various charities and supported our employees in volunteering over 3,000 hours of their time in the last year alone. 

Read about TAL’s community contributions. 

Get in touch to learn more

Please speak with your Partnership Manager if you’d like any more information about the topics discussed in this edition of TAL News & Views. 

Holiday break

Our team will be taking a well-deserved break from 23rd December to 3rd January. We’ll have a skeleton staff on deck during this time to ensure your members are supported.

I wish you all a safe and relaxing holiday season, and I look forward to sharing more industry news and insights in 2025.