UPDATE

Issues with SuperStream:

Prior to the successor fund transfer (SFT) of ex-Macquarie Superannuation Plan, Insurance-only Division members on 1 December 2017 to the new Zurich Insurance-only Superannuation Plan, a division of the Aon Master Trust (Zurich Plan); Zurich had been advised that Employer contributions to the Zurich Plan could only be made via a SuperStream compliant method. This resulted in the existing Employer direct debits and credit card payments being deactivated.

Immediate action:

Following feedback from Advisers about this issue and to better meet customer needs:

• Aon and the Trustee have agreed to Employers being able to resume premium payments by Direct Debit and credit card payments (DD) to the Zurich Plan (effective immediately)
• Zurich is obtaining employer DD bank account and credit card details for affected members from Macquarie, and will let them know we are now able to resume drawing on these
• Where premium payments haven’t been made due to the more restrictive rule that applied between 1 December 2017 and 31 January 2018, Zurich will waive one months’ premium (to reduce the financial burden of having multiple premiums deducted at the same time)
• Zurich will ensure cover is maintained for all policies where premiums payments were disrupted due to this issue provided payments are successfully made (less the one month premium waiver).

Zurich will also:

• Contact customers who have changed their contribution type to Personal or Self-Employed, or arranged for employer payments via SuperStream, to ensure this is how they want future contributions identified
• Review every ex-MSP Insurance-only Division policy that lapsed between 1 December 2017 and 28 February 2018 and take appropriate remedial action to ensure the client is not detrimentally affected where cover lapsed as a result of this issue
• Remove the restriction in ZXpress requiring employer contributions to be made by SuperStream, and add the following text “Please note it is the Employer's responsibility to ensure their compliance with SuperStream obligations”.

Note: Ex-Zurich Master Superannuation Fund members who were successor fund transferred to the Zurich Plan on 1 February 2018 are not impacted and their employer Direct Debit deductions and credit card payments will continue per existing instructions.

Further Information:

SuperStream obligations

Insurance contribution amounts paid by employers to Superannuation Funds are generally required to be paid through the SuperStream system, but not in all circumstances:

• If an employer pays insurance amounts on behalf of an employee and this forms part of their normal payroll/contribution cycle, they must be paid by a SuperStream compliant method.
• However, where an employer has agreed to pay a lump sum insurance premium to a fund for one or many employees, such as annually, and this occurs outside of the normal payroll process, mandatory use of SuperStream is not required (although the employer can still choose to pay by SuperStream).

It isn’t possible for the Trustee or ZAL to know whether or not the premium payment is inside or outside of the employer’s payroll process, so it is the employer’s responsibility to ensure they are compliant with their SuperStream obligations.

Direct debits and credit card payments

Zurich is obtaining employer DD bank account and credit card details from Macquarie for all transferred MSP Insurance-only Division members and will let the customer know we are now able to resume drawing on the account.

The bank account of the Zurich Plan currently has no Direct Debit and credit card payment (DD) facilities. As an interim measure, Aon has agreed that ZAL will be able to collect Employer premiums on its behalf until the Zurich Plan bank account’s DD facility is established. Zurich will let you and your clients know if there is a requirement for any change to the DDR or credit card authority once Aon has implemented its DDR process.

Customers will be contacted by the Customer Care Team in the following order:

1. Customers who haven’t made a premium payment since the SFT

Will be called to confirm the:

• Bank account and credit card details received from Macquarie
• Date deductions will be made (some ex-MSP members had a change to their billing date)
• Resumption of premium deductions by direct debit and credit card payment on the account
• Amount of premium that will be deducted
• Amount of any catch-up payments for premiums missed between 1 December 2017 and 31 January 2018

So, for example, if the customer has two months’ outstanding premiums, we will waive one of those payments and seek their instructions on how to collect the remaining premiums (i.e. on the same day, or different days).

Note: No commission will be paid for the month for which the premium is waived.

2. Customers who have changed their contribution type to Personal or Self-Employed

Will be called to explain the situation and let them know Employer contributions can be made by Direct Debit or credit card payment - giving them the opportunity to change contribution type over the phone to Employer.

If contributions have been changed to BPay, we will confirm the bank account or credit card details we received from Macquarie and the billing date of future DD deductions (employer payments cannot be made by BPay).

3. Customers who have made payments by SuperStream

Will be called to explain the situation and let them know Employer contributions can be made by Direct Debit and credit card. They will also be given the opportunity to consider if SuperStream is their preferred method of payment going forward.

We will email or write to clients we aren’t able to contact by phone.

New business – ZXpress

ZXpress is being updated by the end of February 2018 to remove the restriction that employer contributions have to be made by SuperStream, and text added along the lines of “Please note it is the Employer's responsibility to ensure their compliance with SuperStream obligations.”

In the meantime, and only as an interim solution, where a customer wants an Employer contribution to be paid by DD, advisers can use the contribution type of “Personal” and attach an email to the ZXpress application, explaining it is an Employer contribution and providing any additional details about the Employer in the email.

Questions?

If you have any questions or need more information, please don’t hesitate to speak to your Zurich Risk BDM, or our Customer Care team on 1800 500 655.