Welcome to TAL News & Views

Welcome to the June edition of our newsletter.

In this edition, as Cbus Super celebrates its 40th anniversary, we talk to Cbus Group Head of Insurance, Phil Angelico. We find out what the legacy built by the founders means for members today and the benefits he sees being part of the TAL group insurance partner community. We also share TAL General Manager Growth, Retirement and Wealth Partnerships, Ashton Jones’ opinion piece on supporting members with their retirement decisions, and hear from TAL General Manager Digital Experience, Jenny Nguyen on building team capability with TAL Insurance Academy.  

Future leadership

This week, TAL announced the appointment of Fiona Macgregor as the new Group CEO and Managing Director, effective from 1 October 2024. With broad expertise across innovation, customer, partnerships, brand and technology, and more than 10yrs in leadership positions across TAL, Fiona will be responsible for leading TAL through its ongoing strategy in the life insurance and retirement markets.

The appointment follows the promotion of TAL’s current Group CEO and Managing Director Brett Clark to the role of CEO and Managing Director of Asia-Pacific for Dai-ichi Life Group, TAL’s parent company.

Please join me in congratulating both Brett and Fiona, and we look forward to working closely with Fiona as she leads TAL Australia through its next stage of development. Fiona and Brett will work closely over the coming months to ensure a smooth leadership transition. Read the full announcement here.

And the winner is…

I was delighted to join the TAL contingent at the recent Chant West Super Fund Awards. Congratulations to all finalists and winners including, Aware Super who took home Pension Fund of the Year, Best Fund: Investments and Insurance; Cbus who were awarded Best Fund: Member Services, Specialist Fund of the Year and Responsible Investment; and AMP MyNorth Lifetime for Best Fund: Lifetime Product. These accolades are recognition of the commitment you and your teams make every day to ensure more Australians get the most out of life, through their working lives and beyond and we’re proud to be able to support you in that aim.

Our new Melbourne home

At the beginning of the month, we officially moved into 500 Bourke Street – our new home in Melbourne. The move brings together TAL people from two separate locations into one office in the heart of Melbourne’s financial district. Importantly, we’re now located amongst many of our partners and we’re looking forward to welcoming you to the new offices in the coming months.

Our partner community

In order to get to know one of our community members a little better, we recently caught up with Phil Angelico, Cbus Super Group Head of Insurance to find out his views on a range of subjects from his reflections on the group insurance ecosystem to his passion for a certain AFL team.

Supporting member retirement decisions

In the recent quarterly figure release, ASFA highlighted that cost-of-living pressure on household budgets was the driving factor behind their record high recommendations on the average funds needed for a comfortable retirement and reinforced the need for a strong Australian superannuation system. From our research we know that 38% of Australian pre-retirees don’t think they have enough money for retirement. But it’s not their only concern. If you’d like to know more about what pre-retirees are thinking about as they approach retirement, download our whitepaper What I wish I knew about retirement.

In support of conversations with members on their retirement concerns, our latest suite of member content is now available on Group HQ. The first drop of content covers living well in retirement through managing physical, mental and financial health. We’ve shared the content with the marketing team distribution list, but feel free to pass on the link if your team doesn’t have it as yet. Better still, let us know if they’d like to be added to the list so they’ll be first to know about new content.

If you haven’t had an opportunity to read it yet, I recommend Ashton Jones’ opinion piece Supporting members with their retirement decisions published recently on FS Super which provides some interesting perspectives on the settings in place for retirement funds and how they might be positioned to support members better. It certainly provides some food for thought.

Building team capability

We’ve recently had some great feedback from partners who are utilising TAL Insurance Academy to help build team capability across a range of topics. One partner has provided feedback that it’s working particularly well integrated into new starter onboarding programs. We’ve now had 5,000 learning modules completed and 300 masterclasses viewed and the numbers are growing.

Get in touch to learn more

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