Meet our team: Shane Bennett

This month we spoke with Shane Bennett, TAL's Head of Digital Propositions, about how TAL is continuing to evolve its digital proposition to super funds.

Tell us about your career history and your current role.

I started in wealth management 13 years ago at a super fund. Since then, I’ve worked across superannuation, wealth and banking in product, digital transformation and delivery roles. Much of my career has focused on developing practical digital services for members, customers and partners. 

I joined TAL six years ago, initially working on our retirement proposition and leading work on the digital experience and operating model. Earlier this year, I became Head of Digital Propositions across retirement and group life. My role is to work with our partners on digital services that solve member and operational challenges, both now and in the future.

A key part of TAL’s digital strategy is on building a ‘connected ecosystem’. What does that mean in practice?

A connected ecosystem brings together the organisations and services involved in supporting a member. That includes funds, insurers and administrators, as well as contact centres, doctors and the broader claims network, including workers compensation providers. Our current focus is strengthening how TAL connects with funds and administrators, while recognising that the member experience depends on this wider network working well together. 

Through TAL Connect, relevant member and claim information can move securely between TAL and a fund’s systems in real time. Members do not need to repeat information or wait for overnight updates, while fund and service teams have a clearer view of what is happening and can provide support sooner. 

Independent SuperRatings benchmarking found that funds integrated with TAL Connect lead the market on insurance capability. Today, more than 90% of our group insurance portfolio has access to digital claims, and TAL has real-time connections with all major third-party administrators as well as several self-administered funds. 

What does that mean for members at claim time?

For members, the main benefit is a faster, simpler claims experience. Digital claims have contributed to a 38% reduction in the average time it takes TAL to assess a claim. Members can lodge a claim when it suits them, track its progress and access personalised recovery and wellbeing support. By assessing claims sooner, we can make decisions earlier and, once a claim is approved, help get payments to members sooner. 

Fund, contact centre and operational teams can also see where a claim is up to, helping them respond more quickly and reducing the need for members to follow up or repeat information.

Funds are at different stages of digital maturity and have different capabilities and priorities. How does TAL support them?

Every fund has different members, priorities and systems, so there is no single digital pathway. Some funds may use TAL Connect as a standalone service, while others may choose deeper integration with their own member and administration systems. The right approach depends on the fund and the needs of its members. 

TAL can support funds at each stage, from a simple digital claims experience through to secure, two-way connections between systems. Each option should deliver a clear benefit on its own, without assuming every fund needs to progress to the same end point. 

How is TAL changing the way we deliver for partners?

We have organised our digital delivery teams around two priorities. Partner Success focuses on onboarding, improving existing services and ongoing support. Digital Disruption focuses on larger changes that can solve emerging member and partner needs. 

This setup lets one team focus on the services partners rely on now, while the other works on new problems and opportunities. We’re also using AI for selected engineering tasks to help teams develop solutions more efficiently, with people still responsible for decisions, quality and governance.

How will the digital experience for members evolve in the future?

Members don’t think about their super, insurance, health and retirement as separate systems. They want to deal with their fund in one place and get clear, relevant support when their needs change. 

Our focus is to make TAL’s services easier to use through a fund’s existing member experience. Members should receive information that is relevant to them, avoid repeating the same details and reach the right support sooner. 

For members and their families, that means fewer hand-offs, clearer updates and less effort to get help at important times. We’ll keep working directly with funds so the services we build reflect what their members need.

For more information on TAL Connect’s capabilities, speak to your Partnership Manager.