Esther

Claims Consultant
I am a Claims Consultant at TAL. I assess and manage life insurance claims in the Group Claims team. Prior to this role, I had a career as a Registered Nurse working across the hospital network in Sydney.

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Esther

The Claims Foundation Program is a really great opportunity to start building a great career in the Life Insurance industry and from what I have observed, there are many long-term opportunities at TAL if you want to progress and build an interesting and rewarding career.

You will never know if it is worth making the change until you have given it a go. If you are thinking long and hard about it, just try it. Only then will you know if it was worth it.

Tell us a little bit about the Foundation Program (what it involves, how you learn, what new skills and knowledge have you developed in this time)?

I joined TAL through the Foundation Program, which is a ten-week intensive learning program to build a career from scratch in the Life Insurance industry. In that time, I learnt how to read a life insurance policy, assess claims against the policy and manage the claim through to completion.

The program starts off with five weeks of orientation, which is mainly studying the theory, and where I was introduced to the key components of the Claims Consultant role. This included all law and legislation guiding the Life Insurance industry as well as all the technological applications that are required as Claims Consultant to perform in the role.

After five weeks into the program, we were assigned new claims and aligned to a Technical Specialist who assisted us with learning how to read policies and assess claims against a policy. Under supervision, we were gradually assisted to build our own portfolio and manage claims, both new and old.

What were some transferable skills that you have brought to TAL from your previous career?

As a Registered Nurse, I have an extensive knowledge of different medical conditions. Most claims arise from some sort of medical condition, and having an existing knowledge helps with understanding the treatment and prognosis of the different conditions. It also means that I can quickly determine what is missing and what questions I should be asking to get to solution for the customer.

As a healthcare professional, it is important to have good attention to detail. This is also applicable to claims to ensure that you don’t miss any details and that you are looking after clients as best as you can with the correct information.

As a Registered Nurse, good communication skills are important due to the many different people you deal with in the role. This is also an important skill to have in the role of Claims Consultant as the role involves working with individuals who are going through difficult times in their lives. The ability to show empathy when communicating with a sick person is crucial.

Tell us about some of the things that attracted you to this line of work?

After spending many years doing shift work, moving into a corporate role and having the flexibility to work from home a few days a week really appealed to me. Not only that, but I was also ready to learn some new skills and diversify my career portfolio. I still wanted to do meaningful work where I had the opportunity to help people, so moving into Claims in the Life Insurance industry was the perfect opportunity. It also made sense financially, because I can move through the different levels at TAL as I gain more skills and get more experience under my belt.

Tell us about some of the challenging things about this role that anyone from outside the industry needs to be aware when deciding if this is a career path for them?

Working in Claims means you will be dealing with people who are in distress due to a significant event or illness that means they need to make a claim. This means that clients are often under a lot of stress and it’s important to know how to be calm and supportive in such situations.

Deadlines and carrying over tasks were a new thing for me because, as a Registered Nurse, once your shift finishes you can handover the care of people to whoever is taking over your shift. With Claims, due to the complexity of situations and the regulatory environment we work in, this can be a big shift in how you work day-to-day.

Working in Claims is busy. There may be a period in the month where there are low numbers of claim lodgements, but these are unpredictable.

Three pieces of advice to anyone thinking about making a career change into Claims or the Life Insurance Industry:

  1. People choose to work in healthcare because they have a desire to help people. Although this is in a different way, we spend every minute of the day helping those in need. If this is something you really want to do, I suggest giving the Life Insurance industry a go!
  2. Working in Claims is not an easy role. For me, it brings great satisfaction knowing that I was there for someone when they needed it most, during a really difficult time in their life.
  3. The Claims Foundation Program is a really great opportunity to start building a great career in the Life Insurance industry and from what I have observed, there are many long-term opportunities at TAL if you want to progress and build an interesting and rewarding career.
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