NEWS May 27, 2026
Ten Years of Putting Members First: PPS Mutual Marks a Decade of Mutual Success in Australia
Ten Years of Putting Members First: PPS Mutual Marks a Decade of Mutual Success in Australia
Shared with the professionals who made it possible: Nine Profit-Shares. A $15 million pool. Lapse rates a third of the industry average. A decade of proof that putting Members first works.
Sydney, 1 June 2026
PPS Mutual, Australia’s only retail life insurance mutual exclusively serving qualified professionals, this week marks its tenth anniversary – and with it, what a decade of putting Members before shareholders actually looks like: nine consecutive Profit-Shares, $76 million in claims paid, and lapse rates a third of the industry average.1
What began as a niche, purpose-built offering for Australian professionals – doctors, lawyers, engineers, dentists and others – entering a retail life insurance market long dominated by large institutional and shareholder-owned insurers, has grown into a recognised, multi-award-winning business with 17,336 Members2 and $131 million2 in-force premiums. Every one of those Members has a stake in the business that protects them and, every year since inception, they have shared in its profits.
A Profit-Share that has grown sixfold
The hallmark of PPS Mutual’s mutual model is its annual Profit-Share – a feature unique in the Australian retail life insurance market. From the very first year of operation, profits have been assigned to Members rather than distributed to external shareholders. Over the decade, the Profit-Share pool has grown almost sixfold, reaching $15 million in FY2024–25 – with the most recent assignment allocating approximately $4 million to Members.
The compounding effect is becoming tangible. More than 100 Members have accrued Profit-Share Account balances exceeding $10,000, with 17 surpassing $20,000 and nearly 400 holding balances above $5,000. Three advice firms now manage more than $1 million in client Profit-Share Account balances – a figure that would have seemed ambitious a decade ago.3
As at 11 May 2026, PPS Mutual has authorised $256,037 worth of Profit-Share releases to Members – funds that Members would not have received had they been insured with any other provider in Australia.
Michael Pillemer, Chief Executive of PPS Mutual, said the anniversary was a moment to reflect on what a decade of consistent execution had built.
“When we launched in Australia in 2016, the mutual model was largely unknown in the local life insurance market. We had to earn trust – from advisers, from Members, and from the broader industry.
What the last ten years have shown is that when you build a business entirely around the interests of the people it serves, and back that with a product that genuinely delivers, people stay. They refer their colleagues. They see their Profit-Share Accounts grow. Through market volatility, a global pandemic, and significant regulatory change, we have shared our profits with Members every year since inception. That consistency is the clearest signal that the model works.
“As we enter our second decade, our job is simply to keep doing what we said we would do – and to do it for more Australian professionals. The number I’m most proud of is the $76 million we’ve paid in claims.4 Everything else – the Profit-Share, the retention, the awards – is only meaningful if we deliver when a Member needs us most. That is what this model exists to do,” Pillemer noted.
Delivering when it matters most
Over its first decade, PPS Mutual has paid claims to Members across Life, Trauma, Income Protection, Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) and Business Expenses (BEX) insurance. The 100% claims paid rate on Life and TPD10 – with average payments of $762,000 and $933,000 respectively10 – reflects the precision of a product built exclusively for professionals. Income Protection claims total over $29 million at a 94% paid rate, with Trauma at the same rate, and Business Expenses at 97%10.
The industry’s most loyal Members
Perhaps no measure better reflects PPS Mutual’s first decade than retention. The company has maintained the lowest lapse rate in the Australian retail life insurance industry over ten consecutive years – a distinction that is both a commercial outcome and a statement of Member trust.
For the rolling 12 months to December 2025, PPS Mutual’s annual lapse rate stands at just 5.4% against an industry average of 14.3%5 – Members are only about a third as likely to let their cover lapse than the Australian average.6 The alignment is by design: Members who stay benefit from growing Profit-Share Account balances, while the business benefits from the premium stability that only a committed, long-term Membership base can deliver.
An adviser community built on exclusivity and trust
PPS Mutual’s products are distributed exclusively through a carefully accredited network of over 2,0007 independent financial advisers. This deliberate approach to limited distribution means the company can invest more deeply in each adviser relationship, and ensures Members receive advice from professionals who genuinely understand the mutual model and the clients it serves. That investment has been recognised. PPS Mutual has been named Best Retail Life Insurer by Adviser Ratings for three consecutive years – 2023, 2024 and 2025 – with an NPS of 54.8 against an industry average of 9.5, drawn from more than 3,000 adviser responses.8
The 2025 Adviser Ratings Financial Advice Landscape Report placed PPS Mutual first across six adviser satisfaction measures including product range, business development support, understanding of client needs, trust and overall quality.8
The feeling among advisers, a decade in, speaks for itself.
“Congratulations to the ever-growing team of professionals at PPS Mutual. You have now been helping Australians for a decade.
Having worked with PPS Mutual from Day 1, I am grateful for the care on all levels of the business. I appreciate how you view your members and team and the impact this has had on premiums, claims and cover offered to people that need it.
I look forward to seeing many more years where PPS Mutual grows and helps more Australians in protecting what is precious to them.”
Serena West, Partner WA / Principal Adviser – MBS Insurance
“The PPS Mutual proposition is highly unique in the market place. But a product, that is designed specifically for professionals means they are able to design for the nuances of that market. This sets the key aspects of the product apart!
And in a world where all businesses are shareholder value driven, PPS Mutual have our clients best interest at heart with their mutual model. It helps us feel very comfortable that the three of us (ourselves, the client and the insurer) are in this together for a long term relationship.
We’ve loved working with the team at PPS, the service levels, like the product are always premium!”
Paul Milbourne – Business & Personal Insurance Specialist, Milbourne Insurance Solutions
Invested in the industry and beyond
PPS Mutual’s commitment to the professional community extends well beyond its own membership. The company is a longstanding sponsor of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Engineers Australia, and the RiskInfocus Risk Advice CPD Tour – the life insurance industry’s premier professional development series – reflecting its focus on strengthening the advice profession.
In 2025, PPS Mutual launched the inaugural Risk Practice of the Year Award, attracting more than 30 applications in its first year and recognising advice practices that are helping build a stronger, more sustainable future for life insurance in Australia. Personal Risk Professionals (Brisbane) was named the inaugural winner.
Beyond the industry, PPS Mutual has nominated Pankind – the Australian Pancreatic Cancer Foundation, as its corporate charity – engaging staff and Members in support of one of Australia’s most underfunded cancers.9
Stable leadership and a foundation built to last
One of the most equally important contributors to PPS Mutual’s decade of consistency has been the stability of its leadership. Michael Pillemer has served as Chief Executive since the company’s Australian launch in 2016, and aside from the retirement of Brian Pillemer (who still serves on the board), the senior management team has remained the same across the organisation’s first ten years. In a market that has seen significant change over the past decade, PPS Mutual’s continuity of leadership has meant continuity of purpose – the same people who made commitments to advisers and Members in 2016 are still here to honour them in 2026. This consistence also applies across the PPS Mutual team. In an industry which has seen a large amount of staff turnover, PPS Mutual has had less than 5% per annum staff turnover over the past decade – something the leadership team are very proud of.
Behind the Australian operation sits PPS South Africa – the world’s largest multi-disciplinary group of graduate professionals, with over 80 years of mutual insurance experience and more than $3 billion in profit share assigned to its own Members over the last decade. It is a proven foundation from which the Australian business has drawn both confidence and credibility – and a reminder that the model PPS Mutual brought to Australia has been delivering for professionals around the world for generations.
PPS Mutual’s life insurance products are available only through accredited independent financial advisers. Members must retain some cover for 10 years to gain partial access to their Profit-Share Account, with withdrawals of up to 5% of the balance permitted each year. Full access is granted after 20 years, at age 65, or in the event of death, terminal illness or certain other qualifying conditions.
1 Lapse rates referenced reflect PPS Mutual’s performance over the 10-year period to March 2026, with the most recent rolling 12-month rate of 5.4% compared to an industry average of 14.3% (Source: NMG Report, rolling 12-month rate to December 2025). Profit-Share history available at: ppsmutual.com.au/9th-profit-share/
2 as of 30 April 2026
3 PPS Mutual Reaches $15m Profit-Share Milestone – PPS Mutual Australia
49th Profit Share – PPS Mutual Australia
5NMG Report on Rolling 12-month rate to Dec 2025
6PPS Mutual recognised in adviser ratings report – PPS Mutual Australia
7as of 30 April 2026
8 Life Insurance Adviser | Insurance Quotes | PPS Mutual
9Partner with Pankind
10 As at 1 July 2025
11 As at 14th May 2026
