Chatswood serves the life and health insurance sector in New Zealand with market intelligence, data, and bespoke consulting services. Some of these are provided in conjunction with Quality Product Research Limited - a subsidiary that brings you Quotemonster.
We believe that good decisions are more likely to occur when we have good information about the market environment in which we operate. Intuitive leaps and creative decisions are always required, of course, but the more they are based on a firm foundation of observation, the better they tend to be.
FMA files court proceedings against MAS over fair dealing provisions breaches
MAS self-reported that it had multiple failures between 2014 and 2022:
Failure to apply the correct inflation adjustments to 6,297 customers
Failure to apply multi-policy discounts affecting 8,864 customers
Underpayment of life and disability claims affecting 104 customers
Failure to apply no claims bonuses correctly, affecting 1,235 customers
MAS’s failures were due to errors and deficiencies in its systems, including data entry errors by MAS employees. MAS has been co-operating with the FMA through its investigation.
The FMA is seeking a declaration that MAS contravened the FMC Act and a pecuniary penalty.
MAS has rolled out an unclaimed monies register in support of their remediation process to correct pricing and payout errors. While most affected clients have been compensated, the register encourages impacted members who haven’t been contacted to get in touch to receive their refund.
Jason McCracken, MAS chief, has apologised to members.
“As a mutual, MAS takes the trust our Members have in us very seriously and we apologise for the impact these errors have had. We remain committed to finding any issues and making them right.”
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Kelly Sullivan appointed as the new national manager of PSC Connect Life NZ Ltd in May
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Budget includes funding to improve health care in NZ
Budget 2023 contained a raft of new initiatives. Whether you think it is a ‘no frills’ budget, like Labour are positioning it, or a ‘blow-out budget’ like the opposition have dubbed it, here’s some highlights related to health, privacy and FMA spending.
• Budget figures include more than $1 billion to increase health workforce pay rates and boost staff numbers. Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall says the spending will allow for more responsive training pathways, increased recruitment and improved immigration processes to ease workforce shortages. Initiatives to focus on primary and community care to reduce pressure on hospitals and reduce wait lists are included.
• Health spending allows for 500 new nurses to be employed.
• The Budget allocates $20 million to establish outreach services to lift immunisation and screening coverage for Māori and Pacific peoples
• The Office of the Privacy Commissioner receives additional funding in the Budget, for an additional FTE in the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to continue support for agencies in meeting their minimum Privacy Act 2020 obligations.
• The Budget scraps $5 co-payment for prescription medicines from July, welcome news for the more than 135,000 adults did not collect their prescription because of cost in 2021‑22.
• Richard Klipin has welcomed news the government is allocating $19.6 million to match KiwiSaver ‘employer’ contributions to people taking paid parental leave, but is calling for a proper review of KiwiSaver settings.
• In a savings initiative, the Financial Markets Authority is returning $3 million of unspent funding held in the Financial Markets Authority Litigation Fund.
More daily news:
Rory Graham wins My Solutions Fidelity Life Business Excellence award
Link Financial Group's annual conference is being held 14-16 June 2023 in Christchurch
Partners Life evince tool now has the information from 20,000 customers
NZ Consumer Survey finds consumer confidence in laws to protect them has dropped to 53%