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.
Looking to buy a client base?
We are often approached by advisers that are looking to acquire a client base whether we know of any available. Right now we have two. A large book in the central region, under contract, and another book which is available in the Auckland region. The Auckland book includes mainly life and health insurance, but also has some KiwiSaver and general insurance renewals as part of the client base. Please contact us if you would like to register on our buyer's list to hear more about new opportunities as they emerge, please email Melissa.Waddel@chatswood.co.nz.
Report that gives an overview of the New Zealand insurance market published
Duncan Cotterill’s ‘Covering the New Zealand Insurance market 2023’ report has been published, giving an overview of the current market and covering key issues facing insurers. Some key items of interest in the report include:
An article on ESG trends and mandatory climate reporting – who it applies to, what do CRE’s have to do, what reporting is required, phased implementation and penalties. They also discuss greenwashing and the recent amendment to The Companies Act 1993 that clarifies that directors can consider matters other than the maximisation of profit when considering the best interests of a company.
A discussion on the types of costs or losses usually covered by cyber insurance.
A discussion on the approach the Supreme Court has confirmed when interpreting exclusion clauses in insurance policies.
More daily news:
Jon-Paul Hale feels let down by insurers' service delivery
Fidelity Life extend their no policy fees offer to 31 March 2024
FinTechNZ Innovation Roundtable: Shaping Future Retail Payments 19 September
mySolutions webinar 'Manage your entire AML compliance from one platform' 9am 13 September
Australian advisers and stakeholders outline alternative solutions for life insurance remuneration
Southern Cross responds to accusations it dropped a $60k benefit without informing customers or advisers
Southern Cross has refuted a Good Returns article where advisers complained about not being informed about Southern Cross dropping a $60,000 a year benefit for non-surgical hospitalisations.
Southern Cross removed the non-surgical hospitalisation benefit as part of the Society’s benefit review in 2020, and Southern Cross’ head of customer strategy and experience, Nic Johnson has said that “Members were communicated with at the time of the benefit change.”
Johnson said that Southern Cross advisers were informed of the changes at the time via a virtual meeting, and that the company’s adviser gateway portal to manage their customers’ policies had information on the changes also.
Johnson said
“The original intention of the non-surgical hospitalisation benefit was as a 'catch-all' for eligible healthcare services that required in-hospital medical treatment. Based on a 2019 review of our claims data, which showed that the benefit was not widely utilised, it was assessed that this benefit was no longer fit-for-purpose.”
“The majority of medical (or hospitalisation) claims at the time were already covered under existing benefits, such as the surgical procedures, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and diagnostic tests/imaging benefits.”
We have commented on the change here.
Quality Product Research are in the process of conducting a review of the score for the feature, giving Southern Cross time to respond with more details of equivalent benefits being present in other parts of the medical insurance. We will raise the results of the review with our Southern Research Advisory Board next month – and update research subscribers immediately.
More daily news:
Katrina Shanks writes about whether cryptocurrencies are a safe investment
Rob Hennin talks about why he loves working in the insurance sector
Southern Cross funds the ‘Under One Umbrella’ report on mental health and addictions
nib publishes their top five medical claims for July
Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector
31 Aug 2023 - Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (Improving Mental Health Outcomes) Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament. This bill amends the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022 to better enable the long-term planning and delivery that is required to improve mental health and addiction outcomes. https://bills.parliament.nz/v/6/955109f7-830e-4b94-2089-08dba9b9dfac?Tab=history
4 Sep 2023 - RBNZ publish Kerry Beaumont's speech '(Another) Seismic Shift in New Zealand: Banking regulatory reform - the Deposit Takers Act 2023" https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2023/09/evolving-financial-services-regulation-brings-rbnz-closer-to-international-best-practice
4 Sep 2023 - The Department of Internal Affairs has released a statement "If you have not filed your annual AML/CFT report by 31 August 2023, you are in breach of with your legal obligations under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009." https://www.dia.govt.nz/AML-CFT-ITK-Annual-AML-CFT-reports-are-now-overdue.
4 Sep 2023 - The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) are running free goAML training sessions in Hamilton and Tauranga on Tuesday 19 September https://www.dia.govt.nz/AML-CFT-Free-GoAML-Training-for-Hamilton-and-Tauranga
5 Sep 2023 - A cross-sector thematic review of regulated entities’ governance practices by RBNZ and the FMA has highlighted the need for boards to be focused on continuous improvement to ensure future success. https://www.fma.govt.nz/news/all-releases/media-releases/rbnz-and-fma-governance-thematic-review-outlines-good-practices-and-areas-for-improvement/
Pricing updates live on Quotemonster
We can confirm that the rate changes for Accuro and AIA effective 1 September 2023 are now live on Quotemonster.
This includes premium changes to:
Accuro SmartCare and SmartCare+
AIA Disability Income and Waiver of Premium (DI), Mortgage and Income Protection (MIP), and Waiver on Private Health (PHLTHWA).
Q&A with Akira Yamashita and Satoshi Shimasaki from Partners Life
We’ve had the pleasure of talking to Akira Yamashita, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Satoshi Shimasaki, Deputy Chief of Finance who were both integral to the sale of Partners Life to Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc.
Q&A with Akira Yamashita Partners Life Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Could you outline the path your career has taken?
I joined Dai-ichi Life over 25 years ago. I have worked in various companies and countries but I have always worked for the Dai-ichi Life group. My career started in the sales branch office where I was part of the sales promotion team for 3 years. This is where I learned the basics of insurance sales activity. For the next 5 years, I worked as an economist. I forecasted the upcoming economic conditions and researched and analysed certain economic topics. This gave me good experience and the skill set to understand macro-economic insights which is still useful for me when considering various strategies.
In the last 20 years, I’ve been engaged in overseas (from Japan) business. This started from New York for 3 years as corporate administrator, Mumbai (India) for 4 years as the head of financial planning & budget control, Sydney (Australia) for 4 years as manager of the Finance team to support the implementation of strategic initiatives and development of a sound business plan. I also spent time in the head office in Tokyo working on the preparation and implementation of further global governance structure development. In addition, I established an intermediate holding company to create strategic proposals for both the business and talent strategies.
Now I am here in Auckland as Deputy CEO of Partners Life, to bridge the various interactions/relationships between shareholder “Dai-ichi Life Holdings” and Partners Life.
What attracted you to the insurance industry?
I want to spend my working days feeling fulfilled from being engaged with helping people. There are many jobs that can provide this, but I believe more in the business that can provide support in a timely manner when people are struggling or need help. What I like about the Life Insurance industry is that people’s lives might move along with nothing to worry about, but life insurance comes into play when they suffer financially if the person responsible for the household income and expenses has fallen ill or died. Also, these days I’ve found that “health and wellbeing” initiatives are an attractive addition by industry players.
Tell us about your time at Partners Life so far.
It has been almost half a year since I joined Partners Life. I still feel fresh to this organisation and excited to catch up and try new things. The operating and management style of the company is very efficient and effective overall, and this could be worth sharing with our Dai-ichi group companies.
How would you describe the culture at Partners Life?
The decisions we make are always based on “Do the right thing”, which is one of our corporate values. People in Partners Life use their energy to help provide the appropriate outcome to our client, rather than just aiming for our company growth. There is no strong hierarchy but a flat open forum to discuss and decide things, and I see this as a strength of this organisation.
What is one thing you wish someone had told you when you were younger?
No one had told me how much our daily lives would be driven by technology, such as online transactions, and AI coming in to play. I would have been grateful if someone had told me to study science when I was considering my major in university.
Q&A with Satoshi Shimasaki Partners Life Deputy Chief of Finance
Could give us an overview of your career to date?
I’m currently working for the Post Merger Integration at Partners Life, as a liaison officer. Before joining Partners Life, I was the head of M&A at Dai-ichi Life Holdings, responsible for strategic planning and executing M&A in overseas business.
I started my career in international legal practice. After experiencing an internship program at Prudential Financial (US), where I learned the US life and annuity operation, I joined the Planning and M&A team at Dai-ichi HQ. As a core member of the transaction team, I helped achieve multiple deals. My role in the early days was legal/documentation and negotiation, then I gradually expanded my playing field to accounting, finance, and finally, entire project management. I was one of the three negotiation members of Dai-ichi’s iconic M&A in the US back in 2014, and after completing that I spent three years with the M&A team of the US subsidiary. I have a strong connection with the Australian subsidiary’s transaction team, with whom I accomplished two joint M&As in Australia recently. I graduated magna cum laude from Columbia Business School in 2017.
What attracted you to the insurance industry?
While I was at university, the insurance industry seemed to be complicated and this stimulated my passion.
Tell us about your time at Partners Life so far.
Since day one, I’ve been enjoying working with my amazing colleagues. Personally, I love being in Takapuna, which is far different from where I came from (Tokyo & New York).
How would you describe the culture at Partners Life?
Always restless and generous by nature, as shown in the company values. It is like a Cessna plane with a jumbo jet engine.
What is one thing you wish someone had told you when you were younger?
Make a side trip on the way. Don’t rush. Detours sometimes make your life better.
More daily news:
Complaints to FSCL rose by 25% to 1,349 in the year to 30 June 2023
Voice deepfakes are the latest scammers trick
FSC Young people and the cost of living crisis research launch 28 September
Microinsurance continues to grow globally
Centrix finds Buy now, pay later is the most common first debt product among people under 25
Quality Product Research - Medical: review process commenced for non-surgical hospitalisation
Recently, while traveling, Jon-Paul Hale called our team to discuss the removal of the non-surgical hospitalisation feature in various health products by Southern Cross, one being Wellbeing, which we currently rate on Quotemonster.
I am deeply grateful to JP for his tireless efforts in identifying issues like this. If you want to explore in more detail what that change is I recommend you look at JP’s article at this link: Southern Cross drops $60k benefit by stealth: agents - Good Returns After that you may also want to take in the response by Southern Cross published at this link: Southern Cross says it told advisers, policyholders of withdrawn benefit - Good Returns
We know that when an insurer makes changes like this one, they may not want to shout it from the rooftops. Our process of research review is all about building regular communication and high levels of engagement to try and make the process of rating a product predictable, trusted, and clear. That means engaging with advisers, insurers, reinsurers, and other industry experts frequently. In fact, we have recently been in touch with all our medical insurers regarding feature weighting and values as part of the medical claims review. We would rather that we picked this up ourselves in 2020, but in the midst of a pandemic and regular lockdowns, this update was missed, however a major review of the benefit has now commenced. Since then, we have welcomed two people into our research team, to bring it to a total of four, and have invested considerably in improving how we approach insurer product changes. We now do a full document comparison, identify, and review any changes, including upgrades or downgrades. Ensuring that these processes will identify material changes in policy terms was one of the main items when we gathered the research team together on Thursday last week. In our review, we will consider comments made by Southern Cross in the media that claims payable in this feature are now covered in other benefits, we also note the dollar limits attached to some of those features. Furthermore, as part of that research meeting, we reviewed recent Statistics New Zealand data which show many tens of thousands of non-surgical private hospital visits, many of which lasted many days.
Our guide to research details the process of investigation, review, and external consultation in full. We will also discuss our review and findings in our next research advisory board meeting, which is coming up in Christchurch.
We highly value getting your feedback on any non-surgical hospitalisation claims you have experienced with any medical insurers, as advisers get to see firsthand how these wordings are being applied to claims. Any information you can provide will be valuable input to determine the scope of the change required. We look forward to hearing from you.
Highlights from nib’s 2023 Community Report
nib has released their 2023 Community Report, highlighting community initiatives across New Zealand and Australia delivered by nib, the nib foundation and employee volunteering and fundraising. The nib foundation is nib’s charitable organisation that focuses on helping people and communities live healthier lives. Some of the highlights include:
As part of the nib foundation’s Prevention Partnerships program, that aims to tackle risky behaviour, nib launched the Clearhead Finding Purpose tool in NZ.
Nib donated $20,000 to KiwiHarvest to distribute food relief to those affected by the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. KiwiHarvest donated 57,000 portions of fresh produce.
Members, employees and the public voted for which local charity partner should receive a share of $30,000 as part of celebrating nib NZ’s 10th birthday – Ronald McDonald House received $15,000, KiwiHarvest received $10,000 and Clearhead received $5,000.
More than 8,500 members used Clearhead’s Finding Purpose tool.
Glen Eden Intermediate won a $10,000 cheque from the nib Little Legends $10k relay for their junior rugby team.
nib were the naming rights sponsor for nib IronMāori TOA, 17-hour event that includes a 3.8km ocean swim, 180km cycle and 42.2 km run.
nib were the naming rights sponsor of the nib Blues wāhine team and they donated $11,500 worth of specialist recovery equipment to the team.
Shannon Leota and Katelyn Vaha’akolo were each the recipients of a $5,000 nib Blues Health & Wellbeing Scholarship.
nib partnered with Save the Children, to help families in Ukraine gain access to essentials, such as, food, clean water and basic hygiene supplies; as well as cash grants, emergency services and mental health support.
Removed weeds and rescued trees with Conservation Volunteers New Zealand at Papakura stream and Sanders Reserve.
Nib staff collected and delivered Christmas presents to those in need with The Blues and the Salvation Army.
Packaged around 3,500kgs of food to deliver to local community kitchens and people in need across Auckland.
Overall across NZ and Australia, nib group delivered $6.6 million in community funding and over 1,500 volunteer hours.
More daily news:
‘5 mins with FMA’ podcast #7: Phony investment scams and how to protect yourself
FSC Trans Tasman Strategic Leaders Summit 5 - 7 March, Auckland
FSC webinar 'How’s the mental health of your network?' 19 September
Melanie Gorham believes level-5 has shrunk the NZ insurance broking talent pool
FMA has four strategic priorities over the next year
Katrina Shanks talks about what an organisations online presence has in common with quality advice
Kiwibank is rolling out a financial wellbeing programme for its staff
Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector
30 Aug 2023 - Chapter Zero says New Zealand needs to have credible net zero sector transition pathways https://www.chapterzero.nz/news/a-clear-path-to-decarbonisation-investment/
31 Aug 2023 - First reading of the Employment Relations (Protection for Kiwisaver Members) Amendment Bill completed in parliament, referred to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee, with report back by 29 Feb 2024 https://bills.parliament.nz/v/6/bc7acd0f-efd4-4d6b-c045-08db67c4d76d?Tab=history
31 Aug 2023 - The Digital Services Tax Bill was introduced to parliament. This bill would allow the Government to implement a digital services tax https://bills.parliament.nz/v/6/7e81f14d-0dbd-42b7-2088-08dba9b9dfac?Tab=history
