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.
2023 at Quality Product Research Limited
As always, we’ve had the chance to investigate some topical themes in our quarterly reports, highlights this year being: a discussion on using AI in financial advice, particularly ChatGPT and its challenges, limitations and factual errors; an analysis identifying how many financial advisers are connected to each financial advice provider and another on how many financial advice providers and financial advisers there are; just how much an adviser tech stack can cost; and exploration of causes for lapses in the NZ insurance market.
We haven’t been resting on our laurels here, with loads of product enhancements delivered this year including our shiny new website and branding. Quotemonster have made a series of upgrades including completing our two-factor authentication (2FA) process, adding a Remote Assistance function, improved the Advicemonster Quote Wizard, added a beta Upload Insurance Quote function that will automatically input in your Quotemonster Client and Benefit Details, established the Quotemonster Advisory Board, held a Nationwide Quotemonster roadshow across 15 towns (and online too!) with over 1100 people registering to attend (see some pics below), made legacy research live on Quotemonster and added business insurance to Advicemonster. Phew!
We’ve welcomed Kim Oliver and Aneel Ravji to the QPR team. Kim is our new Research and Customer Service superstar and helps keep the research database up to date and supports advisers with their queries. Aneel is our AdviceTech lead and his role is assisting advisers with their advice process – if you have any questions about what Advice Monster can do for you and your business, contact Aneel today.
We’ve loved exploring wider industry news on the blog, with some favourites this year being AI’s disruptive influence on the global economy; opportunities for advisers and how Australia’s Federal Government is seeking feedback on the use of genetic test results by insurers.
We want to say a huge thank you from the Chatswood and QPR teams. We have thoroughly enjoyed working with you over the past year and look forward to another exciting year in 2024. A reminder that our office will be closed from the 22 December 2023 – 8 January 2024.
We hope you all have a wonderful break, and we look forward to working with you in 2023.
Best wishes, from all the team at Chatswood and Quality Product Research.
Fidelity Life launch a range of product enhancements
Fidelity Life launch six product enhancements to the market in response to adviser feedback.
Fidelity Life launch six product enhancements to the market in response to adviser feedback.
· Monthly mortgage repayment - cover benefit percentages have increased from 110% to 115% of mortgage repayments and 40% to 45% of income.
· Special events and Future insurability – new triggers have been added to Special events as reasons for optional cover increases such as buying investment property, land, holiday home, co-signing a child’s mortgage or supporting a child with fulltime tertiary study. In addition, some exclusions for Special events and Future insurability (i.e., for customers with loadings or special terms) have been removed to give a wider range of customers access to these benefits.
· Key person new to business and Key person for farmers - monthly cover limits have increased from $4,000 to $6,500 for Key person new to business, and from $5,000 to $9,000 for Key person for farmers covers.
· Repatriation benefit – now available on applicable life covers, the newly added benefit is on top of the life cover sum insured and is accessible to repatriate a body home from or to New Zealand.
· Stand-down period commencement - the stand-down period for specified trauma conditions have been adjusted for new covers to start on the date of a completed application submission, not on underwriting.
· Increased sum insured limits for children – new limits for children now stand at $250,000 for both Life cover and Trauma cover - standalone.
More daily news:
AIA extend One Month’s Premium Free offer to 30 November 2023
Apple Watch Benefit is back in the AIA Vitality app as an option for AIA Vitality members to earn
From 9 November 2023, AIA have made some adjustments to loadings for BMI
Fidelity Life updates
Fidelity Life have been busy.
They have launched a live chat function for advisers to be able to interact with new business and underwriting teams.
Fidelity Life will launch product enhancements in November including
increasing maximum monthly benefit percentages from 110% to 115% of mortgage repayments;
new trigger to increase cover as a result of buying an investment property, holiday home, residential block of land, or co-signing a child’s mortgage;
new trigger for when financially supporting a child through first course of full-time tertiary education;
special events - removing the exclusion for customers with loading >100%
future events & insurability - removing the exclusion for customers with non-standard terms;
increasing the maximum monthly benefit for Key person new to business from $4,000 to $6,500 and for Key person for farmers from $5,000 to $9,000;
rolling out new repatriation benefit to all inforce and new on-sale life covers (except Survivor’s income cover), which reimburses up to the lesser of either 10% of the life cover sum insured or $20,000, helping to cover the cost of repatriating a body home;
changing our Trauma Stand-down start date to when the customer submits their completed application instead of when they finish underwriting.
In coming months Fidelity Life will publish turnaround times for new business and call centre interactions.
Fidelity Life are offering special relief to weather impacted customers in Queenstown, Gore and Southland who are facing financial hardship. They have offered a waiver of premiums for up to 3 months while keeping cover in place.
Fidelity Life will roll out annual product re-accreditation training models in November, mandatory for all advisers working with Fidelity Life customers
Fidelity Life have published a ‘Working together guide’
More daily news:
Russell Hutchinson talks about how advisers can help their clients in tough financial times
Jenny Ruth criticises Southern Cross for pulling out of planned interview
Mark Banicevich, Industry Engagement Manager at Partners Life, provides views on governance
Policyholders to vote on Accuro and Unimed merger at special meetings
Financial Advice NZ webinar 'How to best advise and manage forestry assets' 15 November
Cyber Smart Week runs from 30 October – 5 November
FinTechNZ Roundtable – Competition for Personal Banking Services on 27 November
Research and website upgrades: what you need to know!
QPR Database V15.5 has been released!
Our Research team have made some monstrously good updates to the QPR database recently. If you’ve noticed we’re running a bit slower than usual, please refresh your page and scroll down to ensure that you’re on our latest version – QUOTE ENGINE V.3.0 B1 | QPR V.15.5 | WEB V4.5.1
Our latest updates to Researchmonster include:
- Medical claims model update
o claims scenario increased to $100K
o new benefits added: ‘Child Features’, ‘Skin Lesion Surgery’ and ‘Medical Tourism’
o item removed: ‘Product Flexibility’
o ‘Minor Surgery’ updated to ‘GP Minor Surgery’
- Chubb Life – new policy document for Assurance Extra Business Life, Trauma and TPD effective 26 June 2023
o rating changes applied
o standalone trauma cover added and rated
- Partners Life – TPD item in Trauma updated to optional effective 6 October 2023
- Accuro – new policy document for SmartCare and SmartCare+ effective 1 September 2023
- AIA – new policy document for AIA Living Umbrella, Income, and Mortgage Protection effective 31 July 2023
o rating changes applied to ‘Inflation Adjustment’
- AIA Legacy renamed to AIA Real
Reviews:
- Life Income: re-weight made to ‘Terminal Illness Booster’
- Trauma: remediation to ‘Cancer Benefit Booster’
- Income and Mortgage Protection: remediation to ‘Offsets’
- TPD: ‘TPD Main Cover Definition’ – revisions to make Any Occupation rating scale appropriate when considered alongside Own Occupation ratings
Standalone Head to Head is a powerful tool subscribers can use to:
- Compare legacy products for replacement business – a list of the products available in this feature can be found here
- Compare products from the same provider; e.g., AIA Critical Conditions vs Progressive Care
- Compare different product sets; e.g., Severe Trauma vs Comprehensive Trauma
- Quick research comparisons
Please note this feature is still in Beta version so please reach out to us if you have any feedback that you would like us to consider in our next round of development.
Our latest updates to Advicemonster include:
Business Insurance quoting, research and needs analysis functions for lump sum cover (Life, Trauma and TPD).
You can now produce a Business Statement of Advice (SOA) supported with pricing and research (on lump sum products only). If your organisation would like training on how to produce a Business SOA using Advicemonster, please contact us.
Please note this feature is still in Beta version so please reach out to us if you have any feedback that you would like us to consider in our next round of development.
A highly requested infographic Health Benefit Maximum is now available to Researchmonster and Advicemonster users and is in the Research Tools option in your main menu. This quick reference guide aims to help advisers quickly identify some of the important differences when it comes to health cover benefit maximums. It doesn't include every individual niche benefit that some insurers offer, and some benefits can only be claimed on under specific circumstances (e.g., within 12 months of surgery).
If you have any questions regarding these please feel free to email us on info@quotemonster.co.nz
Happy Crunching!
Partners Life: Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) within Trauma
Over the weekend, Partners Life announced a product change to their built in TPD cover within Trauma, for more information on this please click here.
Effective 6 October 2023, TPD will be an optional benefit within Trauma Cover Accelerated or Trauma Cover Standalone and premiums will change accordingly. This applies to both Partners Protection Plan (PPP) and Business Protection Plan (BPP) policies.
We have now updated Quotemonster to reflect this change as detailed below:
Partners Life quote software updates:
Opt TPD Benefit is ‘on’ by default, simply de-select the option when it is not required.
What you’ll see on Quotemonster:
TPD is ‘off’ by default and simply select ‘TPD Add-on’ to include pricing and research for this option.
If you have any questions or feedback on the changes above, please send us an email on info@quotemonster.co.nz
Happy Crunching!
Quotemonster online roadshow confirmed!
The Quotemonster team have just spent four weeks on the road visiting 15 towns seeing hundreds of advisers. We have received so much great feedback and requests for an online one for those who couldn’t make it.
So now is your last chance to see what all the hype is about. Our online session will be held Wednesday 23 August at 9.30am.
9.30am - 10.30am - Presentation and Demonstration ✅
10.30am - 11.00am - Q&A ✅
We will be covering new tech and new tools:
- New comparisons
- New AI tools to make your life easier
- New ways to make your advice process better, safer, and quicker
Presented by Aneel Ravji, Kelly Pulham and Russell Hutchinson.
Click here to register: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_OuTZihV9TY-MnmMxqkWw6w#/registration
Quotemonster updated to database version 15.4
Quotemonster has updated the product database. This version of the database includes the following changes:
Changes in V15.4:
* Partners Life changes to IP and MP:
> Products named “xx with TPD booster” are now “xx with Options”
> TPD Booster added as a new item & rated
> TPD Booster, Injury Benefit & Trauma Benefit are Included in the Options package (no longer in base to prevent confusion)
Please feel free to contact us should you require further assistance.
Quotemonster in Palmerston North!
Thank you for hosting us Palmerston North, we hoped you enjoyed the session!
We have one more week of our roadshow and if you’re interested in attending, please click here to see our remaining dates and locations!
Quotemonster tours the capital!
We had a great session in Wellington this week!
Thank you to the attendees, Compliance Refinery and the FMA for joining us.
Quotemonster roadshow - we're selling out fast
Quotemonster will be touring the country from 18 July to 11 August - and we're selling out fast. Some venues are already nearly at capacity. We will have several of the team at most venues and would love to see you - so please click on the link below that corresponds to a convenient location and register to join us.
As an added bonus, for every person that attends we will be donating $20 to a charity (there will be a choice of three) and we would really like to make that $20,000.
New tech and new tools:
New comparisons
New AI tools to make your life easier
New ways to make your advice process better, safer, and quicker
Review of recent guidance by the FMA (and the FMA will attend and present at our Auckland and Wellington venues)
At this stage, we don’t want to say more – but it will be worth coming along.
In addition, it’s a great opportunity for us to meet with you and hear about what’s happening for you in the market and how we can help. There will be time for questions and some one on one time with our team to work through any scenarios or features you want to explore further.
Click on your nearest town below to register.
11 August - Auckland (North Shore)
We look forward to seeing you soon.
