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.
We’re back!
The Chatswood and QPR team are back in the office and looking forward to everything we have planned this year. Although we are keeping some great new developments under wraps, we can drop some hints of what’s coming your way this year.
We hope you had a lovely break and got to enjoy some sunshine and had a chance to relax. The Chatswood and QPR team are back in the office and looking forward to everything we have planned this year. Although we are keeping some great new developments under wraps, we can drop some hints:
· People with an interest in data and statements of advice for KiwiSaver and Home Loans should drop us a line
· How do you check if a plan you have put together is reasonable? Ask us to put you in the beta test group for Checkmonster
Things already live that you may want to check out again now you’re back:
1. Research: you should check out the stand-alone head to head comparison with access to more than 50 legacy products now rated and more joining them every week
2. If you aren’t using Advicemonster to make your production of SOAs better, quicker, and more robust, then we’ve added more reasons to help you make up your mind
3. Want to make sure your compliance is in good shape? Maybe add a copy of our outsource provider statement and information security bulletins to your compliance file
Hit us up with any questions you have. And if you have any thoughts on training you would find useful, please let us know here or here.
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.
Advicemonster users can access business insurance!
Our latest update to Advicemonster adds business insurance.
Advicemonster Business Insurance beta now includes quoting, research, and needs analysis functions business for lump sum covers (Life, Trauma and TPD).
This means you can now produce a Business Statement of Advice (SOA) supported with pricing and research (on lump sum products only). If you or others in your organisation would like training on how to produce a business statement of advice (SOA) using Advicemonster, please email your request to aneel.ravji@qpresearch.co.nz
The next products on our radar are Key Person, Rural Cover and Business Expenses, and they are coming soon - so keep an eye out for more information on this. Also, if you’re an expert on these products and would like to provide us with some insight, please reach out to us on researcher@qpresearch.co.nz
Changing business demographics opens up opportunities for advisers
Stats NZ’s latest business demography statistics (as at February 2023) paints a promising picture of New Zealand’s economic landscape. With more new businesses and a rise in employment, opportunities abound for insurance advisers specialising in Business Risk Protection products.
Stats NZ’s latest business demography statistics (as at February 2023) paints a promising picture of New Zealand’s economic landscape. With more new businesses and a rise in employment, opportunities abound for insurance advisers specialising in Business Risk Protection products.
Key highlights include:
· The number of enterprises in NZ is following an upward trajectory, with 605,000 enterprises in February 2023, up 1.8% from February 2022. This is on top of a 5.3% increase in the year to February 2022.
· The number of paid employees in these enterprises (not an official employment statistic) was 2.5 million, up 3% from February 2022.
· These enterprises operated across 641,560 business locations, up 1.4% from February 2022.
There has been a marked increase in new businesses across a range of sectors, indicating a healthy and growing economy. The data also reveals a positive trend in employment, with employees in large enterprises up 5.9% from February 2022.
Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment figures show 196,584 people entered NZ on work visas in the 12 months to September, up dramatically from 39,501 in the 12 months to September 2022. The arrival of these overseas workers further increases the pool of workers available and makes it much easier for employers to fill any vacancies.
Certain industries, such as construction; professional, scientific and technical services; and health care and social assistance industries, have shown significant growth. These sectors often have specialised insurance requirements, like protecting shareholder needs or covering key people within an organisation, providing a niche market for advisers.
Quality Product Research Ltd have recently completed independent research on Business Insurance lump-sum products, putting a wealth of information at advisers’ fingertips in order to make well-informed recommendations. With disability products soon to be included, advisers can offer a comprehensive suite of options to their clients.
Advicemonster has functionality that allows users to streamline the process of creating Business Statements of Advice (SOAs), speeding up the time spent on admin and freeing up more time to spend with clients. Please get in touch if you’d like a sample copy of a Business SOA. Advicemonster’s tools assist advisers in conducting a Fact Find and Needs Analysis and being able to offer highly personalised solutions.
The combination of up-to-date research and specialised tools allows advisers to educate new businesses on effective risk mitigation strategies. This is particularly crucial for sole traders and SMEs that may not yet be aware of the full range of risks they face.
To find out more about what Advicemonster can do for you, please contact Aneel Ravji on 0212160905 or ask us about our next online training sessions.
Demystifying Advicemonster [online session]
Over 2,000 Statement Of Advice (SOA) reports have been generated on Quotemonster in the last six months and we invite you to see why!
We welcome you to join our upcoming online Advicemonster training session scheduled on Wednesday, 8 November 2023 10:00 am-11:00 am
In this session, we have an in-depth walk-through of our Statement of Advice service and how you can create a professional and comprehensive SOA. Be the first to learn about our recent enhancements and ongoing developments from our new AdviceTech Lead, Aneel Ravji. Our Needs analysis and SOA tools are exclusive to the Advicemonster subscription and due to the advanced nature of the product, training can take between 60-90 minutes. This session is great to attend for those considering upgrading their subscription, or if you have already upgraded but would like to learn how to get the most out of it.
If you would like to register, please send us an email on aneel.ravji@qpresearch.co.nz
We look forward to seeing you there!
AI and its disruptive influence on the global economy
Capital Economics has an interesting discussion on how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will transform the global economy, fundamentally changing how companies and economies operate. They show how technology adaption lags have been decreasing worldwide, with countries becoming ever faster to implement a new technology after it is invented. They also theorise that faster adopters generally reap larger productivity gains.
They posit that one of the biggest productivity boosts from using AI will come via one-off efficiency savings – doing more with existing resources or doing the same with fewer resources. In some cases, AI will replace human activity where it’s more efficient; other times AI will enable people to become more productive in their existing jobs. In other situations AI will be able to aid innovation, sifting through information to identify relationships and patterns that people might overlook.
Capital Economics have developed an AI Economic Impact Index, which assesses which economies are best placed to benefit from AI over the next couple of decades. Unsurprisingly, they rate the United States as best placed, due to their existing technological leadership, the size of their economy, level of public and private R&D spend and high levels of education.
Capital Economics suggest industries with repetitive tasks suitable for automation will adopt AI quickly. They also suggest industries with large datasets may be able to quickly initiate AI adoption for laborious tasks. Industries involving a lot of manual labour which cannot be automated and industries at greatest risk from adopting AI will be slower to implement its use. They stress that eventually AI’s influence will spread to affect all sectors of the economy.
A close-to-home example of how AI can help improve productivity is how Quotemonster is helping advisers become more efficient with opt-in AI functionality. Advicemonster users can use the ‘upload insurance quote’ function to save a pdf version of your insurer quote into the portal and the AI will automatically input in your Quotemonster Client and Benefit Details, speeding up the process substantially.
If you’re interested in finding out more about AI in regards to the financial services sector, a recent Chatswood Consulting Limited Quarterly Life and Health Sector Report has more information, including a discussion on the current challenges and limitations. Reach out to Kelly Pulham on 021 311 660 or kelly.pulham@chatswood.co.nz to find out more.
More daily news:
FSC finds Health Insurance Sector issued $1.8 billion in claims in the 12 months to 1 July 2023
Nominations for the Financial Advice New Zealand Awards 2024 open
MinterEllisonRuddWatts discuss Australia’s proposed regulatory framework for digital asset platforms
Household living costs up 7.4% in the last year
Nurses warn dire staffing shortages in ED are putting workers and patients in danger
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
Our tour ended in Auckland's North Shore!
Our final week ended in Auckland North Shore and we had an absolute blast! A big thank you to everyone that attended, we'll be taking all your feedback back to Quotemonster HQ and using it to roll out even more monstrous upgrades.
Last weeks roadshow Auckland Central
The third week of our national roadshow ended in Auckland Central and it was the biggest turn out so far! Thank you to all the attendees, we had some fantastic conversations and feedback on our ongoing developments.
Shout out to Steven Burgess, from Compliance Refinery, Andrew Crow, and Dhasha Ratnayaka from the FMA for their presentation too.
We have one week left on tour and look forward to catching up with Whangarei, Nelson, Napier, and Auckland North Shore - all this week. If you are near there, give us a call and we can still book you in.
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!
