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.
Swiss Re write about Health and Wellness engagement impacts
Swiss Re have published a report on how to engage customers with a health and wellness programme.
Swiss Re have published a report on how to engage customers with a health and wellness programme. They write how the proliferation of health apps and wearables has led to consumers having more data about their health and lifestyle than ever before. Two thirds of consumers are open to sharing personal data or health results in return for a benefit, whether that’s personalised health advice, discounts or something else.
For insurers there are many benefits, from increasing the frequency of touchpoints, building customer loyalty and maximising lifetime customer value. For consumers the benefits include more relevant products, better price points, meaningful financial incentives and rewards and, best of all, improved health and longevity.
Swiss Re calculated that a successful program with a 25% engagement rate can be ROI positive, after accounting for the costs of launching and running the health and wellness engagement programme including policyholder rewards, premium reductions, initial setup costs and ongoing costs. If engagement rises to 40%, profitability can be up to 9% higher compared to not having a programme in place.
John Hancock in the USA is hiring behavioural scientists and drawing on gamification elements to help encourage policyholders to lead healthier lives. For example, when customers hit an activity threshold they can spin a wheel to win rewards.
Insurance Thought Leadership discuss the success of the Vitality programme. Vitality aims to increase people’s healthspan, the time in a person’s life where they experience optimal health, through a behaviour change incentive programme. Policyholders are nudged towards healthier lifestyle choices that they’re rewarded for in various ways including discounted premiums, discounts at places like gyms and free health checks. They list benefits of the programme to the insurer including reduced frequency and severity of claims, high engagement of policyholders and high levels of retention. Over the last three decades,
“Discovery's three-decade journey provides robust evidence that a significant increase in the level of physical activity reduces by 49% the mortality for individuals aged 45 to 65, and a remarkable 61% reduction for those older. Positive impacts have further manifested within annual medical expenditures, where the most engaged participants have 15% lower claim costs than the less engaged, risk-adjusted by age and medical conditions. A longitudinal study on the people who showed a low level of physical activity during the initial six-month period showed a subsequent 14% reduction in hospital medical costs for the subgroup that notably elevated their engagement levels over the ensuing four and a half years.”
AIA NZ have recently released statistics on how AIA Vitality has contributed to notable shifts in health metrics. By September 2023 there was a 20% increase in members moving from an unhealthy body mass index (BMI) range to a healthier one. Similarly, there was a 51% improvement in blood pressure levels, 26% in cholesterol levels, and 81% in glucose levels.
Asteron Life and AIA awarded at the ANZIIF NZ Insurance Industry Awards
The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) held the 11th New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards on 22 November. Asteron Life were awarded the Life Insurance Company of the Year award. AIA were recognised as winners of the Excellence in Workplace Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and Excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance Change categories.
The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) held the 11th New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards on 22 November.
Asteron Life were awarded the Life Insurance Company of the Year award. It is the fourth time they have won this award, having also won it in 2013, 2014 and 2021. Judges were impressed by Asteron Life’s Voice of Customer program, which provides insights into the customer experience; their high customer satisfaction scores overall; their policy wordings being accredited with the WriteMark standard; and attention to helping customers with affordable levels of cover. In particular the judging panel praised the variety of customer and people initiatives Asteron Life have implemented, ranging from Connected Care to Kids Cover to a Professional Supervision Programme.
AIA were recognised as winners of the Excellence in Workplace Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) and for Excellence in Environmental, Social and Governance Change. At AIA all leaders are expected to take responsibility for DE&I measures in recruitment, development, remuneration and the overall workplace environment. AIA recently achieved the Accessibility Tick and implemented a Menopause Tookit initiative. AIA has a five-pillar ESG strategy that incorporates sustainable operations, investment, health and wellbeing, people and culture and effective governance. They have committed to being net zero by 2050 and have already put in place many actions to work towards that goal, including new buildings aligning with green standards. They are committed to ethical investment and have a co-created employee wellbeing strategy in place.
More daily news:
Fidelity Life are holding three Adviser practice manager and admin summits across NZ in February
Fidelity Life are accepting registrations of interest for Adviser Edge 2024
Fidelity Life's last commission run for 2023 is 28 December
Southern Cross announce winners of the 2023 Southern Cross Health Insurance Wayfinder Awards
ASB launch two new Aggressive Funds
Pinnacle Life voted Most Trusted Online Life Insurance Company
Graeme Edwards takes on role of Lifetime Group director and chairman
FSC circulate submission template for feedback on FMA's approach to outcomes focused regulation
Data is plural - international cancer data
The excellent blog, data is plural, publish links to open-source data which may be of interest. One that caught our eye is a link to International cancer statistics.
The World Health Organization’s Global Cancer Observatory provides interfaces to a range of studies and statistics. Its Cancer Today portal features tables, charts, and maps of “incidence, mortality and prevalence for year 2020 in 185 countries or territories for 36 cancer types by sex and age group.” Those figures come from the latest GLOBOCAN estimates, calculated by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer based on data from national and regional registries. Note: “Caution must be exercised when interpreting these estimates, given the limited quality and coverage of cancer data worldwide at present, particularly in low- and middle-income countries,” the researchers warn. Previously: Statistics from the American Cancer Society (DIP 2016.01.27).
This may be especially useful if you want to make comparisons between markets, especially those that you may consider peers, or markets to which we might aspire to be peers with, in terms of cancer treatment and survival rates.
Partners Life premium reductions and announcement of upcoming product changes to improve flexibility
Partners Life has made a series of changes to their products resulting in premium reductions or otherwise lower prices for customers:
increased their high sum insured discount, which results in a cheaper premium
decreased the new annual policy fee from $132 to $100 for the Partners Protection Plan
adjusted premium rates for larger sums assured across life, life income, terminal illness and accidental death cover
reduced accelerated trauma on their yearly renewable premium by 10% after allowing for cross-subsidisation between life cover and accelerated trauma
Chief and appointed actuary Kate Dron said
“Given the cost-of-living crisis that’s going on at the moment, we looked at were there any opportunities for us to do anything to actually help our customers out.
….that’s looking at the way that we do things and the way that we run our business and making sure that we’re doing it as efficiently as possible. And where we’re able to do that, we’re seeing that it’s fair for us to allow the customer to share in some of those cost savings, which is why we’ve implemented these changes.”
Partners Life have announced some upcoming changes to make their products more flexible.
Ability to opt out of specific injury option and critical illness option on their disability income
Ability to opt out of total permanent disability on trauma
Consultation on Customer and Product Data Bill opens
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has opened consultation on the Customer and Product Data Bill (sometimes referred to as the Consumer Data Right (CDR)), with consultation running until 24 July 2023.
The Financial Services Council (FSC) is collating member feedback to form an industry view on the on the exposure draft of the bill. FinTech NZ is hosting a roundtable discussion on July 17 to provide MBIE with direct feedback from our sector.
The purpose of the bill is to allow customers to safely access and exchange data held about them. The bill will impact all New Zealand businesses who collect and hold customer data. The bill will require businesses who wish to access data to be accredited and will only permit data exchanges when the customer has given consent.
The intention of the bill is to unlock the value of customer data and benefit consumers through reduced prices, improved product offerings, greater productivity and making it easier to compare products and services.
MinterEllisonRuddWatts has an article that explains some of the obligations the bill will create for organisations.
MBIE intend to roll out legislation on a sector-by-sector basis, with banking the first sector to be designated. CDR has begun to be implemented to an extent on a voluntary basis in the financial sector with Open Banking.
MBIE is running webinars for different audiences that will give people the opportunity to learn more about the draft law.
More daily news:
Chubb offer two months' free cover on Assurance Extra Business
mySolutions webinar - Natalie Whelan on ACC case studies 7 July 10am
The FSC has released details of the Conference 2023 panels and sessions
The Financial Services Council (FSC) has released details of some of the key events of interest to those in the life insurance and health insurance sectors at the Building Consumer Confidence Conference 2023.
Of interest to the Health Insurance sector:
15 August – Member only session - The great Genetics Debate – creating a win-win for customers
16 August - Breakout session - The future of the Health System in NZ: Public and Private innovating together?
16 August - Breakout session - Equity and Fairness in the Health System
Of interest to the Life Insurance sector:
15 August – Member only session - The great Genetics Debate – creating a win-win for customers
16 August - Breakout session - Be Confident, Be Courageous: what insurance do customers really need?
16 August - Breakout session - Is there a Golden Egg? Balancing of technology, legislation and innovation
More daily news:
FSC release the Climate Scenario Narratives for the Financial Services Sector
Lawyer sues Asteron Life in the Court of Appeal for alleged life insurance contract breach
Southern Cross awarded top 10 in the Kantar Corporate Reputation Index
ACC's latest Innovation Fund for recovery at work projects is now open
New ruling from IRD regarding GST and Directors' and board members' fees
AIA NZ has been awarded the Accessibility Tick
The Co-operative Bank announce full-year profit before tax of $18.8m for the period ending March 31
Tomorrow, Today, Event Series: The AI Revolution – Sustainability event on Jun 27
Stats NZ confirms NZ dipped into recession
Data for Australia shows overall life insurance inflows saw a modest increase of 2.5%
Government to increase the number of funded medical students from 2024
Good Returns has six marketing tips for mortgage advisers
Government announces a five-year focus on tackling rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease
Questions answered: does everyone already have a life insurance policy?
Question from a reader:
The FSC have released their quarterly life insurance snapshot FSC SPOTLIGHT Life Insurance MAR 2023.pdf (hubspotusercontent-na1.net). What I found particularly interesting was there are 4.1 million life insurance covers and New Zealand has about 5.18 million residents. Stats NZ has 986600 people under 15 in 2021 national-population-estimates-at-30-june-2021.xlsx (live.com), and I would assume most under 15 year olds wouldn’t have (or need) life insurance. So, are we basically at market saturation now? Or are there a large number of people with multiple life insurance policies?
Answer:
At Chatswood we do not think that everyone has a life policy and you are right to suspect that multiple policies is a likely explanation. For example, at one point I had five policies with Sovereign, that was a consequence of how increases and additions were done. At the same time I had some group life insurance in the staff scheme, so that made it six. I may have had some credit card insurance too. We work on an average of between two and three policies per person, which leaves the uninsured at about 50% of the working age population. The FSC has also recently done a survey of consumers and their answers indicated that the coverage rate is about 38%. However, consumer surveys about low engagement products such as life insurance are particularly susceptible to response biases. I explore some of these issues in my recent article at goodreturns 'why is is so hard to know how many people have life insurance?' If you would like a more detailed approach to this with the associated modelling and sources please contact us for a copy of our special report on market size and flow.