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Fidelity Life's financial strength rating affirmed by AM Best

Fidelity Life has had it’s A- (Excellent) financial strength rating affirmed by AM Best, for the 28th consecutive year. The outlook for the rating is stable.

According to AM Best, the rating reflects Fidelity Life’s ‘very strong balance sheet, adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.’

More daily news:

AIA updating AIA Vitality programme and terms and conditions from 8 April 2024

Jon-Paul Hale laments Insurance Industry Service Levels

RBNZ trademark to be stamped on all banking products covered by Depositor Compensation Scheme

Westpac appoints Debbie Birch as an independent non-executive director to its board

RBNZ confirms coins will feature King Charles III

Job losses likely at Ministry of Health in bid to find 6.5% cost savings

AIA introduce new cover for prophylactic surgery following cancer

AIA have enhanced their on-sale health insurance products as well as eligible closed products to cover prophylactic or preventative surgery following an acceptable breast or ovarian cancer claim, subject to certain criteria.

Previously AIA’s health insurance products specifically excluded preventative treatment including those related to cancer. The changes came about after a need was identified through customer feedback. Details of the changes are available here.

Insurers have been getting increased requests for preventative treatment to be available. One example of the media coverage is available at One News here.

Comments like this one sum up the media view: “If you had a very high cancer risk, but there was surgery available to cut that risk by up to 90% - that would be amazing, a no-brainer, right?” – well, it depends on what you mean by a ‘very high rate of cancer’. That risk must outweigh the risks associated with a preventative surgery. It will not be the same for all clients – and may vary depending on each person’s circumstances.

These trade-offs make it a much more difficult decision to make than funding cancer treatment itself. Insurers are conservative and usually wait many years to assess data to decide whether to cover different treatment types. That’s bad news for individual customers who have an expensive and difficult choice to make, but it helps protect the interests of hundreds of thousands of other customers, who need affordable cover.

More daily news:

Michael Hewes spoke about what an FMA monitoring visit is about

The FSC CEO Farewell + Financial Resilience Index Research Launch will be on 1 May

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Te Ara Ahunga Ora/Retirement Commission' 27 March

Peter Mensah appointed to Regional Manager – North Island at Chubb Life

Chubb's new advertising campaign features Phil Thompson

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner is holding a Ian Axford Fellowship webinar with Rachel Levinson-Waldman on 25 March

Southern Cross announce winners of the Wayfinder Awards

Select Committee publishes final report of inquiry into the nature, impact and risks of cryptocurrencies

The Retirement Commission asks for feedback on a shared measurement tool for financial wellbeing

Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector

12 Mar 2024 - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its private health insurance risk equalisation statistics publication for the 2022/23 financial year. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-releases-private-health-insurance-risk-equalisation-statistics-for-3

12 Mar 2024 - The Quarterly Statement by the Council of Financial Regulators – March 2024 has been released. The Council discussed the work programme and priorities of the new Government. The Council reflected on the importance of cooperation and coordination between CoFR members to ensure Ministers were receiving advice that benefitted from agencies’ collective experience and perspectives. Dr Rod Carr joined the meeting to discuss the challenges posed by climate change.  CoFR assessed the current state of New Zealand’s payments landscape against the vision it set out in July 2023. They noted the gaps, risks and issues that presented challenges to achieving the vision. https://www.cofr.govt.nz/news-and-publications/quarterly-statement-by-cofr-march-2024.html

14 Mar 2024 - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has published the first legislative document setting out how it will take a proportionate approach when developing prudential standards for licensed deposit takers under the Deposit Takers Act 2023. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2024/03/a-proportionality-framework-allows-for-diversity-while-promoting-financial-stability

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Submissions call for rewrite of FMA’s draft guide about outcomes focused regulation

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has released the submissions relating to it’s draft ‘Fair outcomes for consumers and markets’ guide. Chapman Tripp and Dentons Kensington Swan submissions have been released and both critique the guide, with both law firms arguing that implementing outcomes-based proposals will impose confusing and expensive compliance duties of market participants – with no legal basis.  

Criticisms include the guide being unclear on how outcomes focused regulation supports regulatory compliance; the draft guide being too vague to be readily applicable; the lack of tying high level outcomes back to actual legal requirements; and some of the draft guide lacks the authority of Parliament and risks being unenforceable or amendable to judicial review.

Suggested improvements include clarifying the scope and targeted market sector of each proposed outcome; providing detailed examples of how businesses can comply; adding more examples of expected compliance behaviour; and identifying when compliance with existing legislative requirement is sufficient to ensure delivery of fair outcomes.

More daily news:

MAS looking for a Senior Life and Disability Underwriter

AIA study finds stress is still one of the biggest issues affecting adviser wellbeing

Kelly Brough takes on new role as head of distribution and product development at Advice Link

Financial mentors and budgeting services around the country see large increase in kiwis seeking financial help

Research database upgrade

A major research database upgrade has been made to Quality Product Research, details include:

Changes in V15.7

Personal:

nib - new policy document effective 01/02/2024, rating changes applied

Westpac - new Term Cover policy document effective 01/07/2023, rating change applied to Trauma: 'Female Carcinoma In Situ'

Business:

Fidelity Life - enhancements effective 23/11/2023, rating changes applied

Reviews:

Income/Mortgage Protection,

Sub-item guidescore update - 'Offsets'

Trauma,

AIA - remediation to 'Cancer Benefit Booster'. Minor condition added - 'Cerebral Aneurysm',

nib Life & Living - 'Worldwide Coverage'

Medical,

Sub-item remediation - 'Overseas Treatment'

Re-weight & review - 'Non-Surgical' and 'Mental Health Support'

nib financial stability rating update to A

Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector

11 Mar 2024 - Following consultation and engagement with the deposit taking sector over the past 9 months, the Reserve Bank shares the next iteration of policy proposals for the Depositor Compensation Scheme (DCS) under the Deposit Takers Act (DTA). https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2024/03/new-zealand-one-step-closer-to-depositor-compensation-scheme

11 Mar 2024 - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is investing in a new Business Expectations Survey, Tara-ā-Umanga, to better understand the economic outlook including the inflation expectations of key decision makers. The new survey will ask six core questions each quarter covering business expectations of: prices, wages, growth, unemployment, the Official Cash Rate, and exchange rates. Occasional and rotating questions will be included in future to support many aspects of our work. Consultation on the proposed sample design and content is open until 28 March 2024. https://consultations.rbnz.govt.nz/data-statistics-analytics/tara-umanga-business-expectations-survey/

FMA says those with licences unlikely to have to undergo another licencing process

Speaking at Financial Advice New Zealand’s Thrive Conference, Samantha Barrass, chief executive at the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), has said it is unlikely that those already holding licences will have to undergo another licencing process. Barrass said last year’s push for financial advisers to achieve their Level 5 before the deadline was “the most successful transition I've witnessed in my career” and “a world-beater.”

Speaking earlier at the conference, Commerce Minister Andrew Bayly had said he was aware some organisations held multiple licences and he was looking at whether it could be streamlined into a single licence as part of the government’s drive to simplify regulation of the financial services industry.

More daily news:

Steve Wright suggests advisers need to pay more attention to general exclusions

Katrina Church talks about the value insurance advisers bring

Financial Advice NZ say they aim to be the voice and champion of financial advisers

Gallagher Insurance partners with the NZ Provincial Rugby Union Group

New Zealand Fintech Pulsecheck 2024 is on 28 March in Auckland

Insurance Business announces the Elite Women of 2024

CoreLogic releases 2024 Women & Property report

Information Security Bulletin: Alert on Sophisticated Phishing Scams

This is our sixth information security bulletin, all about avoiding phishing scams. As a valued user of quotemonster.co.nz, we want to ensure that your personal information remains secure, and your privacy is safeguarded. With phishing scams becoming increasingly sophisticated, its crucial to stay vigilant. Most commonly an account is compromised through re-used credentials, or, by unwittingly granting access to the account, often when clicking on a link in a phishing email.

This ISB is to alert you to a concerning trend in email-based phishing scams that have recently come to our attention. These sophisticated scams pose significant risks to personal and organisational data security.

1. Nature of the Scam: Recent incidents have involved emails that appear as replies from someone you know, to an email that may at a glance look like it was written by you, or someone in your business. These emails are entirely fabricated, yet may convincingly mimic legitimate correspondence. Alarmingly, these emails are occasionally sent from actual email addresses previously used by clients or associates, which are no longer active but have been compromised. In our case, we received one from an adviser who was once active in the industry, but is now deceased, which helped to raise the alarm.

2. Spotting the Scam:

• Unexpected Replies: Be cautious of email threads that you do not recall initiating.

• Email Address Verification: Double-check the sender's email address, especially if the content seems unusual or unexpected.

• Content Inconsistencies: Look for anomalies in the email's tone, language, or signature that may differ from the supposed sender's usual style.

• Suspicious attachments: There will often be a PDF or Zip file attached with a generic or meaningless name. Never open an attachment if you are unsure about what is in it.

• Suspicious links: Be very cautious of clicking on links. We have included one for Cert NZ in the next section. If you hover your mouse over the link you should be able to see that it links to a web address with a domain that ends in ‘.govt.nz’. This is the NZ government’s domain, which is where you might expect that link to lead, and you can be pretty sure that it is safe to click on.  Often a suspicious link will point to an address which is not related in any way to the content of the email or the wording on the link. Don’t go there!

3. Preventative Measures:

• Close Unused Accounts: Ensure that all inactive email accounts are properly shut down to prevent unauthorised access.

• Secure Login Credentials: Regularly update passwords and keep them confidential. Use strong, unique passwords for each account.

• Storage of Login Credentials: Ensure your login credentials are stored in a secure password manager, such as LastPass, these applications will also help generate strong passwords.

• Activate Two Factor Authentication (2FA): Add an extra layer of security by activating 2FA.  

• Activate Spam Filtering: Microsoft allows you to enable spam filtering and will automatically pick up spam or phishing emails when detected. These will not catch everything, but they definitely help.

• Educate and Inform: Continuously educate your team about these scams and encourage vigilance. CERT NZ provides some valuable information on the subject and has a scam check that you can use to check if a text, email, social media page, phone or website looks suspicious.

4. Immediate Actions: If you suspect that you have received a phishing email:

• Do not click on any links or download attachments.

• Contact the supposed sender through a different communication channel to verify the email's authenticity.

• Report the incident to your IT department or relevant authority (e.g. CERT NZ).

We urge you to take these warnings seriously and implement the suggested measures to safeguard your information. As always, we are committed to keeping you informed about potential threats and providing solutions to enhance your security.

Want to know more?

We are here to help! You can email us to ask for copies of past security bulletins. You can also review our outsource provider statement at the bottom right-hand corner of every page on the site at www.quotemonster.co.nz. More information about relevant certifications, policies, and procedures will be shared in future information security bulletins. We recommend you keep these with other compliance documents.

Please contact us on 09 480 6071 or at info@quotemonster.co.nz if you have any concerns or questions.

Stay vigilant and safe.

ISB 06-202402