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.
Asteron Life appoints new Executive Manager Life Distribution
Asteron Life has appointed Tony Arthur to the role of Executive Manager Life Distribution.
Asteron Life has appointed Tony Arthur to the role of Executive Manager Life Distribution. Arthur previously led sales distribution at Partners Life, and before that held senior executive roles at BNZ in the retail, marketing and distribution areas.
Asteron executive general manager Life Grant Willis says
"Tony has a deep understanding of the New Zealand life market and coupled with years of experience in senior executive roles in retail banking distribution and marketing, he has a solid track record in strategic execution and building relationships."
More daily news:
Southern Cross Healthcare has appointed Peter Gudsell as the new Chief Financial Officer
Partners Life provides major funding for a new mental health treatment programme
BusinessNZ says FMA's fair outcomes guide should be shelved
Richard Klipin announced as chief executive of Australia’s National Insurance Brokers Association
IPSOS demonstrate weakness in opinion survey design
Opinion surveys have often come in for some criticism from us. Opinions are poor guides to intentions, which is what they are often used to measure. Decisions that carry significant costs vary considerably from opinions, because opinions are free, and while offering them, you can avoid thinking too hard about the costs. There is a famous scene in the BBC comedy “Yes Prime Minister” where a senior civil servant, Sir Humphrey Appleby, explained how you can get completely different answers to surveys by using different questions, which you can see at this link.
IPSOS, a market research company, knows this, but felt that we could do with a demonstration of the weakness of opinion surveys, which they gave to us by using the exact questions suggested by the scriptwriters for “Yes Prime Minister”. The results are a powerful confirmation.
Research and website upgrades: what you need to know
QPR Database V15.7 has been released! Our Research team have made some monstrously good updates to the QPR database recently.
QPR Database V15.7 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.15.7 | WEB V4.5.7
Our latest updates to Researchmonster include:
- nib - S&P global ratings upgrade from A- to A effective 10 February 2024
- Westpac – new policy document for Term Cover effective 1 July 2023
o rating changes applied to:
· Trauma Accelerated – rating added to Female Carcinoma in situ
- Fidelity Life – new policy document for Platinum Plus Business effective 23 November 2023
o Rating changes applied to:
· Life, TPD, Trauma: Business Events
· Life: Grief & Funeral Support
· Trauma – Benefit Payment
o For further information on these changes, please click here.
- nib – new policy document for Ultimate Health and Ultimate Health Max effective 1 December 2023
o Rating changes applied to:
· Medical: Overseas Treatment (UH and UHM), Support & Allowance (UH and UHM), Waiver of Premium Benefit (UHM)
· Trauma: Benign Brain & Spine Tumour, Stroke, Encephalitis, Heart Attack
o For further information on these changes please click here.
- Reviews:
o Income and Mortgage Protection: reduced weighting for sub-item ‘Any benefit paid from other insurance policies’ in Offsets – further review may be required.
o Trauma: following on from feedback from our Research Advisory Board and external consultation, Cerebral Aneurysm has been added as a minor condition in Trauma. We have also updated the associated Trauma Claims Data infographic, click here.
o Remediation to nib Worldwide cover (Life & Living).
o Remediation to AIA cancer benefit booster – further review may be required.
o Medical: sub-item remediation applied to Overseas Treatment, review of Non-Surgical Benefit.
Standalone Head to Head is a powerful tool subscribers can use to:
- Compare legacy products for replacement business
- 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 head to head 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 Health Benefit Maximums report available to Researchmonster and Advicemonster users, has also been updated to align with the updates in our research database. 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).
Business Insurance is a powerful tool Advicemonster subscribers can use to quote, research, and run a needs analysis on for Life, Trauma, TPD and Key Person. We highly recommend joining us for our next online training session to learn more about the service, and as a thank you for attending we can offer a 14-day trial on your account for new users.
Our next sessions are scheduled for:
Thursday, 11 April 2024 9:30 am-10:30 am or Tuesday, 23 April 2024 11:00 am-12:00 pm
Upcoming training sessions:
- Introduction to Quotemonster
Quotemonster training session where we demonstrate the basic functions of our website, along with some handy tips and tricks along the way.
Thursday, 28 March 2024 10:30 am-11:30 am or Wednesday, 10 April 2024 9:30 am-10:30 am
- Demystifying Advicemonster
Advicemonster training session where we demonstrate how to use our needs analysis and statement of advice (SOA) tools.
Tuesday, 26 March 2024 10:30 am-11:30 am or Wednesday, 10 April 2024 11:00 am-12:00 pm
If you have any questions or are interested in attending one of the above-mentioned sessions, please send us a request on info@quotemonster.co.nz
Happy Crunching!
Quotemonster: excess options on Specialists and Tests
Here is a table showing the different Excess options that we use when you quote Specialists and Tests.
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.
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.
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
Southern Cross announce winners of the Wayfinder Awards
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
Site maintenance complete
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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.
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
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