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.
Fidelity Life offers premium relief to drought-affected customers
Fidelity Life are offering temporary premiums waivers to customers facing financial hardship as a direct result of droughts.
The government has declared medium-scale adverse events due to drought in Northland, Taranaki, Manawatū-Wanganui (including Tararua), Horowhenua, Wairarapa, Marlborough, Nelson, Tasman, Canterbury and Otago.
Fidelity Life customers who are facing financial hardship as a direct result of the droughts in these regions can apply to have their premiums temporarily waived for up to 3-months, with the potential to extend for up to a further 3-months, without affecting their insurance protection.
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FinTech NZ event 'Connect Event: Start-up to scale' 8 May in Auckland
Haydee Stroud appointed FSC’s Acting CEO
Haydee Stroud has been appointed Acting CEO at the Financial Services Council (FSC).
Haydee Stroud has been appointed Acting CEO at the Financial Services Council (FSC). Stroud will take on the role from 8 May, following Richard Klipin’s resignation.
Stroud has been with the FSC since 2017. FSC Board Chair Rob Flannagan said
“Haydee has played a key part in the FSC’s growth and success over the last seven years, and holds a wealth of knowledge and experience in the FSC’s ecosystem, operations and vision.”
“We are confident that Haydee will lead the FSC with stable hands and sustain the momentum the FSC has built in 2024 whilst the Board continues recruitment for a CEO.”
More daily news:
Fidelity Life Engage Conference 2024 will be held 6 - 7 November
Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Achieving Higher Compliance - Three Common Shortcomings' 8 May
Number of people suspending KiwiSaver contributions due to financial hardship highest in a decade
Doctors strike as some get pay rise while others get pay cut
Inquiry finds New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose
Government has repealed parts of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act
The government has repealed some parts of the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA). Commerce Minister Andrew Bayly said of the affordability regulations introduced to the CCCFA in December 2021
“These regulations created unnecessary compliance costs and are an excessive barrier for lending. And worse, the regulations failed to protect the most vulnerable Kiwis – the very people they were intended to safeguard”
The time to process loans increased substantially, with Minister Bayly saying some lenders had told him small loans that used to take two hours to process took up to eight hours to process under the new regulations.
Additional reforms to the act include:
Improving dispute resolution to better protect consumers.
Exempting councils from the CCCFA so they are able to offer low-risk financial products to help households improve their energy efficiency by installing heat pumps and insulation.
Removing duplicate reporting requirements.
We hope that the relaxation on small loans flows through to banks being able to offer more flexibility to people with what amounts to a timing issue, rather than a lending issue. But we know that lending rules are notoriously difficult to manage. This is one of the reasons why aspects of the wider programme are of more interest.
Minter Ellison puts the changes into context within a program of changes to financial law and regulation which the government has planned.
Of particular interest are the changes in supervisions structures with the responsibility for administering the CCCFA moving from the Commerce Commission to the Financial Markets Authority. Lending is a financial product, and we think the Financial Markets Authority, with conduct supervision responsibilities and, essentially, all the other financial products, is probably a good home for this law from an ongoing regulation perspective.
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Empower Women breakfast at the National Strategy for Financial Capability Partners Conference
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Pharmac outlines funding plans for continuous glucose monitors for type 1 diabetics
Quotemonster celebrates our 1,000th research subscriber
Congratulations to Zhan Viljoen from JV Financial Services on being our 1,000th research subscriber! 🎉
Congratulations to Zhan Viljoen from JV Financial Services on being our 1,000th research subscriber! 🎉
Our Data Scientist, Edward Foster hand delivered a special cake to him a few weeks back and learned his dad, Jan Viljoen has been a loyal Quotemonster user for many years.
To celebrate this milestone, we have also donated $1,000 to Big Buddy via The Good Registry - gifting goodness as nominated by Zhan.
We also want to say a massive THANK YOU to every single one of our subscribers for your continued support, and we can’t wait to work alongside you for many more years to come.
Big Buddy are doing some amazing work across NZ for our lads ages 7 to 14 years. Click here to learn more about them or check out The Good Registry for a list of the charities they’ve partnered with.
To learn more about Zhan, Jan and the JV Financial Services team, please click here: https://jvfs.co.nz/
Happy Crunching!
Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector
23 Apr 2024 - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand released its submission on the Commerce Commission’s draft report from its market study into personal banking services. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2024/04/rbnz-releases-submission-on-draft-commerce-commission-market-study
23 Apr 2024 - The Financial Markets Authority has published its guide for Managed Investment Scheme managers and their supervisors for effective liquidity risk management, following consultation. https://www.fma.govt.nz/news/all-releases/media-releases/importance-of-effective-liquidity-risk-management/
23 Apr 2024 - Commerce Minister Andrew Bayly is planning to align the rules of the four approved financial dispute resolution schemes - Banking Ombudsman, the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman, Financial Services Complaints Limited, and the Financial Dispute Resolution Service – and raise the maximum amount the schemes can award to $500,000. The government aims to have the regulations providing for the changes in place by July 18. https://www.goodreturns.co.nz/article/976523065/aligning-disputes-resolution-schemes.html
23 Apr 2024 - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released a consultation on proposed enhancements to the content and presentation of its suite of quarterly insurance statistical publications. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-consults-on-enhancements-to-quarterly-insurance-publication-suite
Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector
A round-up of recent legal and regulatory updates including APRA’s update on life insurance claims and disputes statistics
16 Apr 2024 - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its Life Insurance Claims and Disputes Statistics publication, covering a rolling 12-month period from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2023. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-and-asic-publish-latest-data-on-life-insurance-claims-and-disputes-8
17 Apr 2024 - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is continuing its exploration of a central bank digital currency, called 'digital cash' and asking for feedback from the public. Consultation is open 17 April until 26 July 2024. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2024/04/consultation-opens-on-a-digital-currency-for-new-zealand
22 Apr 2024 - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s 2023 Climate Stress Test has found Climate-related risks need to be actively managed to protect the resilience of the financial system to other shocks. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2024/04/climate-stress-test-assesses-resilience-of-major-nz-banks
22 Apr 2024 - The Council of Financial Regulators has published an updated Regulatory Initiatives Calendar for Q1 2024. https://www.cofr.govt.nz/files/regulatory-initiatives-calendar/regulatory-initiatives-calendar-q1-2024.pdf
Net Promoter Score: why Fidelity Life wants you to watch this number
Recently Fidelity Life has announced a return to focus on net promoter score as a measure of customer satisfaction with advisers, and rewards for advisers that do well on this metric. If you’re wondering why they think this is important, this primer is for you:
Fidelity Life wants you to pay attention to your net promoter score.
Recently Fidelity Life has announced a return to focus on net promoter score as a measure of customer satisfaction with advisers, and rewards for advisers that do well on this metric. If you’re wondering why they think this is important, this primer is for you:
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric used to gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction based on one simple question: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?” The responses are used to classify customers into three categories: Promoters (9-10 score), Passives (7-8 score), and Detractors (0-6 score). A five-point scale can also be used. The score is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters. Passives are ignored. The resulting score can range from -100 to +100. This simple metric offers immediate insight into customer satisfaction and loyalty.
NPS became popular due to its simplicity and strong correlation with revenue growth. It was introduced in 2003 by Fred Reichheld, a partner at Bain & Company. It is detailed in this Harvard Business Review article (fee required to access). You can see how its simplicity enabled it to quickly catch on. I even have a friend who runs a company which focuses on a very simple way to add this measurement to your website.
It’s a number we have used from time to time in managing our business. Some big companies use this a lot. One example of a high-scoring organisation is Apple. Don’t take my word for it, check out this link: https://surveysparrow.com/blog/apples-nps/ Apple’s consistent focus on customer experience and product innovation has helped it maintain a high NPS, often cited as being in the 70s or even 80s. This score reflects strong customer loyalty and satisfaction, translating into repeat business and positive word-of-mouth. On the other hand, telecommunications companies often score poorly in NPS benchmarks. I am sure you can think of one.
What’s new with Advicemonster?
Curious to see the latest features on Advicemonster? Want to spend more time in front of your clients and less time on admin? Watch as Aneel Ravji takes you through how to use the latest features and enhancements on Advicemonster. Topics covered include sending fact find links to your clients to complete prior to meeting them; adding notes into the FactFinder needs analysis process; our swish new feature that allows you to narrate notes on SOA’s rather than having to manually type it in; how you can choose to utilise our AI features to reduce the time you spend entering in data; how you can add multiple reports; how to preview your SOA report. Plus preview our Business SOA.
Partners Life pricing and product changes effective 22 April 2024
We are pleased to confirm that the rate changes to Partners Life medical cover, effective 22 April 2024 are live on Quotemonster.
Dear Quotemonster users,
We are pleased to confirm that the rate changes to Partners Life medical cover, effective 22 April 2024 are live on Quotemonster.
Partners Life also announced a range of enhancements, please click here to find a summary of their product enhancements and clarifications. Today, we were provided with the updated policy documents (v19.1), and will be able to provide a detailed overview on how these enhancements affect our research ratings, once the wordings have been systematically reviewed.
Rest assured we will post a notification once these ratings are live on Quotemonster.
Apologies for the inconvenience.
Happy Crunching!
UniMed gets approval from RBNZ to take on Accuro’s portfolio
UniMed has received approval from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to take on the portfolio of insurance co-operative Accuro.
Once Accuro’s 30,000 members have been transferred to UniMed, UniMed will be the third largest health insurance provider in New Zealand, with combined membership of 140,000.
Once the transfer is finalised, members will transition to being part of the UniMed society, though the Accuro brand will remain. Accuro members will continue to have the same policies and healthcare benefits as they do now. Once the transer is complete Accuro will cancel its insurance licence and take steps to dissolve the Accuro Health Insurance Society.
UniMed Chair Peter Tynan says
“The additional scale will ensure UniMed is in the best possible position to create efficiencies, develop new services and products and meet the challenges of increasing member expectations all at a time when the cost of health services is rising, and the regulatory environment continues to evolve.”
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The FSC publish their Regulatory Outlook for April
nib would welcome Medicines Act review and regulation to get more treatment options approved
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AIA offer one month's premium free on new eligible policies issued by 17 June 2024
The New Zealand Society of Actuaries appoints Helen Mexted as chief executive