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 Chief Underwriter
Kathie Tutty has been named the new Chief Underwriter at Asteron Life.
Kathie Tutty has been named the new Chief Underwriter at Asteron Life. Tutty is currently the Underwriting Manager and Principal Underwriter at Asteron Life and will start her new role on May 31.
Grant Willis, Executive General Manager Life, said
“Kathie’s promotion to the role of chief underwriter and member of the life leadership team recognises her passion and ambition for our business and her desire to take our underwriting performance and strategy to the next level.”
More daily news:
Bronwyn Kirwan interviews Niall McConville, Fidelity Life's new Chief Insurance Officer
MAS reaches $2.5b investment funds under management
The Monetary Policy Committee keep the Official Cash Rate at 5.50%
Craig Stobo appointed as chair of FMA
Craig Stobo has been appointed as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
Craig Stobo has been appointed as the new chair of the Financial Markets Authority (FMA). Stobo has been appointed for a five-year term and takes over from Mark Todd, whose term expired at the end of April.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly said
“Mr Stobo brings a significant depth of experience to the role, having worked as a director, diplomat, economist, and chief executive.
The FMA will benefit from Mr Stobo’s understanding of market issues and regulation, as well as the importance of informed participation from businesses and investors.”
More daily news:
The FSC brings the industry together to respond to the Contracts of Insurance Bill
Anna Schubert discusses ways AIA help advisers manage stress
AIA launch a Neurodiversity Toolkit
Southern Cross Healthcare have joined the New Zealand Disability Employers' Network
MAS is a finalist in the Ethical and Impact Investment Awards
Submissions open for the ANZIIF industry awards
Kiwibank welcome Anne Haira to the Kiwibank board
Westpac won the Corporate ESG award at the INFINZ awards
ASB has joined the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower programme
People seeking help from financial mentors jumps 40% in a year
NZFSG announce new non-executive director
The NZ Financial Services Group (NZFSG) has appointed Thérèse Singleton as a non-executive director.
The NZ Financial Services Group (NZFSG) has appointed Thérèse Singleton as a non-executive director, with the aim of enhancing NZFSG’s support for advisers by improving compliance, risk management and strategic operations. Singleton is currently the chief operating officer at insurance company Ando and is a member of the NZ Financial Advice Code committee.
Brendon Smith, board chair of NZFSG said
“Thérèse's extensive knowledge and exceptional track record in both the financial and insurance sectors make her an invaluable addition to our board.
Her insights will be pivotal as we continue to navigate through evolving regulatory environments and strive to set new standards in adviser services.”
More daily news:
MAS looking for a Head of Growth Markets
Jon-Paul Hale discusses complexities of policy replacement and servicing commissions
RiskInfoNZ Poll finds 85% of respondents' clients are reducing or cancelling their insurance cover
Financial Advice NZ webinars Professional Ethics Workshop 20 June
Kumeu Rugby Club won the nib Little Legends $10K Relay
Southern Cross Healthcare introduces new operating theatre training programme, Periop 101
AIA NZ women won the AIA Global football champs in London
Kiwibank win at the 2024 Genesys Customer Innovation Awards
The FMA publish May's 'Money with Mary'
61% of advice practices in Australian are one-person bands
Interest.co.nz estimate mortgage broker earnings
Access to life-changing MS drug delayed due to staff shortages
Fidelity Life bring back customer engagement initiative
Fidelity Life’s Customer Engagement Initiative to recognise advisers who achieve great customer outcomes is back.
Fidelity Life’s Customer Engagement Initiative to recognise advisers who achieve great customer outcomes is back. To qualify, advisers must register to participate in the initiative prior to 10 May. From 1 April – 31 July 2024, Fidelity Life will review participants Adviser Net Promoter Score (a measure of customer satisfaction).
Twenty five qualifying advisers (and their partners) with the top NPS scores will be hosted at a 3-day customer engagement forum at Kauri Cliffs in the Bay of Islands.
More daily news:
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
A year in review
We look back at some of the big industry news, mergers, acquisitions, court cases and people changes in 2023.
2023 has been a difficult year for consumers and businesses alike. Conditions are similar to last year, with inflation remaining high, resulting in a continuing cost-of-living crisis, the OCR set at 5.5% and the RBNZ not ruling out a further hike next year, and housing prices only just starting to rise. How has that affected the insurance sector? Combined with an increase in regulatory red-tape tangling up banks, there has been a spike in lapse rates that very much looks like it is driven by the same forces.
NZ was badly affected by natural disasters this year, with insurers having to fork out $3.5 billion in general insurance claims for the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Such heavy claims have impacted general insurers, perhaps part of the reason why Tower is looking to do a strategic review of its ownership structure.
It is this situation which greets the new National-Act-NZ First coalition government. They have outlined a 100-day plan that includes: stopping work on the Income Insurance Scheme; introducing legislation to narrow the Reserve Bank’s mandate to price stability (removing the mandate to ensure maximum sustainable employment); signing a memorandum of understanding with Waikato University to progress a third medical school; disestablishing the Māori Health Authority; taking the first steps to extend free breast cancer screening to those aged up to 74; repealing amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 and regulations; and setting five major targets for the health system. National promised to roll back the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) and to make changes to allow kiwis to split their KiwiSaver savings between different providers during the election campaign, so we will be watching how this plays out next year. In August, then National Party Leader, Chris Luxon, told the Financial Services Council conference that it was also their intention to repeal the Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Act 2022. That hasn’t explicitly made it into the coalition agreement, but may possibly be covered by the planned regulation sector reviews to which the coalition commits under the Act Policy Programme. Although regulatory relief is often welcomed by the sector, so is long-term stability, so we have found views split on the proposed changes to the conduct law.
As of March 2023, all financial advice providers needed to have obtained their level 5 certificates to continue operating this year. We wrote about the impact of this on the market and just how many financial advice providers and financial advisers there are in the September 2023 Quarterly Life and Health Sector Report.
Accuro and Unimed members voted in favour of combining operations. Approval from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is likely to come early next year. The Lifetime Group acquired Protection Solutions. Fidelity Insurance, formerly known as Westpac Life, was integrated into the Fidelity Life Assurance Company. In March 2023 Cigna NZ changed its name to Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited (Chubb Life NZ) and is now trading under the Chubb brand. nib have told customers they are planning to amalgamate, with their health insurance company ‘nib nz limited’ and their life and living insurance company ‘nib nz insurance limited’ combining to form one single company known as nib nz limited. The acquisition of Partners Life by Dai-Ichi has been made more real by the appointment of new personnel and the announcement of Naomi Ballantyne’s change of role to come in 2024. The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) have announced they will merge to form the Financial Advice Association of Australia. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) denied the sale of Suncorp Bank to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ).
There were some interesting court cases, with AMP settling with Australian advisers for A$100 million; MAS were penalised $2.1 million for making false and misleading representations to customers; Cigna was fined $3.575m for false and/or misleading representations.
There were lots of new faces joining the industry or changing roles this year.
AIA New Zealand appointed Michele Embling as an independent non-executive Director; Ben Lovelock as Chief Risk Officer; Shaun Baird as Chief Financial Officer; Maddie Sherlock as Head of Customer Operations; Andrew Anisi as Senior Manager Contact Centre & Business Solutions; Aaron Gilmore and Katie Hunter as AIA Vitality Coaches; Calvin Romeo to the role of head of ASB Partnership.
Asteron Life appointed Kirsten Young as the National Manager Adviser Distribution.
Chubb Life board chairman Steven Fyfe retired and Paul Brock took over his role as Chairman while Linley Wood joined as an Independent Director to the board. Chubb appointed Monique Ravening as its new Head of Underwriting and Erica Hamer as Chubb's new Wellington-based Business Partnership Manager. Adit Witjaksono was appointed as property manager for Australia and New Zealand.
Fidelity Life made some new appointments to key roles. David Winspear was appointed as Head of Channel Strategy, Michelle Doyle appointed as the new Head of Solutions and Kylie Oldham appointed as Senior Group Insurance Business Manager. Leigh Bennett was promoted internally to the role of Head of Underwriting and Mat Bark was appointed as Head of Channel Enablement. Giselle Baker was appointed as Head of Data and Analytics. In October, Ian Clancy acted as the Acting CEO until Campbell Mitchell was bought on board as the new CEO after Melissa Cantell resigned. Sam Kelly was appointed as Head of Regulatory Affairs.
MAS appointed Matt Harvey as Chief Distribution and Marketing Officer, Craig Ward as Chief Innovation and Digital Officer, Dan Mead as an Investment Manager.
nib appointed Stu Crowther as new National Manager – Adviser Distribution; Ian Sargeant as National Manager – Group, Partnerships & Strategy; Chris Carnall as Head of Distribution; Stan Bennetto as Group Health Business Development Manager.
Partners Life appointed Gemma Vivian as GM Adviser Engagement; Gareth Allen as Senior Manager Adviser Partnerships. Naomi Ballantyne announced her retirement from Partners Life in March 2024.
Southern Cross Healthcare appointed Mark Phillips as Chief Digital Officer; Dr Erica Whineray Kelly as Transformation Lead for Women’s Health; Jo Fair as Chief of People & Culture; Monica Goldwater as Chief Nursing Officer.
Suncorp New Zealand appointed Suraiya Phillimore-Smith as its new Chief Customer Officer. Lindsay Tanner was appointed as an independent director of the firm’s three boards.
Justine Gilliland was appointed to Unimed's board.
ASB appointed Carl Ferguson Chief Financial Officer and Rebecca James as its new Executive General Manager of Business Banking.
Westpac welcomed a new GM of Consumer Banking and Wealth, Michael Norfolk.
Kiwibank appointed Julia Jack as chief purpose and brand officer.
TSB appointed Kerry Boielle as new CEO after Donna Cooper resigned. Penny Burgess was appointed General Manager Customer Delivery; Molly Auva'a-O'Brien as General Manager Operational Excellence.
AMP appointed Blair Vernon as CFO.
Tim Grafton announced he’s stepping down as chief of the Insurance Council of New Zealand next year.
Tony Dench started as Financial Advice NZ’s interim CEO following Katrina Shanks’ departure to head up The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF). Sonja Barrett was appointed as Financial Advice New Zealand’s Board Member Director (Risk) and Peter Fa’afiu was appointed as an Independent Member Director on the Financial Advice NZ Board. Stefanos Boulieris joined Financial Advice NZ, communicating online webinars and the upcoming conference in 2024 and Sarah Maxwell joined as Communications and Social Media Manager.
Tim Tez and Sarah Phillips joined ANZIIF’s Board of Directors.
Anna Scott, Ana-Marie Lockyer and Campbell Mitchell all joined the board of the Financial Services Council (FSC). David Bishop was appointed to the Chief Marketing Officer role.
The FMA appointed Daniel Trinder as Executive Director – Strategy and Design; Michael Hewes as Director for Deposit Taking, Insurance and Advice; John Horner as Director of Markets, Investors and Reporting; Peter Taylor as Director Specialist Supervision and Response; Stuart Johnson as Chief Economist; Sharon Thompson as Executive Director – Transformation and Operational Delivery.
Graeme Edwards took on the role of Lifetime Group director and chairman and David Haintz was appointed as an independent chairman of Lifetime Group Holdings and its subsidiaries.
Craig Wagstaff joined New Zealand Home Loans (NZHL) as its new general manager for franchise, distribution, and marketing.
The Adviser Platform (TAP) appointed Pooja Shetty as Senior Operations Specialist and Naz Mistry as a Compliance Specialist and Adviser Support.
Some big names in the industry have retired, with David Haak, Tony Arthur, and our very own Rob Dowler retiring
Here’s to another exciting year in 2024!
FSC’s latest Money & You research finds a perception gap between financial confidence and financial literacy
The Financial Services Council (FSC) have released their latest Money & You research findings. The research found a ‘perception gap’, with 82% of people feeling financially confident yet only 62% of people showing a real understanding of the four financial concepts tested.
The Financial Services Council (FSC) have released their latest Money & You research findings.
The research found a ‘perception gap’, with 82% of people feeling financially confident yet only 62% of people showing a real understanding of the four financial concepts tested.
Worryingly, the research found that 56% of New Zealanders aged 18 or older aren’t financially prepared for retirement, with that figure shooting up to 69% of women not feeling prepared for retirement. We are really keen to see this broken down by age group in future as we would expect most young people to feel the least prepared, and some of the group just pre-retirement to feature more of the better prepared. The fact that the figure rises sharply for women is probably a good reflection of the larger retirement gap that women face due to longer lives combined with, often, a gender pay gap, and also often, career disruption due to having children, which tends to make preparing for that retirement more difficult.
Of those in KiwiSaver, 42% are only contributing the minimum 3%, and 64% of employers are contributing the minimum 3% – leaving a vast gap between projected KiwiSaver funds at retirement and what’s needed for a ‘no frills’ retirement. It is hoped that other preparations are being made - such as paying off a home and investing in other ways. In practice we know that with a very high cost housing fewer will have paid off homes and that will also reduce the scope for non-KiwiSaver savings and investments for many.
The current cost of living is impacting people’s insurance buying behaviour. When it came to life insurance, the report found that expense was the highest reason for not purchasing insurance (63%) and 57% of respondents said they would take out an insurance policy if they had more money. 55% of people who had previously had health insurance have said that the cost of living is so high they can no longer afford it.
More daily news:
MAS are recruiting for a Healthy Practice Adviser in Wellington
Tony Dench calls on the government to give considered and deliberate engagement with the sector
Bruce Patten says he's seeing more people cancelling insurances
Nick Astwick explains how Southern Cross Health Society remains economically sustainable
Nick Astwick, chief executive at Southern Cross, has spoken about how Southern Cross Health Society remains economically sustainable. He details the three key things that the not-for-profit friendly society relies on to keep it sustainable.
Nick Astwick, chief executive at Southern Cross, has spoken about how Southern Cross Health Society remains economically sustainable. He details the three key things that the not-for-profit friendly society relies on to keep it sustainable:
· Young and healthy members - Astwick talks about how having younger, healthier members keeps claims down.
· Prevention – a focus on preventing sickness from happening, like a pilot programme the Health Society is running that offers bowel cancer screening.
· Membership growth and retention – ensuring affordable coverage and accessible benefits to help maintain tenure.
More daily news:
Swiss Re release report on the global economic and insurance market
Partners Life "Last Performance” campaign wins at Agency of the Year awards
The FSC welcome the incoming government
Southern Cross Health Society Annual General Meeting 6 December
Asteron Life customers can score a $50 Prezzy card for every $500 in new premium, up to $5000
MAS webinar 'Financial wisdom for a purposeful retirement' 5 December
Sharesies has launched its KiwiSaver scheme to the general public
David Green says mortgage lending should be taken out of the CCCFA and given its own legislation
Chubb has appointed Adit Witjaksono as property manager for Australia and New Zealand
FintechNZ Annual Meeting 2023 rescheduled to 6 December
Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector
21 Nov 2023 - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released its Quarterly Superannuation Performance publication and the Quarterly MySuper Statistics report for the September 2023 quarter. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-releases-superannuation-statistics-for-september-2023
21 Nov 2023 - The Financial Services Council has today released its initial report outlining the challenge to update the permitted operating model for defined benefit (DB) workplace savings schemes by enabling them to consolidate, thereby benefiting both members and employer sponsors through improved cost-effectiveness and simpler administration. https://blog.fsc.org.nz/media-release-21-november-2023
22 Nov 2023 - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has released its quarterly private health insurance (PHI) publication for the September 2023 quarter. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-releases-quarterly-private-health-insurance-statistics-for-september-5
22 Nov 2023 - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released a response to consultation on its proposed amendments to three private health insurance (PHI) reporting standards, following amendments to PHI legislation. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-responds-to-consultation-on-amendments-to-private-health-insurance
23 Nov 2023 - The Privacy Commissioner has announced that his Office will be consulting on new rules specifically for biometrics. Biometrics are increasingly collected by facial recognition technology (FRT), retinal scans, and voice recognition. The exposure draft will be released early in 2024 and will be available for everyone to comment on. https://privacy.org.nz/publications/statements-media-releases/privacy-commissioner-to-consult-on-new-rules-for-biometrics/
24 Nov 2023 - FMA released its Audit Quality Monitoring Report for 2022/23 https://www.fma.govt.nz/library/reports-and-papers/audit-quality-review-report/
27 Nov 2023 - Medical Assurance Society (MAS) are to pay a $2.1 million penalty for making false and misleading representations to customers, following proceedings brought by the FMA. In September 2023, MAS admitted it breached section 22, one of the Fair Dealing provisions of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA), by failing to correctly apply multi-policy discounts and no claims bonus discounts to some customers who were entitled to them, failing to correctly apply inflation adjustments on some customer policies, and miscalculating benefit payments. https://www.fma.govt.nz/news/all-releases/media-releases/medical-assurance-society-to-pay-2-1-million-penalty/
27 Nov 2023 - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released for consultation a new cross-industry standard to centralise APRA's existing standards on definitions for authorised deposit-taking institutions and general, life and private health insurers. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-consults-on-new-cross-industry-standard-to-centralise-existing-standards
How many adviser associations does NZ need?
Following The Finance Brokers Association of Australia’s (FBAA) news that they plan to open a local branch in New Zealand in February, Katrina Shanks has questioned whether there is room for another adviser association.
Peter White, FBAA’s chief executive has said the as yet unnamed association will offer mortgage advisers a “stronger voice and representation in front of regulators and politicians” as well as giving “greater awareness and understanding to borrowers as to why they should be using a mortgage adviser to get their home loan rather than just going direct to the banks”. White also promises to deliver more professional development events relevant to the sector.
While Financial Advice NZ won’t release the number of members who are mortgage advisers, she says they are already specifically catered to with services including a ‘Seeking Adviser’ campaign on the website, an online learning management system, a range of mortgage tools and training on areas such as regulation and legislation.
More daily news:
MAS becomes a Toitū net carbonzero certified organisation
BNZ report statutory net profit of $1.509 billion, up 6.7% on the previous year
Almost two hundred million dollars was lost by kiwis to scams in the last year