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FSCL sees significant increase in complaints over the past year

Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL) has revealed that complaints rose by 6% in the last year, to 1,426. Of these, complaints against financial advisers were up by 18% and complaints against insurers were up by 14.5%. The biggest driver of complaints was against lenders, particularly involving car, personal and small business loans. In all, new disputes involving formal investigations by FSCL increased by 10% to 359.

FSCL Financial Ombudsman Susan Taylor has said

“We expect this high level of complaints to persist as long as economic conditions remain difficult. The new rules increasing our financial loss compensation to $500,000 (previously $350,000), which took effect in July, could also lead to a further rise.”

More news:

Quotemonster has added a KiwiSaver comparison and research service

Russell Hutchinson writes about issues insuring those with complex incomes

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'How the latest Dispute Resolution Scheme rules affect you' 14 August

MAS Annual General Meeting 2024 is on 21 August

Asteron Life offers four $5,000 grants to advisers who attended MDRT annual meeting

ANZ has announced that Nagaja Sanatkumar will join its board

ANZIIF has released an IT outage preparedness video

Gallagher Insurance support the Poipoia te Kākano Programme

Westpac announce their first third party Open Banking integration is live

FSC Conference 2024 – special discount offer

The Financial Service Council’s 2024 conference has a focus on life and health insurance, with leaders from the financial, academic and healthcare sectors coming together to foster collaboration and discuss top issues. FSC24 will be held The Cordis Hotel, Auckland, on 15-17 August 2023.

Our very own Russell Hutchinson is the facilitator of the breakout session ‘Genetics, how far have we come?’, which looks at the future of genetics and insurance in NZ. There’s a range of other life and health insurance focused sessions, including ‘Policy Masterclass 2: Looking forward to 2030 - A brave new world?’, ‘Breakout Session: Lifespan versus Healthspan: How technology can help drive healthier living in older age’ and ‘Breakout Session: CEO Strategy: a view from the top’.

LIMITED SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER

Quotemonster has negotiated a special discounted rate for Financial Advisers* to join the flagship Financial Services Conference in New Zealand, saving up to $400 for access to all conference sessions.

This limited offer is available to the first 50 Financial Advisers* that register using this link before the 9th of August. Please note to get the discount you must enter the access code FSC24QPR to reveal the hidden tickets as per the screenshot below.

For a full conference pass including Gala Dinner Special we have secured a rate of $1,330 (current ticket price $1,700, saving $370) or a Day Pass Special Rate for Wednesday 4th of September only at $700 (currently ticket price $780, saving $80), as a value add for Quotemonster users.

*To qualify for this special offer, you must be a Financial Adviser listed on the New Zealand Financial Service Providers Register (FSPR). This limited offer is available to the first 50 Financial Advisers that complete registration using this link by 9 August 2024.

More news:

A range of new courses added to Partners Life Academy

BNZ is proceeding with plans to outsource jobs to India

August is Sorted Money Month, with the theme ‘Pause. Get sorted.’

Report lists seven megatrends that could change the future of financial advice

Cost of living for average NZ household climbed 5.4% in June quarter

Quotemonster at FSC24: Professional Advice Leaders Lunch

We are delighted to sponsor the Professional Advice Lunch session at the Financial Services Council New Zealand for the seventh year in a row.

By invitation only: Professional Advice Leaders Lunch facilitated by our Director, Russell Hutchinson which includes a highly informative panel discussion with leaders from the life and health insurance sectors debating the future of genetics and insurance in New Zealand.

This session will be held on Wednesday 4 September, click here to view the full programme.

Upgrading your Quotemonster Account

Upgrading to a paid subscription for your Quotemonster account is super easy to do and unlocks a range of features that will help you supercharge your advice recommendations.

Partners Life appoints new Chief Risk Officer

Partners Life has appointed James Greig as Chief Risk Officer. Greig joins from Southern Cross Health Society, where he is the Head of Risk. Greig has more than 20 years’ experience across insurance and business roles in both New Zealand and Australia. He has held senior positions across strategy, operations, technology and risk roles, including six years as Director of Supervision at the Financial Markets Authority.

More news:

Nominations open for Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards

NZUAC's 2024 Auckland Expo is on August 27

ANZ is being investigated by ASIC over allegations it manipulated Australian government bond sales

The Government hints they’re open to selling Kiwibank to enable it to grow

Lending and investment company Squirrel has been the target of a cyber attack

How long you live is a critical question for financial planning

How long will I live?

This is the single most important piece of information for most financial planning questions. Almost everything hinges on two risks: that you might die ‘too soon’ or ‘too late’. Let us ignore the diversionary idea that there is a ‘right time’ to die and focus on the financial issues.

First, I’m writing about this because I just read an interesting piece about retirees needing to go flatting again as they are unable to live on what super provides. Aged Kiwis ‘only just surviving’ as they go ‘flatting’ again to make ends meet | Stuff The article calls for super to be raised when people hit 80. They even quote that “It hasn’t adjusted for the fact that people live until 100”. This sounds awful – much like how tax brackets are not indexed and due to recent high inflation ...hundreds of thousands more people have been pushed up to higher tax brackets despite not earning in real terms any more

You’ll notice the article doesn’t mention that super was only supposed to support people for a few years between retirement and death – not the decades people can expect now. In fact, this is almost exactly the reverse of unfair to retirees. In this case, longer lives means recipients of New Zealand Superannuation are already receiving much more than was originally intended, because they are living so much longer. Once again, I stress I am delighted we’re all living longer, and long may that trend continue. But what’s going on is that all the mortality risk – in this case the need for loads of extra money because retirees are living longer - is borne by the government. Or, younger taxpayers: aka, your kids and mine, of which there are not enough to support the ever-larger numbers of people who will be claiming New Zealand super.

Let me give you another example. When Germany introduced an old age pension the age of qualification was initially set at 70. This was in 1889, when life expectancy was only about 45-50 years for women, and a bit shorter for men. In fact, only about 1% to 1.5% of the population were expected to make it. This was so nakedly mean that the age of qualification was subsequently moved to 65.

Fast forward to our current situation, where we spend about $19.5bn a year on superannuation - this will jump to about $39bn over the next fifteen years. To match the originally stingy scheme offered by Germany in the 1880s we could move our retirement age up a lot – to something around age 100 would do it. But, of course, that’s ludicrous. We want to care for our older folk, especially those that cannot work. I checked current political parties’ stances on this issue and there’s almost no difference between them. Labour says they want to keep the age of qualification at 65, while coalition parties National, Act and New Zealand First want to move it to age 67. In the grand scheme of things this makes almost no difference. Perhaps it is time to talk about this age change again, as roughly half of all the people aged 65 to 69 inclusive are still in the workforce.

There are some other challenges with our cherished New Zealand Superannuation. The gender pay gap finds exaggerated expression in retirement – because of all those years getting paid more, men tend to retire with healthier superannuation savings in the first place, and yet will sicken and die younger. If they are in a relationship that means the demands of their care drain the couple’s joint savings, leaving less for the women to live on as per the article “…all the couple’s money is spent on care of a male partner, who statistically needs it first. When he dies, women are left penniless and, what we are now seeing more, homeless.” Although I feel immensely for the surviving and impoverished partner, I also feel sympathy for the man who will live a good five to seven years less on average. The more political among you may pause to consider the balance between your desire for, say, an equitable financial outcome between this hypothetical man and woman, and the alternative of considering ways to address your desire for more equitable life expectancy outcomes.

Will this result in more homelessness for women? We do have a lot more homeless people overall. This chart is colour coded blue-ish for National led governments, and red-ish for Labour led ones, so we can be clear about the consistent contribution to this policy outcome from both our major parties.

I couldn’t specifically reference homeless people broken down by age. Although my searches led me to find that men are far more likely to be homeless than women, our generally appalling inability to house people, which is a product of a seemingly shared multi-party neglect for about the last forty years suggest that the threat of homelessness for older people is real. So perhaps we can look forward to more equity in this regard in the future, with women being increasingly thrown out of rental accommodation in their advancing years due to the inadequacies of New Zealand Super.

What might a more logical superannuation policy might look like?

·       Increasing contributions to KiwiSaver would help each person build up a better personal cushion that they can employ based on their own specific circumstances

·       Those that have worked in hard manual jobs and have serious health challenges should be allowed to access their retirement savings earlier and with good advice could choose to consume their retirement fund faster – an option they are not given with state pensions, although, that too could be considered

·       Pushing up the age of eligibility for New Zealand Super would make the scheme more sustainable and could fund a more generous treatment at a more advanced age.

·       We could offer those that defer their pension a higher weekly amount when they do start to claim it.

·       We could do a better job of genuine safety-net benefits and increase the supply of housing to try and avoid a future where there are more elderly homeless people.

·       As an additional tool, when inflation kicks off, we could make KiwiSaver mandatory and automatically increase everybody’s KiwiSaver contributions - leaving people better off financially when older and seeing a more immediate pullback in spending to bring down inflation quicker

No one is really making the case for any of the suggestions above currently, or perhaps more than a dozen others that I have heard talked about by people interested in retirement policy. When financial services companies do, we are accused of feathering our own nests. We must admit that conflict of interest, but we also need to keep telling this story. Retirement policy is too important to be left to just the politicians.

Michael Weston talks about how he wants to take Partners Life forward

Good Returns TV has an interview with Michael Weston, Partners Life CEO. Weston says in the four months he’s been in the role, he’s been spending a lot of time with our advisers, getting to know the regulators and key business partners.

Weston talks about how he’s working to continue the values and the culture of the brand and as he goes forward he’s concentrating on what the next stage of growth for the company will look like, looking to spot unserved needs and ensure Partners Life has the right capabilities in place. He wants to keep focusing on innovation and in terms of the business environment currently, looking at making their solutions simpler and more accessible to a wider range of New Zealanders.

More news:

mySolutions webinar 'New mySolutions Member Benefit - myGrowth Platform' 31 July

Fidelity Life roll out enhanced GP lookup feature for their new E-App

Last week for Fidelity Life's customer engagement initiative

nib offer customers 3 months free on Easy Health, Ultimate Health or Ultimate Health Max policies

Partners Life partner with Banqer for annual Money Month Challenge

David Carney talks about the role of AI in financial advice

Centrix’s latest ‘Credit Indicator Report' shows the number of people behind on payments has increased to 474,000

The Financial Services Federation signs up mortgage advisers as affiliate members

Kiwibank creates content series focusing on first homeownership

Apex Advice is looking for a Financial Adviser – Home Loans

Health Minister replaces Heath NZ’s board of directors with a commissioner in effort to address overspending

Quotemonster at FSC24: Consumer Resilience & Prosperity Conference

We're excited to share that we're one of the Gold sponsors at the upcoming FSC24: Consumer Resilience & Prosperity Conference from 3 - 5 September, which brings together the financial services sector and beyond.

Come find our team in the exhibition area for a coffee or chat, we can't wait to see you there.

To learn more about FSC24, click here.

AIA release 'Claims Compass' report analysing claims data

AIA have released a new report ‘Claims Compass’ analysing their claims data. Cancer was responsible for AIA’s highest number of claims across all insurance categories last year, with AIA paying out $133.9m for life insurance claims for cancer and $244.1m for cancer claims across all categories. AIA’s top cancer claims in 2023 were breast cancer (33.4%), melanoma and skin cancers (20.3%), bowel cancer (6.5%), prostate cancer (6%) and lung cancer (4.6%). Cancer is the leading cause of death and serious illness in New Zealand, with 71 people diagnosed with cancer every day in New Zealand.

Angela Busby, AIA NZ Chief Customer Officer, said

“Almost every New Zealander will have some experience with cancer throughout their lifetime – whether that’s personally or through a friend, neighbour or loved one…”

“The prevalence of these cancers highlights the critical importance of regular screening and taking preventative measures to manage your health and encouraging loved ones to do the same.”

“Because while developing cancer might appear to be something that is beyond our control, we know that early detection is the best form of protection. Many cancers can be successfully treated if diagnosed early, with an estimated one in three people recovering in New Zealand.”

AIA accepted 92% of all claims for the year ended 31 December 2023, paying out $734.8m. Of the total paid, $263.5m was paid out in life insurance claims and $143.1m was paid in health claims. The image below shows the reasons for claims across AIA’s life, health, trauma, income protection and total permanent disablement categories.

More news:

Apex Advice is looking for a Relationship Specialist

The FMA is asking for feedback through their ‘Ease of Doing Business Survey’, which closes on 29 July

Kiwibank announce enhancements to parental leave benefits