Product and pricing changes at Partners Life

Partners Life have announced a range of product changes, effective from 15 March 2025, aimed at giving customers more flexibility and the option to remove features if they don’t want to pay for them.

• The built-in Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) Benefit will become a TPD Option. If a client opts out of TPD, the premium for their monthly disability cover will reduce accordingly. This change applies to Mortgage Repayment Cover, Household Expenses Covers and Income Cover Agreed Value, Agreed Loss of Earnings and Indemnity Loss of Earnings.

• They have made changes to Trauma Cover and Moderate Trauma Cover for clients who have suffered an out of hospital cardiac arrest. They have removed obsolete medical requirements, and added current diagnostic tools used by medical staff to confirm a cardiac arrest has occurred. The wording has been updated to allow for new and future diagnostic tools.

• They have updated Trauma, Moderate Trauma and Severe Trauma Cover wordings to let clients know that Partners Life will notify them when they can exercise their Life Cover or Deferred Trauma Cover buy-back options.

Any beneficial enhancements to policy wordings are automatically applied to existing in-force policies under the Guaranteed Upgrade of Future Benefits feature.

In addition to the product changes, Partners Life have reviewed premiums, in light of increased volume and cost of medical claims. Premiums for Private Medical Cover including Specialists and Tests Option will increase by 18% and the policy fee will increase from $58.08 to $64.13 per annum, both from 22nd April 2025.

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Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector

11 Mar 2025 - Assistant Governor/General Manager Information, Data and Analytics Kate Kolich will be leaving RBNZ at the end of March 2025. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2025/03/general-manager-information-data-and-analytics-departs

13 Mar 2025 - The FMA publishes speech by Craig Stobo to the Institute of Directors and New Zealand Initiative. https://www.fma.govt.nz/library/speeches-and-presentations/speech-by-craig-stobo-to-the-institute-of-directors-and-nz-initiative/

13 Mar 2025 - Final report on the 2023/24 Annual review of the Pharmaceutical Management Agency (PHARMAC) was published by the Health Committee. https://selectcommittees.parliament.nz/v/6/c493f47b-6545-4a41-1243-08dd61b37e3c

14 Mar 2025 - The FSC publish their March 2025 Regulatory Forecast, available to FSC members.

17 Mar 2025 - The Police’s Financial Intelligence Unit have released the latest National Risk Assessment for 2024. https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/fiu-nra-2024.pdf

17 Mar 2025 - The RBNZ has welcomed the release of the latest National Risk Assessment (NRA) from Police’s Financial Intelligence Unit. The report assesses threat and sectoral vulnerability, exploring their impact on money laundering and terrorism financing risk and proliferation financing in New Zealand. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2025/03/reserve-bank-supports-the-release-of-the-new-zealand-national-risk-assessment

17 Mar 2025 - The FMA are considering a class exemption to provide relief from certain reporting, audit and assurance obligations under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 and the Financial Markets Conduct Regulations 2014 for registered Managed Investment Schemes that are in wind-up. Consultation closes 12 May 2025. https://www.fma.govt.nz/business/focus-areas/consultation/consultation-proposed-reporting-audit-and-assurance-exemptions-for-schemes-in-wind-up/

What’s the biggest health claim paid for a procedure?

The health insurance industry has been experiencing a time of rising medical costs, where both volume of claims and inflation have been increasing. We’ve taken a closer look at individual claims values that a few insurers have released recently. As you can see from the data below, the costs of individual claims can be astronomical.

nib regularly publish their top 5 health claims by month. RiskinfoNZ has an article collating historical nib’s top health claims by month here.

nib’s top health claims for January 2025

Treatment                     Cost              Gender              Age

Spinal surgery               $101,000         Male                   16

Cardiac surgery           $85,000           Male                   46

Cardiac surgery           $56,000           Male                   70

Cardiac surgery           $54,000           Female               70

Digestive surgery          $53,000          Male                   72

nib’s top health claims for December 2024

Treatment                      Cost                Gender               Age

Cardiac surgery            $103,000          Male                   72

Cancer surgery             $102,000          Male                   77

Cardiac surgery            $93,000            Male                   80

Cardiac surgery            $88,000            Male                   76

Spinal surgery                $87,000            Male                   48

But these do not top the charts of what we are currently aware. Southern Cross’s most expensive surgical claims were $256,165 for a spinal fusion procedure and $127,191 for a breast reconstruction.

While Partners Life don’t release a similar monthly overview of their top claims, their ‘The story behind our claims’ slideshow highlights their largest single payouts since 2011. The most expensive claims paid out were a whopping $1.6 million+ for Total and Permanent Disability or Income cover; $2.9million +for Life cover; $3.2million + for Trauma cover and $982,000+ for Private Medical Cover.

While the majority of claims won’t cost anywhere near as much, what used to be ample caps of some older medical values don’t seem so rosy in light of recent inflation and surging claims costs. Yet we haven’t seen any insurers coming out and indexing claims caps. We think that’s wrong, and we’ll offer a score boost to the first insurer who offers indexed caps.

What types of claims have you heard of and how did they go? We would love to hear more from you, especially if you are a Quotemonster subscriber, through our adviser claims experience tool (check the side menu when you are next logged in).

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Steve Wright on potential implications of government’s plan to use private health care facilities for public health treatments

Good Returns has an interesting article by Steve Wright considering some of the implications of what may happen if the government goes ahead with their reported plan to consider using private health care facilities to reduce elective surgery waiting lists. Aside from the obvious benefits of kiwis on public health waiting lists potentially getting treated quicker, Wright considers some potential downsides, from reduced pressure to improve public sector capacity, to the private sector becoming overwhelmed or people ditching their health insurance and the private sectors viability coming into question.

We think these risks are low, given the scale of the intervention proposed by Minister Brown – just $50m to be spent between March and the end of June. For context, ACC will purchase around $500m in surgery in the 2023/24 year, and the total New Zealand Health budget is circa $16.6 billion. For an individual who gets a needed surgery a little faster, we are delighted, but this intervention is unlikely to make a big impact.

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Nominations for the Financial Advice New Zealand Awards open

The Financial Advice New Zealand Awards 2025 will be held at the National Adviser conference on Thursday 3 April, at the Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre. Nominations are open now, with submissions closing at 5pm on Friday 21 March.

• The Financial Capability Advocate Award: presented to an individual or organisation that has made a significant effort to promote financial capability and education. The recipient of this award has played a crucial role in providing financial education to help others understand financial concepts and make informed decisions about their finances.

• The Community Impact Award: recognition of an individual or organisation that has achieved excellent results in improving social and financial outcomes within a community.

• The Lifetime Achievement Award: a prestigious honour given to an individual who has made a significant contribution throughout their career or lifetime to the financial services sector. It recognises their outstanding achievements, leadership, and selfless dedication to creating a positive impact on the financial advice profession.

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Financial services institutions ranked among the worst for customer wait times

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FSC release latest research report ‘Women and Finance in New Zealand’

The Financial Services Council (FSC) have released their ‘Insights and Trends: Women and finance in New Zealand’ 2025 report. With International Women’s Day being celebrated this month, the report aims to better understand how women and finances interact. Some of the key findings include:

• FSC research from December 2021 found that over 80% of female respondents considered their financial wellbeing as moderate to very low, with just under 64% of respondents reporting they worried about money at least monthly. By 2024, 70% of women were reporting worrying about money on a daily or weekly (in comparison, 51% of men reported worrying about money on a daily or weekly basis in 2024).

• Despite reported underconfidence, FSC research has found that women are more financially literate than men overall, with 66% of women answering at least 75% of financial trivia questions correct, compared to 57% of men.

• Women (61%) are more likely to be in debt than men (43%).

• Women are more likely to be working part-time, have full-time home duties or be unemployed (43%) than the equivalent for men (14%).

• 58% of women say they are not particularly financially prepared or not financially prepared at all for retirement.

Last Year, Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission found that the retirement gap between men and women has not improved, remaining fixed at a 25% difference since 2023. FSC CEO Kirk Hope said

"The current KiwiSaver settings disadvantages those who take career breaks, disproportionately affecting women who pause their earnings to care for or start their families.

It’s encouraging to see the Government make steps to start to address this, with those receiving paid parental leave from July 2024 being able to choose to make KiwiSaver contributions, and Inland Revenue making employer contributions of 3%.”

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AMP are looking for a Product Lead to join their Retail team

Government agrees to progressively lower the age of eligibility for bowel cancer screening tests to 58

Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector

5 Mar 2025 - Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Adrian Orr has resigned and will finish in the role on 31 March. Deputy Governor Christian Hawkesby will be Acting Governor until 31 March. From 1 April the Minister of Finance, on recommendation from the RBNZ Board, will appoint a temporary Governor for a period of up to six months.  https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2025/03/rbnz-governor-adrian-orr-resigns

5 Mar 2025 - The FMA release Women who Invest with Frances Cook | Jess Learns to Invest Podcast Episode 2. https://www.fma.govt.nz/library/podcast/jess-learns-to-invest-episode-2/#:~:text=Join%20Jess%2C%20a%2027-year-old%20newbie%20in%20the%20world,will%20share%20invaluable%20insights%20and%20tips%20about%20investing.

6 Mar 2025 - The Customer and Product Data Bill was read a second time. https://bills.parliament.nz/v/6/770a5f4e-2185-4f1f-1395-08dc75512299?Tab=history

6 Mar 2025 - 2023/24 Annual reviews of the Financial Markets Authority and the Takeovers Panel were published. https://selectcommittees.parliament.nz/v/6/6e50c091-a305-4df6-4d5b-08dd5d059012

6 Mar 2025 - 2023/24 Annual review of the the External Reporting Board was published. https://selectcommittees.parliament.nz/v/6/4d1f9c2c-fc27-4249-4d5f-08dd5d059012

10 Mar 2025 - The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has welcomed the release of Te Ōhanga Māori 2023 report from the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment and Business and Economic Research Limited. Te Ōhanga Māori 2023 report builds on a series of reports that deepen our collective understanding of the Māori economy, and will inform and shape ongoing RBNZ initiatives, including Māori access to capital research and dashboard, facilitating lending on whenua Māori, the Māori data pilot, Te Waka Hourua, RBNZ's Te Ao Māori strategy, and related financial inclusion workstreams. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2025/03/reserve-bank-of-new-zealand-welcomes-release-of-te-ohanga-maori-2023-report

Munich Re delve into AI’s impact on Healthcare

As part of Munich Re’s Life Science Report, they have investigated the projected impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on healthcare, from disease prevention to diagnosis to treatment as well as the implications for efficiency gains.

While the news is mostly good (improved mortality, better prevention, earlier diagnoses, individualised therapies), it does create some challenges for life and health insurers. With earlier diagnoses and the emergence of new disease classifications, critical illness insurance products will need continuous updating. Claims management and policy development will become more complex, as genetic and molecular diagnosis becomes more routine, requiring a higher level of medical expertise. Overdiagnosis (the detection of diseases that don’t impact on mortality and/or morbidity) and antiselection may become problematic.

AI will also create opportunities for insurers. Insights from accessing and analysing vast datasets including electronic health records, imaging and other biomedical sources will transform the understanding of the root causes of disease and in turn allow underwriting to become more accurate and sophisticated. Wellness interventions will be able to be better targeted and increase in scope and effectiveness.

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Entries for Insurance Business’ annual Top Insurance Employers close 14 March

InvestNow’s Retirement Readiness Index recorded an average confidence level of 50.4%

Kiwibank reports NPAT of $92 million for the six months ending 31 December 2024

New framework moves beyond traditional reliance on BMI as a sole indicator of obesity

Chubb Life New Zealand appoints new Chief Executive Officer

Paula ter Brake has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Chubb Life New Zealand, effective 5 May, subject to regulatory approvals. Paula has 30 years of experience and the retail banking and insurance industries and was most recently Executive General Manager, Consumer Brands for IAG New Zealand.

Paul Brock, Board Chair at Chubb Life, said

“Paula’s proven track record in driving growth along with transforming large businesses will bring real value to our customers, partners and our people. She is recognised for her dynamic leadership style and success in driving strategic initiatives and will play a key role as we continue the growth and success of our business.”

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mySolutions webinar 'Case Study - Client engagement and fact-finding process ' 12 March

Sophie Sargent joins Apex Advice as Operations Manager

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Paul Brownsey says there should be more downward pressure on KiwiSaver fees

Amy Florian says advisers’ relationships skills are more important than money management skills

Government announces healthcare boost

Updated Health / Medical insurance price comparison

While this has already been update on Quotemonster our large scale price comparison database for institutions has been updated. V116 has the latest Southern Cross rates effective 1st March 2025. This has been distributed to subscribers.