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.
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 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.”
More news:
Russell Hutchinson's outlook on the life and health market for 2025
mySolutions webinar 'Case Study - Client engagement and fact-finding process ' 12 March
Sophie Sargent joins Apex Advice as Operations Manager
The FMA is looking for a Senior Adviser, Media Relations
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
Fidelity Life has made five new appointments to its Adviser council
Fidelity Life has made some changes to their Adviser council, adding five new members.
Fidelity Life has made some changes to their Adviser council. Last year when Fidelity Life announced they were looking for new council members, they were overwhelmed with responses. The five new members joining the Adviser council are:
Sarah Hunger, Managing Director and adviser – Cura Advisers Ltd
Andrea Reid, Director and adviser – Aliya Brokers Ltd
David Jochem, Director and adviser – Insure Ltd
Cory Bennett, Director and adviser – Float Financial Advisers
James Pearson, Head of Risk – Total Life Ltd
The departing members are:
Johny Winstone
Emma Hunter
Mark Breen
Yang Gu
Andrew Millar
The Adviser council was established to hear insightful and relevant feedback and respond with actions that drive better outcomes for Fidelity Life’s Adviser community and their customers. They meet quarterly to give objective feedback on new adviser and customer initiatives; collaborate to drive positive change for the industry; share and feedback on market and industry trends, opportunities and issues; and provide fresh insights, ideas and views.
More news:
Partners Life’s office is closed on 27 February 2025 as they hold an all-staff conference
The Neuroscience of Focus
Financial Advice NZ recently held a webinar The Neuroscience of Focus. Hosted by Cecilia Farrow, and with Alex Davids presenting, the webinar covered our brains and focus, continuous partial attention and cognitive energy and cognitive drain.
Financial Advice NZ recently held a webinar The Neuroscience of Focus. Hosted by Cecilia Farrow, and with Alex Davids presenting, the webinar covered our brains and focus, continuous partial attention and cognitive energy and cognitive drain. One of the depressing facts Alex points out is that in 2022, 50% of the workforce felt burnt out – but by 2024 it had raised to 61% feeling burnt out.
One of my key takeaways to overcome continuous partial attention and help focus, was switching off notifications and using the ‘out of office’ function to stop those external factors that can halt our focus in its tracks. It’s an excellent watch if you want to get a few tips on how to improve your focus, and in turn improve your performance.
Alex Davids will also be presenting at the National Adviser Conference, 1 – 3 April at the Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre.
More news:
Steve Wright talks about how proactive life advisers are required to be
Tony Vidler recommends tightening up your value proposition
Wealthpoint welcome Affinity + Co team to Wealthpoint's network
Edge Mortgages has joined Link Advisory
Concerns reforms to the anti-money-laundering regime could risk grey-listing NZ
Chubb Life introduce Smart Start, Change of Mind and the ability to delete quotes
Chubb Life have announced the launch of their new “Smart Start” feature, a new “Change of Mind” window for cancellations and withdrawals and the ability to delete quotes in Adviser Hub.
The Smart Start feature will be rolled out from 13 – 20 February. With “Smart Start”, once underwriting for an Assurance Extra or Assurance Extra Business policy has been completed at standard rates or an Offer of Terms has been accepted, Chubb Life’s systems will initiate a temporary pause period and advisers will receive a “Ready to Issue” email which outlines the planned commencement date, first payment date, payment frequency and premium amount. The default pause period is five working days, after which the policy will automatically issue, though advisers can adjust the pause period to anything from 0 – 5 days. During the pause period, advisers can request changes by replying to the email or calling the New Business team.
From 14 February, cancellation requests will be processed as soon as they’re received and the “Change of Mind” 14-day window will apply, whereby customers will be able to withdraw their cancellation request and retain their cover without going through underwriting again. If customers were to experience a claimable event, they’ll continue to be protected until the end of the change of mind window, or the effective date of the cancellation, whichever is the latest.
Advisers will be able to delete quotes from AdviserHub – individual quotes can be deleted from within the quote itself, or advisers can delete multiple quotes through a bulk delete function on the “retrieve quote” screen.
In other Chubb Life news, AM Best has reaffirmed Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited's Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a+” (excellent) with stable outlooks.
More news:
Women in Insurance Summit speakers announced
FMA looking for a Senior Adviser, Insurance
Partners Life to release Quote for Alteration Phase 2
Partners Life new upgrade to their Quote for Alteration (QFA) digital tool is coming soon.
Partners Life new upgrade to their Quote for Alteration (QFA) digital tool is coming soon. There’s a handy tutorial here. The upgrade will provide a fully digital process, where advisers can apply for increases and alterations for existing clients in the same way they do for new clients within QFA. QFA applications will be available on Partners Protection Plan and Business Protection Plan policies; Funeral Plan, Essential, Heritage and Loancare policies cannot be serviced online through QFA.
More news:
AIA extend their 3 months' insurance free offer until 31 March 2025
AIA are introducing digital arrears notifications
AIA increases pricing for some Trauma products
AIA introduce SovLink microlearning
Fidelity Life simplify underwriting process
Partners Life paid out 93% of claims in the year ending March 31, 2024
Government commissions two independent reviews to improve the performance and sustainability of ACC
Chubb Life NZ appoints new Head of Claims
Chubb Life NZ has announced that Reeta Anthony has been appointed as its new Head of Claims, effective immediately.
Chubb Life NZ has announced that Reeta Anthony has been appointed as its new Head of Claims, effective immediately. Anthony will report to Debbie Eyre, Chief Operating Officer, and will be responsible for the strategic delivery of the claims proposition. Anthony has over 25 years of financial services experience and expertise and was most recently Head of Claims at Fidelity Life.
More news:
Kate Jorgensen has been appointed to the Board of Southern Cross Medical Care Society.
ASB's NPAT for the six months to December 2024 was $763 million
Pharmac announces decision to fund medicines for a further five health conditions
Super Early Bird tickets to the FSC 2025 Conference available now
The Financial Services Council (FSC) is holding their 2025 conference on 10 & 11 September at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland.
The Financial Services Council (FSC) is holding their 2025 conference on 10 & 11 September at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland. While details of the speakers and sessions are still to be released, the FSC has said that FSC25 Conference: Transforming for Tomorrow “…aims to inspire attendees to move beyond the present and envision a future where financial services not only meet immediate needs but also anticipate and address challenges for generations to come.”
Super Early Bird tickets are on sale now, which includes the FSC Awards Dinner.
More news:
Nicola Willis will deliver a keynote address at National Adviser Conference
Jon-Paul Hale questions whether we should commoditise life insurance
The gender pay gap is a key focus of the FSC's Empower Women workplan
Survey finds kiwis have experienced a decline in their overall satisfaction of their quality of life
AM Best reaffirms Partners Life ratings
AM Best has reaffirmed the financial strength rating and the long-term issuer credit rating for Partners Life.
AM Best has reaffirmed the financial strength rating of A (Excellent) and the long-term issuer credit rating of “a” (Excellent) for Partners Life Limited, with the outlook for both remaining stable. AM Best categorises Partners Life’s balance sheet position as very strong.
More news:
TAP has launched a new AI Document Reader
Financial Advice NZ’s National Adviser Conference introduces sessions for new advisers
FSC Empower Women Networking Events 6 & 11 March
The Adviser Platform launch Insider Insights video series
68% of Australians are worried about paying for life insurance
Update to New Zealand Retirement Expenditure Guidelines released
Lee-Ann du Toit appointed new Chief Actuary at Chubb Life
Chubb Life New Zealand has announced the appointment of Lee-Ann du Toit as its new Chief Actuary. She will be part of the senior leadership team and report directly to CEO Gail Costa.
Chubb Life New Zealand has announced the appointment of Lee-Ann du Toit as its new Chief Actuary. She will be part of the senior leadership team and report directly to CEO Gail Costa. Du Toit has more than 25 years of experience in financial services and comes to Chubb Life from Deloitte New Zealand where she served as lead partner for Actuarial Service. Du Toit is also the president of the New Zealand Society of Actuaries.
Gail Costa said
“With our industry rapidly evolving, Lee-Ann’s extensive expertise in driving strategic business outcomes and fostering customer-centric solutions will be invaluable to Chubb Life NZ. The chief actuary plays an important role in supporting both our board and senior leadership team to make strategic business decisions, and we’re looking forward to having Lee-Ann’s voice and unique perspective at the decision-making table.”
More news:
Women in Insurance Summit 26 February in Auckland
Expressions of interest open for Partners Life's new adviser training course 24 - 26 February
Steve Wright shares his thoughts on CPD for giving life and health insurance advice
Massey Fin-Ed Centre Retirement Expenditure Guidelines released
Westpac launches several initiatives to improve accessibility
How much do you need to save for retirement?
There’s many differences in opinion in how much people need to save for retirement - we take a look at some advice and useful calculators here.
There are many differences in opinion in how much people need to save. Here is a run through some excellent current resources:
This article calculates that if you want a ‘choices’ lifestyle (income of $60,000 - $87,000 a year) you’ll need to have between $890,000 and $1,360,000 saved depending on if you are a single person or a couple. If you want a well-off lifestyle (income of $100,000) a year, you’ll need to have saved somewhere between $1,929,000 and $2,640,000.
Some advisers like to exclude ‘lifestyle assets’ such as a mortgage-free home, caravan and boat from calculations, basing retirement calculations solely on cash and liquid investments. Other people may have downsizing to a smaller home to release some equity as a key part of their retirement strategy.
Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson advocates for people to start saving for their retirement as early as possible
“How much you need to save will depend on your own circumstances, but the sooner you start, the better the position you’ll be in when you stop working.”
Mercer Financial Advice launched a retirement income simulator late this year. If you haven’t already checked it out, we recommend you do. This is quite a comprehensive calculator that lets you estimate your projected retirement savings and how long it may last in retirement. What I particularly like about this tool is it lets you factor in the impact of a career break or move to part-time work, something a lot of parents decide to do at some point. It shows you the results in today’s dollars (having deflated the projected dollar amounts based on the rate of wage inflation of 3.2%).
Sorted also have their retirement calculator you can check out. Simply add your current age, the age you’d like to retire, whether you’re planning on your own or with a partner (and their current and retirement ages), whether you want to live in a main centre or the regions, whether you want a no frills, choices or custom weekly allowance, plus your expected KiwiSaver balances at retirement and any other savings, investments, inheritances, sales of a business or other income. You can also choose to include or exclude NZ Super, depending on whether you think it will still be around by the time you retire.
A useful guide for planning how to spend your savings nest egg when it comes time to retire is The New Zealand Society of Actuaries’ Drawdown Rules of Thumb. It sets out different strategies you may like to use depending on your priorities and risk level, whether you intend to leave an inheritance or whether you want to front-load your spending. They have also published Spending patterns through retirement: implications for retirement planning and drawdown which urges those planning for or managing income in retirement to consider how spending patterns can be expected to change throughout the duration of retirement. Their analysis suggests a typical scenario for New Zealand retirees is that real spending reduces by around 2% a year, which would significantly reduce the amount needed to be saved compared to commonly used benchmarks that assume spending stays level in real terms. Though it’s important to note that the data doesn’t show whether the lower spending is because people become less active during retirement and choose not to do things or become constrained by their resources and must give up such options.
All these reports could be used to build a sound basis for the KiwiSaver and wider Superannuation planning services you may offer.
As always, when it comes to something as important and complex as your retirement savings, if you are reading this and you are not a financial adviser, we encourage you to speak to an adviser about your retirement – and while you are at it, your life and health insurance too.
But you probably are a financial adviser, in which case – why not check out Kiwimonster? Our new, free, data service for advisers to help support your KiwiSaver advice process. You can find it at www.kiwimonster.co.nz