New Active Benefits are now available to Accuro policyholders

Accuro Policyholders now have access to a range of Active Benefits, as part of their UniMed membership. While policy cover remains the same since the transfer of Accuro’s insurance portfolio to UniMed on 31 May, Accuro members can now access a range of UniMed member benefits. Benefits include:

• 20% off sitewide Parachute first aid (available until 31 Oct 2024)

• 15% Off Allianz Travel Insurance

• 20% Off MoleMap Checkups

• 30 days free at Snap Fitness

• Get an intro to 9Round Fitness

• Free Hearing Health Checkups

• Discounts at Specsavers Optometrists

More news:

mySolutions webinar 'Creating strong customer engagement through Booster's client and adviser facing tools' 2 October

FSC webinar 'Cultivating mental wellness at work' 10 October

ANZIIF offer an Insurance Risk Management Study Course

TSB are looking for a Head of Customer Operations

Entries to the Southern Cross Wayfinder Awards close 30 September

Terry Ball says Robo-advice has a long way to go

KiwiSaver passes milestone of $100 billion of funds under management

Westpac-McDermott Miller Employment Confidence Index fell by 2.2 points to 89.2 in the September quarter

The Banking Ombudsman Scheme saw a record number of cases

Calls for a public education campaign around consumer data right (CDR) regime

This week is Mental Health Awareness week

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori - Māori Language Week

In light of Māori Language week, which runs from 16th to 23rd September this year, we’d like to give a shout out to Accuro for including this gem in their SmartCare and SmartCare+ policy document.

“whāngai means a child from your extended whānau who you raise or bring up within your family and who has been accepted as a participant in the member’s plan. A whāngai is considered a dependant under this policy.”

We spotted this when reviewing their updated policy document that launched at the start of this month, the term is used in sections on dependents, well done to Accuro for bringing te reo Māori into the spotlight and acknowledging our country’s unique history. 

Basic te reo you could try to use today:

‘Kia ora’ is a greeting as well as a general expression of appreciation. In Māori, ‘tēnā koe’ is a formal greeting to one person, ‘tēnā kōrua’ is a formal greeting to two people, and ‘tēnā koutou’ is a formal greeting to many.

If you’re interested in learning more about Māori Language week, National Today does a great job of breaking it down, click here to read the full article.

Recent rate changes on Quotemonster

Dear Quotemonster users,

We are pleased to confirm that the following rate changes are live on Quotemonster effective 1 September 2024.

• Southern Cross Wellbeing One and Two (no changes were made to the GP and Prescriptions or Dental and Optical Options)

• Accuro SmartCare and SmartCare+

If you have any questions or comments on these changes please reach out to us on info@quotemonster.co.nz

Happy Crunching!

AIA held annual summit

AIA NZ held their annual Healthier, Longer, Better Lives Summit on 4 July. The conference brought together advisers to hear from a range of speakers around the Healthier, Longer, Better Lives theme.

• AIA NZ Chief Executive Officer, Nick Stanhope, AIA NZ Head of Aligned Advice, Jack Newman, and advisers Leelee Stone and Katrina Church discussed what Healthier, Longer, Better Lives means to them, and the crucial role advisers play in the industry.

• David Letele discussed the health burden in society and the important role that preventative health plays in relieving this burden.

• Raelene Castle, Group Chief Executive at Sport New Zealand and High Performance Sport New Zealand, shared her practical and unique methods for achieving growth.

• Craig Deats, Global Sales and Distribution Executive at Vitality Global, spoke about AIA Vitality, a science-backed health and wellbeing programme, and how it is delivering value for advisers. This session was followed by an AIA Vitality Q&A, where Craig shared insights on the global programme and engaged with attendees.

• Dame Valerie Adams, a shotput World Champion, Olympian and AIA Vitality ambassador, discussed the ‘For Myself’ pillar and what that meant to her.

More news:

Agenda try to persuade Government to ban insurers from using genetic testing information

AIA announce the winners of the Supreme Aspire Awards

Chubb Life launch new marketing campaign called Mission Insurable

Chubb Life implement email automation technology

The Adviser Platform (TAP) appoint Taz Alnahas as key account manager and Meryll Villaver as client engagement manager

Steve Wrights questions whether today's trauma products are fit-for-purpose

Accuro offer discount on insulated jackets at Kathmandu

Gallagher are giving away native trees in Napier

FMA publish the latest 'Money with Mary' article

Budget cuts at the Retirement Commission could impact Sorted website and other programmes of work

Jon-Paul Hale critiques insurers' use of “MedSafe indicated” wording in policies

Jon-Paul Hale critiques insurers' use of 'MedSafe indicated' wording in policies, saying if clinicians and customers were more aware of what the wording meant they may change their treatment plans to ensure that coverage extends to the use of the medicine.

In policy wordings, “MedSafe indicated” can significantly limit access to treatment; where MedSafe guidelines include "indicated first-line treatment", this means the medication is only authorised for use as the first treatment. Hale suggests that clients consider any mediations with ‘first-line’ indications may wish to be treated with these medications first, as insurers are unlikely to approve them for later use.

What may surprise you is that many, many, medicines are prescribed that are outside Medsafe indications. Some are prescribed even though the medicine is unapproved for any purpose in New Zealand. Several insurers will not cover medicines that are unapproved. Obtaining a Medsafe approval for the use of a medicine can be time consuming and expensive. We are a small market and some disorders are rare. That means that while it may be economically viable to gain approvals in the United States and Europe, sometimes the New Zealand market may be too small for these companies to consider seeking approval economically viable, especially when some medical professionals will still prescribe an unapproved medicine.

At Quality Product Research Limited we are committed to ensuring that research scores are descriptive of these differences, which are increasingly important. There is a review of the non-PHARMAC coverage item in our health / medical insurance research which is being consulted on right now. If you would like to participate in the review please contact us. Results of the review will be announced at our forthcoming national roadshow which runs from 23 July to 29 August. Register for the roadshow, at a venue near you, here.

References:

Medsafe – about and role: https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/other/about.asp

Medsafe – use of Unapproved Medicines and Unapproved Use of Medicines: https://medsafe.govt.nz/profs/riss/unapp.asp#need

More daily news:

Partners Life a finalist in the ‘Insurer Innovation’ category at 'The World’s Digital Insurance Awards'

Partners Life campaign top in the 2023 Global Effie Rankings - insurance category

AIA recognised as one of the most diverse insurance companies

AM Best withdraws ratings for Accuro

Philip Macalister discusses research on areas advisers can improve in

Retirement Commissioner proposes 15 recommendations aimed at enhancing KiwiSaver

The FSC continues to call for review into KiwiSaver settings

Health New Zealand orders hiring freeze on all non-frontline roles

UniMed gets approval from RBNZ to take on Accuro’s portfolio

UniMed has received approval from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) 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.”

More daily news:

The FSC publish their Regulatory Outlook for April

nib would welcome Medicines Act review and regulation to get more treatment options approved

AIA launch 2024 CEO Think Tank programme

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

Andrew Bayly says banks must take the lead on a national Anti-Scam Centre before the Government gets involved

Mental Health Foundation looking to lay off 18% of staff

What do you want us to write about?

We’d love to find out what you’d like to read more of this year on the blog. Local industry news? Global insurance news? Health news? Insurtech? Let us know here.

Our top read stories since we switched to the new look Chatswood website were Swiss Re’s take on sustainability in life and health insurance, Fidelity Life’s product enhancements and Accuro and Unimed's announcement of their proposal to combine.

A year in review

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!

Members vote to combine Accuro with Unimed

The Boards of Unimed and Accuro have announced that Accuro members have endorsed the proposal to transfer the Accuro insurance portfolio and operations to UniMed.

Members voted in favour at both Special General Meetings, with 92.8% and 96.1% voting in favour at the first and second meetings respectively.

Next a portfolio transfer application will be made to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) for approval, which is likely to be completed early next year. If the RBNZ approves the application then the two brands will combine under the Unimed banner, making Unimed the third largest medical insurer in New Zealand with a membership of around 140,000 members.

More daily news:

Helena Harbrow talks about the benefits of Partners Life's EVINCE software

Shaun Baird announced as AIA's new Chief Financial Officer

Katrina Shanks writes how to get a better savings rate

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Economic insights and what we should watch for in the future' 24 Jan

Financial Advice NZ Canterbury/Nelson Region Christmas Event 7 Dec

Financial Advice NZ Central Region Christmas Event 24 Nov

Fidelity Life release financial results

Fidelity Life has released its annual report and financial results for the year ended 30 June 2023. Highlights include:

·         Insurance premium revenue of $450.4 million, up 33% from FY22

·         Total comprehensive income (net of tax) of $3.2 million, an improvement from their FY22 loss of $24 million

·         Underlying profit, excluding the impact of government bond rate changes (net of tax), of $19 million

·         Claims paid out in FY23 $209.7 million, up 27% from FY22

·         304,867 customers

·         Market share of 15.7%

Fidelity Life resumed payment of dividends, with Fidelity Life’s shareholders receiving a full-year dividend of $8.013 per share. The dividend is unimputed as the Group continues to utilise brought forward tax losses.

Fidelity Life Chair Brian Blake says

“We expected the benefits of our Westpac Life acquisition to start materialising in FY23, and that’s proven to be the case. Our performance shows the business is in good shape and proving resilient against a weak economy and the high cost of living.

…In response to adviser feedback, we’re introducing a raft of new initiatives spanning the digital, product and service spaces to make it easier for advisers to do business with us, focus on growth, and together take our respective businesses to the next level.”

More daily news:

Quality Product Research are holding an in-depth discussion on medical insurance non-surgical claims on 7 November

Accuro members support proposal to transfer Accuro insurance portfolio and operations to UniMed at first special general meeting

Deloitte Top 200 Business Awards finalists include staff from ANZ, ASB, The Co-operative Bank

ANZ Chief Marketing Officer Astrud Burgess named Effective Marketer of the Year at Effie Awards

Kiwibank received 6 awards, including the Grand Effie, at the 2023 Aotearoa Effie Awards

Ainsley McLaren talks about the investment needs and behaviours of women

CERT NZ create Own Your Online website, to raise understanding of cyber security issues

The unemployment rate rose to 3.9% from 3.6% in the September quarter

Fraud Awareness Week is taking place November 13-18

Cancer patient advocates say health system reforms are taking too long