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.
Hays publish salary guide
Hays have published their Salary Guide for FY24/25.
Hays have published their Salary Guide for FY24/25. Of note, the extreme skills shortage is lessening yet there is a hesitancy for businesses to take on new hires, due to macro-economic conditions.
Their survey data highlights the importance of brand reputation; diversity, equity and inclusion policies; and environmental, social and governance strategies in attracting talent. Once an employee starts, team culture and job security are the biggest reasons an employee plans to stay with their employer. A huge 82% of employees said that team culture is the most important factor in their decision to stay with their current employer, and 64% said that continued remote or hybrid working was important. More than 77% of employees are currently looking or planning to look for a new job within the next 12 months, with the rising cost of living being the most cited reason (64%).
Currently, 97% of organisations offered a hybrid working model, with 74% not expecting their hybrid work offering to change in the year ahead. This tracks closely with employee wants, with 92% preferring a hybrid mode of working.
86% of organisations are planning on offering pay rises in the year ahead, though the value of the salary increases is dropping, at odds with employee expectations, with 61% of employees expecting an increase of more than 3%. 71% of employees stated that a pay rise was the most important factor to their career in the year ahead but benefits also featured highly in priorities – with learning and developing technical skills (63%) and being able to work flexibly (54%) being important to people.
The survey had 15,324 respondents across Australia and New Zealand, across both employers (6,461) and employees (8,863).
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Financial Advice NZ Professional Ethics Workshop 30 July
Aplus Compliance has merged with Strategi Compliance
The Co-operative Bank share $2.5 million with 135,000 of their customers
Westpac offer financial support to customers affected by the extreme weather events
TAP looking for a Group Senior BAS Accountant
Select committee against bill to limit use of KiwiSaver as part of pay package
The FSC appoints a new CEO
The Financial Services Council has appointed a new Chief Executive Officer, Kirk Hope.
The Financial Services Council (FSC) has appointed a new Chief Executive Officer, Kirk Hope. Hope is currently Chief Executive of BusinessNZ and will start his new role at the FSC effective 18 September 2024.
FSC Board Chair Rob Flannagan says
“Mr Hope is a proven leader with a deep understanding of financial services, the business landscape, and the challenges facing many New Zealanders.
His expertise and experience in regulatory affairs, policy and advocacy will provide strong stewardship as we continue to deliver value for our members and advance our strategic priorities to grow the financial confidence and wellbeing of New Zealanders.”
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Sharp increase in Covid-19 cases
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Chubb appoints new Country President for New Zealand
Chubb has appointed David Morrow as the new Country President for New Zealand.
Chubb has appointed David Morrow as the new Country President for New Zealand. Morrow was previously Head of Property and Casualty (P&C) for Chubb New Zealand and will start the new role effective immediately. His new role will be responsible for overseeing Chubb’s commercial P&C, traditional and specialty personal lines, and accident and health insurance.
Peter Kelaher, Chubb country president for Australia and New Zealand, said
“David's tenure with us has been marked by progressive leadership, showcasing his ability to steer our business with excellence. His expansive network and deep understanding of both Chubb and the general insurance industry positions us to capitalise on growth opportunities in the New Zealand market.”
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Partners Life premium rates for Private Medical Cover will increase from 22 April
Partners Life Cyber Security Webinar 14 March
New Covid-19 vaccine available for kiwis over 30
Aged Care Commissioner calls for free hearing aids to help ward off dementia
Are kiwis taking more sickies?
The 2023 Workplace Wellness Report, a collaboration between Southern Cross Health Society and BusinessNZ, found a rising trend in staff using more of their sick leave entitlements.
The 2023 Workplace Wellness Report, a collaboration between Southern Cross Health Society and BusinessNZ, found a rising trend in staff using more of their sick leave entitlements.
The survey canvassed 137 organisations in the public and private sectors, who together employ a total of 135,742 people, 6.57% of all employees in New Zealand, about their employee absence data across 2022.
In July 2021 the statutory sick leave entitlement increased from five to ten days annually. Across 2022 employees took an average of 5.5 days off. This increased from the 4.2 to 4.7 days recorded between 2012 and 2020. It should be noted that 2020’s average of 4.2 days was the lowest, when lockdowns, social distancing and a nationwide focus on staying home when sick had a significant impact on results.
Extrapolating figures from the survey to the national workforce, it translates to 10 million working days lost due to employee absence in 2022, up significantly from 2021’s 7.3 million estimate. Across the economy this equates to around $2.86 billion in absence costs.
The report cited the ongoing influence of Covid-19 and the encouragement to stay home when ill as one of the factors influencing 2022’s increased absence results. They found 2022’s mean result for the degree staff typically turned up for work with some form of illness when they should have stayed home was less than in 2018, 2016, 2014, and 2012 and an exact match for 2020. This bodes well that employees are putting more emphasis on taking care of themselves and limiting the spread of illness. The report also found that the proportion of enterprises who thought the culture of their business encouraged employees to stay home when ill has improved markedly since Covid-19 arrived, throughout all sizes of businesses.
However, they also note that ‘paid sickness absence days being viewed as an entitlement by those suspected to be not actually sick’ as risen up the ranking of main drivers of absence to reach number 7.
Anecdotally, people have been experiencing more sickness since lockdowns ceased than in years previous. Could this be part to blame for the increase in absences? Or is it simply that one of the lingering effects of living through a pandemic is a reluctance to come in to work when sick, when in the past employees would have just soldiered on?
Gail Costa talks about how the public need a better understanding of insurance
Gail Costa, chief executive of Chubb Life New Zealand, has spoken to Insurance Business Mag about how the public need to gain a better understanding of the industry during their schooling years to attract more people into the industry.
Gail Costa, chief executive of Chubb Life New Zealand, has spoken to Insurance Business Mag about how the public need to gain a better understanding of the industry during their schooling years to attract more people into the industry. Costa suggests that university courses should be offered around insurance. Costa said
“I’m sure that people don’t really understand insurance because we don’t teach it in school. We know from New Zealand being underinsured that there’s a financial literacy issue. Let’s talk about what the industry does and how it works.”
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Toby Kelly named as the recipient of the 2023 ICNZ and ANZIIF Scholarship
The Westpac McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence Index rose 8.7 points in December to 88.9
The number of people hospitalised with Covid-19 and the average daily case count have jumped
Southern Cross hospitals are closed from Friday 22 December - Monday 15 January
nib announce product refresh
nib have announced changes to most of their legacy and on-sale retail and group health products.
nib have announced changes to most of their legacy and on-sale retail and group health products. One of the reasons for the move was to better align the benefits of their legacy and on-sale products, to make it easier and quicker to process claims, and in doing so, reduce costs and help contain premium increases. Changes to client’s cover will take place on their next policy anniversary, commencing from 1 February 2024 and then over the following 12 months.
Changes include:
· aligning many of the benefit terms of the retail and group health cover benefits to those of Ultimate Health
· aligning benefit maximums of the legacy products to those of the comparable on-sale product
· Group cover benefit terms will also be refreshed
· small enhancements to Ultimate Health Max and Ultimate Health benefit terms.
Adviser FAQ’s are here and more details about the changes are included in the supporting collateral available on nib’s adviser portal, in the Public Documents tab under Product Refresh Documents.
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Lifetime group acquires an advisory firm specialising in employee benefits
The Lifetime Group, a Christchurch-based, full-service financial advisory firm, has bought Protection Solutions, which specialises in employee benefits schemes.
The undisclosed transaction price includes cash and shares, with Grant Uridge and Thurl Gibbs of Protection Solutions both taking a 4.5% stake in Lifetime.
The merger expands Lifetime’s capabilities in personal and business insurance advice, with Protection Solutions currently having 13 group schemes on its books.
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The Adviser Platform (TAP) is offering a 50% discount for six months
AM Best will be holding its Insurance Market Briefing – Auckland on November 16
ASB receive the 2023 Make it Easy Award for their Easy English guides
FSC request members participate in their member satisfaction survey
ANZ named Canstar's 2023 Bank of the Year in the Agribusiness category
Covid-19 cases spike across the country, possible we are at the start of a new wave
The role of FAPs in building consumer confidence in the professional advice sector
On Wednesday I had the pleasure of listening to industry professionals discussing ‘The role of FAPs in building consumer confidence in the professional advice sector’, a lunchtime event sponsored by Chatswood Consulting, at the Financial Services Council's Building Consumer Confidence Conference.
Chatswood Consulting would like to extend our thanks to the speakers on the panel for their time and sharing their insights with us:
• Michael Hewes - Director of Deposit taking, Insurance & Advice, FMA
• Susan Taylor - CEO, FSCL
• Hannah McQueen - Author & Founding Director, AdviceFirst / Enable.me
• Ryan Edwards - Managing Director, The Adviser Platform
• Trecia Brown - Head of Customer Outcomes, New Zealand Financial Services Group
Michael spoke about how we have 1407 licenced FAP’s, and how the FMA has around 40 new licences on the go at any time. He mentioned that as advisers you might be helping vulnerable people and to try and make communications as easily understandable as possible, everything from making sure the font size is large enough to be easily read to using simple language.
Trecia spoke about how we need to use systems and processes to keep customer data safe, keep our language positive, build a risk aware culture and how we can manage complaints and use them to improve service. Trecia also spoke about the need to work together as an industry to promote the value of advice.
Ryan spoke about a shift in language from compliance to governance. This helps to change our view from one of merely achieving a base level of compliance to a wider vision of compliance assurance, and leadership by using customer focused principles to guide development of a culture – more like ‘how we do things here’ rather than meeting an externally imposed requirement.
Susan spoke about how we should be talking with customers about our complaints processes and how we have an independent, external complaints process before there’s ever a cause for complaint, so we can build confidence that should anything go wrong customers know what to do about it and are confident it will be handled fairly and well. Susan recommends that advisers put themselves in the shoes of the reader of their communications – would they understand it? Will it have jargon in it they may not understand? Susan mentioned the possibility of using alternative communication forms, such as videos, to help get your message across clearly.
Hannah spoke about how when you have a product you’re proud of you have to be able to articulate it to customers in a way they can understand. It was interesting to hear her expand by talking about ways to track how well the client is on track: are they achieving what they set out to achieve in the plan? Keeping these in view, checking in, and seeing how to course correct to achieve them is a good guide to ensuring they stay customer focused.
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Official Cash Rate remains unchanged at 5.5%
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Fidelity Life announce Career connect Scholarship Recipients
Fidelity Life have announced the seven successful scholarship recipients for Career connect’s second intake. Career connect focuses on helping people from groups traditionally under-represented within the financial services sector to gain the qualifications and skills necessary to become a financial adviser.
Pounamu scholarship - to assist an outstanding Māori applicant: Josh Los’e (Ngāti Maniapoto), Auckland.
Kōwhai scholarship - to assist an outstanding Pasifika applicant: Nimmi Valia, Auckland.
Rangi Po Scholarship - to assist an outstanding applicant from other under-represented communities within financial services: Naveen Bhatia, Glenbrook.
Toe Toe scholarship - designed to assist an outstanding applicant aged 21-25 years old: Kiri Venkatesh, Auckland.
Pāua scholarship – to assist an applicant who demonstrates excellence in their submission: Chloe Balderstone, Lincoln.
Rural scholarships, brought to you by FMG – to assist two outstanding applicants with a rural connection:
Sara Buerki, Dunedin.
Alice Perry, Oamaru.
The current intake will complete the 6-month long programme in December 2023. The first intake of Career Connect graduates have completed their training programme and achieved their level 5 certificate in financial services.
Career connect graduates
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Disability income products from Partners Life can now be customised for clients
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NZ actuaries deliver revised rules-of-thumb for retirement savings drawdowns
Financial Advice NZ webinars 'The ever-evolving credit landscape: Trends, future predictions and informed decisions' 23 August and 'Rising financial capability and improved financial literacy - key findings from Massey University's longitudinal research study' 30 August
mySolutions roadshows 'To sink or swim: the power of prospecting' in September
mySolutions webinars 'Simple wills' 9 August 9am and 'Creating balance in your life and work' 16 August 9am
The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission denies the sale of Suncorp Bank to ANZ
TSB Bank is closing seven of its branches
Long Covid disproportionately affecting women, who struggle to get a diagnosis and treatment
Calls for cancer treatment aftercare to become recognised step of regimen
Public health systems globally are under pressure
We’re seeing more and more stories of people unable to get the treatment they need from the public health system in a timely manner resorting to fundraising through sites like Givealittle to try and raise money to go private. Whether that’s raising funds to travel overseas for treatment or more recently a family waiting more than 10 months so far for what most people would consider a fairly common childhood surgery. Tauranga Hospital has been unable to provide a timeline for Natália Ferguson’s tonsil and adenoid removal surgery, saying that workforce shortages in the ENT department have impacted on both the number of patients waiting for treatment and the time spent on the waitlist. With Natália’s quality of life deteriorating and health declining, the family are trying to raise the funds for treatment themselves. I wonder, if there was capacity elsewhere in the system, could the family have not travelled to another region to get the surgery, especially given it’s usually an outpatient procedure? The creation of Te Whatu Ora was premised in part on upon removing the post code lottery, but how much progress has been made on this in the 12 months since establishment?
New Zealand isn’t the only country whose health system is stressed. The Economist has a story investigating why healthcare services globally are creaking under pressure. The article cites an Ipsos survey that questioned respondents about the quality of local health care; in almost all of the wealthy countries surveyed, people were less likely to say the service was ‘good’ or ‘very good’ than in 2021. The article has statistics from a broad array of countries illustrating how dire health services provisions have become, from waiting times in Canada reaching an all-time high (median delay of half a year between referral and treatment) to patients in Singapore waiting 13 hours to be seen at the average polyclinic (up from 9 hours in 2021).
The flow-on effects of the decline in health care are easy to see with ‘excess deaths” (those above what would be expected in a normal year) rising in many countries, for example, Germany is running about 10% higher than normal.
OECD countries are spending more on health-care as a percentage of GDP than before, but productivity has fallen. Why? The Economist points to several things that could be impacting the quality of care – burned out health care workers; exploding demand for services partly due to the delay in diagnosis due to lockdowns; sicker patients needing additional care because they weren’t treated in a timely manner; skyrocketing cases of endemic pathogens such as respiratory syncytial virus; and, of course, the ongoing additional burden on services that Covid imposes.
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