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.

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Partners Life appoints new Chief Financial Officer

Mark Schollum has been appointed as Partners Life's new chief financial officer.

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Resolution Life purchased by Nippon Life

Nippon Life Insurance Company is set to acquire full ownership of Resolution Life Australasia and the remaining 20% stake in MLC Life Insurance currently held by National Australia Bank.

Nippon Life Insurance Company, a Japan-based insurer, is set to acquire full ownership of Resolution Life Australasia and the remaining 20% stake in MLC Life Insurance currently held by National Australia Bank.

MLC Life Insurance and Resolution Life Australasia will merge under a new brand, Acenda. The merger is expected to be finalised in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals. MLC Life Insurance, will begin the transition to the Acenda brand from December 2024, targeting late 2025 to complete the transition.  Once the merger is complete, Resolution Life Australasia will move to the Acenda brand in Australia, with the intention to transition the Resolution New Zealand business to the Acenda brand ‘in due course’.

Resolution Life Australasia is currently in the process of acquiring Asteron Life, Suncorp Group’s New Zealand life insurance business, which will operate as a standalone entity post-acquisition.

Tim Tez, CEO of Resolution Life Australasia, said

“New Zealand remains an important market for both Resolution Life Australasia and Nippon Life. [The] announcement will not impact our focus on completing the acquisition of Asteron Life and our support of the business’ current strategic growth agenda.”

 

More news:

Fidelity Life accepted 93% of all new claims in FY24

Westpac has unveiled its GDP nowcasting model

Semi-Finalists for the Kiwibank 2025 New Zealander of the Year Awards announced

Jon-Paul Hale dissects a recent FSCL complaint

Independent review of ACC announced because of concerns about declining rehabilitation rates and increasing costs

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Southern Cross creates new role to oversee hospital network

Southern Cross Healthcare has announced Roger Cronin as the new chief operating officer responsible for the organisation’s 10 wholly owned hospitals.

Southern Cross Healthcare has announced Roger Cronin as the new chief operating officer responsible for the organisation’s 10 wholly owned hospitals. The new role’s focus is on overseeing the operational performance of the hospitals and acting as a strategic link between the hospitals and the national support office.

Cronin was recently CEO of PresMed Australia, a private healthcare provider specialising in surgical day-stay procedures for ophthalmology and ENT patients. Cronin has held a variety of leadership roles in major public hospitals and has worked with the New South Wales Ministry of Health. Cronin will commence his new role in late November.

 

More news:

Westpac campaign highlights dangers of impulse buying and debt accumulation

mySolutions webinar 'Panel Discussion' 4 December

The IFSO Scheme welcomes changes introduced by the Contracts of Insurance Act 2024

Government announces funding for 50 new senior doctors, plus nurses and other health professionals

The RBNZ has cut the Official Cash Rate, taking it from 4.75% to 4.25%

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Steve Wright talks about reducing advice risk

Steve Wright tackled the question of reducing advice risk recently in a Good Returns article.

Steve Wright tackled the question of reducing advice risk recently. He asserts that in light of the largely untested ‘principles-based’ requirements FAPs and advisers must stick to, he’s not surprised that some advisers are experiencing stress. Steve sets outs a range of steps advisers could take for reducing advice risk. A good read if this is something you want to tackle.

 
 
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Fidelity Life announces growth plans

Campbell Mitchell, Fidelity Life Chief Executive, has told delegates at the Engage Conference the company’s intentions to grow to a $1 billion company.

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FMA announces more than $215 million returned to customers through remediation

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has released its annual report for the year ended 30 June 2024, including information on the money being returned to customers as a result of remediation activity stemming from the Conduct and Culture review.

The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has released its annual report for the year ended 30 June 2024. One of the most interesting findings to come from the annual report was that $215 million has been returned, or is in the process of being returned, to customers as a result of remediation activity stemming from the Conduct and Culture review of banks and life insurers carried out by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) and the FMA between 2018 and 2019. As at June 2024, 1.585 million affected customers had been identified. You can read about some of the filings from this year here.

The FMA achieved six out of nine of its Statement of Performance Expectations. Some key achievements included several penalty decisions for fair dealing provision breaches, opening licensing for the Conduct of Financial Institutions (CoFI) regime and producing the first Financial Advice Provider Monitoring Insights Report.

The FMA have also released the results of their Ease of Doing Business Survey which reports on stakeholder and industry participants views on the effectiveness of their interactions with the FMA.

  • 94% agree financial markets are effectively regulated

  • 85% agree the FMA supports market integrity

  • 84% agree that FMA communications is relevant to their sector

  • 75% agree the FMA helps raise the standards of market conduct

  • 80% agree that communications help them understand the FMA’s approach to regulation

  • 77% agree communications help them understand the FMA’s expectations of them

  • 53% agree it’s easy doing business with the FMA

 

More news:

The Banking Ombudsman Scheme has published results from its five-year review

Consumer confidence fell four points in October in the latest ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence Survey

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This week is Cyber Smart Week

Running from 21 – 27 October, Cyber Smart Week is here! With the theme of ‘The Scamathon’, it highlights the importance of being more secure online.

Running from 21 – 27 October, Cyber Smart Week is here! With the theme of ‘The Scamathon’, it highlights the importance of being more secure online. Some key precautions you should be taking include:

  • Using long, strong and unique passwords

  • Using two-factor authentication (2FA)

  • Reporting any suspected scams to your management or IT teams

  • Turning on automatic updates

  • Stopping to think before you click – could it be a scam?

Own your online has produced a 5-part video series about business online security – you can watch them all here.

  • Episode 1 - How to protect your business: Learn why it’s important for your business to prioritise online security and how to start getting your business in better shape.

  • Episode 2 - How to protect your online accounts: Learn about the most important protections you can put in place for your online accounts.

  • Episode 3 - Protecting data and systems: Learn why it’s important to protect your data and your customers’ data and how to put these protections in place. Also learn how your business can best recover from an online attack.

  • Episode 4 - Protect your website and social media: Learn how to put the right protections in place for your website and social media accounts.

  • Episode 5 - How to spot phishing: Learn about the most common online attack – phishing – and how your business can avoid getting caught by it.

They are also running a series of online events around online security you can register to join.

·         Online security for individuals, 1pm, Monday 21 October 2024

·         Working together to improve cyber resilience across the health sector, 10:30am, Tuesday 22 October 2024

·         Online security for small businesses – simple steps for a big improvement, 3pm, Tuesday 22 October 2024

·         Supporting clients with cyber security - for mentors and advisors, 11am, Wednesday 23 October 2024

·         Financial sector cyber security threats and protections, 2pm, Wednesday 23 October 2024 

·         Online security for seniors, 1pm, Thursday 24 October 2024

·         Cyber security insights for tech professionals, 10:30am, Thursday 24 October 2024

 

More news:

David Whyte calls for financial advisers to be exempt from CoFi

Julian Fayad believes AI could handle up to 80% of advisor loan deals within seven years

New Zealand’s headline inflation rate fell to 2.2% in the September quarter

Clive Fernandes launches a new AI venture aiming to automate 80% of KiwiSaver client-servicing tasks

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What does a business version of the healthy futures report mean?

Southern Cross’s business edition of the 2024 Healthy Futures Report focuses on employee health and wellbeing.

We took a look at Southern Cross’s business edition of the 2024 Healthy Futures Report, which focuses on employee health and wellbeing. There are clear links between wealth and health, as the old saying has it. Whether one causes the other and in which direction the arrow of causality points is unexplored. We think it’s probably more complicated than this simple pairing of factors, although if someone becomes wealthy, they often become healthier. Likewise, if someone has the misfortune to become chronically ill, they usually get poorer. But these two are probably joined by other factors which may also have some power to affect outcomes – like education while young, health while a child, and current environment.

What employers can do to help is limited – but is appreciated by staff. At Quality Product Research Limited we offer seven of the eleven key suggestions made (soon to be expanded to eight) – we like that we can do that – but people use or do not use them pretty much as they please.

Key takeaways for us from the survey results:

  • 89% of respondents said it was important to them to work for a company that supports the health and wellbeing of their staff.

  • 55% of respondents’ employers were doing well in supporting their employees.

  • The top ten initiatives employers could invest in were wellbeing leave (36%), lunch or break room (29%), flu vaccinations (26%), healthy food options (25%), activities promoting good mental health (23%), workplace massage (23%), Employee Assistance Programme (22%), health assessments (21%), subsidised membership to off-site facilities (21%) and stress management programmes (20%).

  • 88% of employees think having a good work-life balance is important, with a third considering taking steps to improve their work-life balance.

  • Making use of flexible working hours (43%) and switching off from work when finished for the day (43%) were the most common means of managing work-life balance. Conversely, having a high work load (60%), financial pressures (40%) and not having flexible working hours (40%) were cited as most commonly as reasons for poor work-life balance.

  • 51% of workplaces offer flexible working arrangements, down from 54% in 2022; 60% of employees make use of flexible working hours most weeks and an additional 26% utilise it sometimes.

  • Only 45% of kiwis rate themselves as happy with their financial situation; 91% cite cost of living as one of their top concerns and 58% worry about not having enough money to support themselves or their families.

  • 84% of New Zealanders are concerned about not having good, affordable access to healthcare, up 8% from 2022.

  • Kiwis don’t feel they are getting enough sleep (60%) or exercise (62%).

  • New Zealanders without health insurance were more likely to be less happy with their health, financial situation, mental wellbeing, fitness levels, weight of themselves and their children, exercised less on average and were more likely to be stressed.

Southern Cross highlight a series of initiatives workplaces could take to improve employee wellbeing, including:

  • offering education on stress management and financial management;

  • offering free fruit or healthy food in breakrooms;

  • encouraging employees to make use of flexible working if it’s offered;

  • offering health assessments;

  • educating employees on the importance of flu vaccinations;

  • offer opportunities for physical exercise, through work place team sports, sports day or subsidies for gyms or exercise equipment;

  • encouraging employees to take their annual leave;

  • training leaders to identify those at risk of burn-out;

  • offering wellbeing leave;

  • providing employee assistance programmes and educating employees on what it is and hot to use it;

  • offering subsidised health insurance.

1,463 employees were surveyed for this report in March 2024.

 

More news:

Changes to Partners Life’s My Underwriting Manager platform

Jon-Paul Hale talks about CPI & income protection claims

Resonate 2024: Navigating Innovation event 7 November

Amanda Bridge has joined Apex Advice as Adviser Manager

NZ banks begin rollout of the confirmation of payments service from November 2024

Centrix’s latest ‘Credit Indicator Report' finds 461,000 people are behind on their payments

The Monetary Policy Committee cut the Official Cash Rate to 4.75%

BNZ has launched a new security feature aimed at combating online scams

October is International Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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Southern Cross Health Society Group annual results released

Southern Medical Care Society Group has shared their annual results for the year ended 30 June 2024.

Southern Medical Care Society Group has shared their annual results for the year ended 30 June 2024. By the numbers:

  • Group deficit of $88.2 million after tax. $43.1 million of the deficit is attributable to a change in international financial reporting standards introduced this financial year. The balance of the deficit is driven by higher claims costs from a high inflationary environment combined with high member demand for private health services, particularly in the second half of the financial year.

  • Group reserves of $470.7 million.

  • Claims paid at a rate of $6 million per business day (up from $5.2 million in FY23).

  • 15,196 net new members, with total membership now at 955,301.

  • This represents 60% of the New Zealand health insurance market by customer numbers but 71% per cent of the value of all health insurance claims paid.

  • 99% of claims were submitted electronically.

Southern Cross Health Insurance

  • Reported a deficit of $99.1 million.

  • Paid $1.498 billion in claims from $1.605 billion received in premiums.

  • Claims costs increased 15% on FY23 (up 13.9% when adjusted for member growth).

  • Premiums increased 9% on FY23 (up 6.6% when adjusted for member growth).

  • 93.4 cents paid in claims from every dollar received in premiums (compared to an industry average excluding Southern Cross) of 73 cents.

  • Operating costs grew by 4%, less than inflation.

  • 3.2 million claims in FY24

  • 50% of members claimed over the financial year.

  • 39,326 virtual GP consultations with Care HQ.

  • 4,635 annual health check-ups with MedPro.

  • 4,016 online mental health sessions with Raise.

  • Net promoter score of 53.7%.

 Nick Astwick, Chief Executive for Southern Cross Health Society said

“We have never been in more demand by our members as they prioritise their health needs, largely in the private system. In 2019 33% of our membership claimed, last year it was 50%.”

“The cost of claims in 2024 was steep and rapid, driven by a combination of price, volume, and the mix of claims. The growth in the volume of claims results from an increase in the number of members claiming, the frequency, and claims being made for more expensive procedures.”

 

More news:

Asteron Life announce MDRT Grant Programme recipients

NZFSG named as one of the Most Innovative Insurance Companies

Fidelity Life working to implement a data governance strategy

ANZ add BlinkPay to their approved third party payment providers

2024 Haven award winners announced

Committee recommended changes to the Contracts of Insurance Bill

Travis Hamilton says Total and permanent disability (TPD) cover is being underestimated

Jon-Paul Hale suggests ways insurers can improve systems for advisers

Tony Vidler recommends how advisers can value themselves appropriately

The Government has completed a cost-benefit analysis for potential third medical school

Wayne Langford appointed to the Board of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission

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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.

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