Updating your Product and Provider settings

Our video is a quick explainer on how to set up product and provider settings, whether it’s setting your preferred premium frequency, or linking health and life providers.

Apex Advice Group and OPM Insurance merge

Apex Advice Group and OPM Insurance have announced their strategic merger. OPM Insurance was founded by Oliver Pereira 17 years ago.

Craig Mulholland, Chief Executive of Apex Advice Group, said

“We are delighted to welcome OPM Insurance into the Apex Advice Group family. This partnership strengthens our position as a leading financial advisory firm and allows us to expand our reach and offerings. We are confident this will benefit our clients and drive continued growth.”

More news:

Pharmac funding new HRT gel to aid Kiwi women with menopause symptoms

Fidelity Life announces growth plans

Campbell Mitchell, Fidelity Life Chief Executive, announced the company’s intentions to grow to a $1 billion company in eight years time. Mitchell was speaking to delegates at Fidelity Life’s Engage Conference in Auckland.

Fidelity Life was the fastest growing life insurer in New Zealand in the period ending September 30, with 150% growth in new business year-on-year across the last two quarters.

More news:

mySolutions webinar 'New tools from Quotemonster' 13 November

nib release their top 5 health claims for August 2024

FSC Life Insurance Special Interest Group Networking Event is on 10 December

Financial Advice NZ masterclass 'Influential Adviser: Mastering the Art of Communication' 19 November

Tony Vidler says advisers need constant reinvention of value and service

TAP announce partnership with Bizcap

BNZ has announced a strategic partnership with BlinkPay

BNZ has made a net profit of $1.506 billion for the 12 months to 30 September 2024

Over half of the country's mortgages are due to have interest rate reset within six months

Survey finds 70% of millennials believe they may never be able to buy a home

The cost of living for New Zealand households has risen 3.8% over the past year

Partners Life release claims statistics

Some interesting statistics have been released by Partners Life around claims. Since Partners Life launched in 2011:

• Partners Life have paid out more than 70,000 claims worth more than $1.25 billion.

• Their biggest monthly disability claim paid was for $1,617,691

• The longest running claim paid for monthly disability cover was 4,068 days and the average claim length was 293 days

• Partners Life paid 13,379 monthly disability cover claims totalling $225,954,755

• Their biggest life cover claim paid was for $2,964,706

• Partners Life paid 1422 life cover claims totalling $334,281,111

• Partners Life paid 51,827 private medical cover claims totalling $353,468,683

• Their biggest private medical cover claim paid was for $982,800

• Partners Life paid 3,948 trauma cover claims totalling $357,357,574

• Their biggest trauma cover claim paid was for $3,218,899

For the year ended 31 March 2024, Partners Life

• paid 93% of claims

• paid $51,020,381 of monthly disability cover claims cost across 3,332 claims paid

• paid $61,130,350 of life cover claims across 208 claims paid

• paid $71,705,905 of private medical cover claims across 12,891 claims paid

• paid $66,106,600 of trauma cover claims across 655 claims paid

More daily news:

ASB looks for Chief Investment Officer

BNZ survey finds 87% of New Zealanders were targeted by scams in the past 12 months

Study finds serious infections are linked to dementia risk

Southern Cross covers cochlear implants

Southern Cross Health Insurance (SCHI) has become the first New Zealand insurer to cover cochlear implant surgery for eligible adult members. SCHI will cover one internal cochlear implant (excluding the external sound processor) for members who meet specific criteria which include:

·         being at least 18 years old

·         having severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss in one ear

·         having moderate or worse hearing loss in the other ear

·         having a hearing aid fitted for the ear scheduled for the implant

Those an audiologist deems likely to develop this level of hearing loss within 24 months may also qualify.

More news:

Fidelity Life release average turnaround times for September 2024

Fidelity Life share key takeaways from customer engagement forum

Westpac and nib called out for poor customer satisfaction scores at the Consumer NZ Yeah, Nah awards

NZFSG launch ‘MyInduction’ Programme

FSC webinar 'Connecting with Kiwis: Strategies for reaching New Zealand's diverse consumer groups' 28 November

mySolutions webinar 'Premium structures' 30 October

TAP launch myTAPapp

The Co-operative Bank is a finalist in the 2024 LearnX Awards

AMP webinar 'Financially Independent Kids: Plan Today, Protect Tomorrow with Hannah McQueen' 24 October 12:30pm

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

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

Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector

11 Oct 2024 - ASIC issues 2023-24 update on licensing and professional registration activities. https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/news-items/asic-issues-2023-24-update-on-licensing-and-professional-registration-activities/?altTemplate=betanewsroom

13 Oct 2024 - The Government will reform New Zealand’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) system. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-provide-significant-regulatory-relief-business

14 Oct 2024 - Research from the FMA has found most KiwiSaver providers are well placed to manage their exposure to the commercial real estate market but more work can be done to mitigate and communicate the risks.  https://www.fma.govt.nz/news/all-releases/media-releases/research-on-cre-and-the-kiwisaver-industry/

14 Oct 2024 - RBNZ publish Governor Adrian Orr's keynote speech: Improving Māori Access to Capital. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2024/10/improving-maori-access-to-capital

14 Oct 2024 - APRA has released its suite of quarterly industry aggregate insurance statistical publications for the June 2024 quarter.  https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-releases-quarterly-insurance-statistics-for-june-2024

14 Oct 204 - The Department of Internal Affairs, the Financial Markets Authority and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand have released the updated Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Programme Guideline.  https://www.dia.govt.nz/Updated-AML-CFT-programme-guideline---October-2024

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. 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

FSC sees opportunities for increased contributions to KiwiSaver

KiwiSaver has been in the news recently with funds under management surpassing the $100b mark and the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) releasing their KiwiSaver Annual Report 2024. The Financial Services Council (FSC) have welcomed the insights from the FMA report and said they see opportunities for increased contributions. Kirk Hope, CEO of the FSC said,

“With KiwiSaver funds under management surpassing the $100bn mark, this is a great opportunity to look at KiwiSaver contribution settings and how we can make it affordable over time so that New Zealanders can have dignity in retirement.”

“Increasing contribution levels, in combination with financial literacy that helps New Zealanders understand the benefits and mechanisms of KiwiSaver, are key to driving better retirement outcomes,”

More news:

nib join the Sustainable Business Council NZ

Asteron Life, Chubb Life & Fidelity Life are finalists at the New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards

Fidelity Life employees have unlimited access to LinkedIn’s library of courses

IFSO take their first enforcement proceeding against a Participant

Jon-Paul Hale recommends advisers are clear in explaining unfunded medicines

Workplace Savings End of Year Function 2024 on 4 November

Fidelity Life offer advisers opportunity to go on professional development course

FinTech NZ Annual Meeting on 6 November

Retirement Commissioner says there’s a “crucial need” for all political parties to support a stable retirement policy

Mental Health Minister announces Child and Youth Mental Health and Addiction Prevalence Survey

Organisational changes afoot at nib

In the lead up to nib launching their Life and Living Benefits suite of products early next year, the health insurer has made some organisational changes. A new distribution leadership team has been created, with the three key distribution role reporting to Chief Executive Rob Hennin.

Chris Carnall, Head of Distribution, is moving to the role of General Manager – Adviser Life and Living, leading the development of nib's new Life and Living Benefits suite for advisers.

Amanda Savill is joining nib to lead the adviser distribution team, where she will create a strategic and operational plan to deliver on service and growth for their advisers.

Pippa Leydon takes on the role of National Manager - Group, with responsibility for the strategy and growth of nib’s Group business, developing commercial and strategic relationships.

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Shamubeel Eaqub notes the average Kiwi is unable to afford life insurance

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Learnings from a FMA Monitoring Visit' 2 October

Financial Advice NZ Canterbury Branch Meeting 22 October

Setting Up for Success - How to Build a Great Mentor Relationship'  webinar 15 Oct

mySolutions webinar 'Interviewing techniques: how to get people to open up' 18 Sep

mySolutions webinar 'Added benefits of mySolutions membership' 25 Sep

Resolution Life has appointed Moses Ojeisekhoba as its new President