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.
Introduction to Kiwimonster on Wednesday, 29 January
If you’re interested in learning more about Kiwimonster, we have an in-dept training session scheduled on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 12:00 pm-12:20 pm, please email us on info@quotemonster.co.nz if you are interested in joining us.
Kiwimonster free service now available to Quotemonster users.
Check out free KiwiSaver scheme and fund data comparisons at www.kiwimonster.co.nz - if you already have a quotemonster login then you can get immediate access. Explore the free comparison tools and let us know how to keep improving the reporting. Soon KiwiSaver research will be available bringing comparisons in categories such as service, support, and facilities research to financial advisers to support your advice process.
If you’re interested in learning more about Kiwimonster, we have an in-dept training session scheduled on Wednesday, 29 January 2025 12:00 pm-12:20 pm, please email us on info@quotemonster.co.nz if you are interested in joining us.
We look forward to seeing you there!
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
Happy New Year!
The Chatswood and QPR teams are back in the office and looking forward to everything we have planned this year.
We hope you had a lovely break, got to enjoy some sunshine and had a chance to relax. The Chatswood and QPR teams are back in the office and looking forward to everything we have planned this year.
Things you may want to check out again now you’re back:
Research: If you come across legacy products, then dive into our Standalone Head-to-Head feature, designed to make product comparisons more precise and efficient. This tool lets you compare two products side by side in detail, highlighting key differences across benefits, features, and ratings.
Insurer updates: A range of new insurer benefits and features were launched late last year – have you seen…
o Chubb Life – Continuous trauma
o Fidelity Life – Specific Injury benefit
o AIA – Accidental Injury benefit
Advicemonster: If you’re not already using Advicemonster to create better, faster, and more robust SOAs, we’ve added even more reasons to make the switch. Have you tried our new AI features?
Businessmonster: New Year, New Business!? Whether you are experienced or new to giving advice on business insurance we offer you the best online business insurance statement of advice assistance tool you can find. It includes access to the companies office API and AI services to help get you the data you need faster and even help with drafting parts of the SOA. If you have Advicemonster you can check it our for free. If not, request a trial so you can check it out by clicking here.
Security: Your FAP has requirements to meet certain standards. Want to take another look at what we do to help you? Check out our Outsource Provider Statement and information security bulletins for extra peace of mind.
If you haven’t already, check out Kiwimonster - compare over 30 KiwiSaver schemes and 300+ funds with ease at www.kiwimonster.co.nz or by clicking on the new icon at the top of the screen when you login to www.quotemonster.co.nz.
You’ve read this far. Not many people have. Email Russell to ask about a super special offer (but hurry, the rest of the staff will get in and stop him by the 16th of January – so you must email before then).
Hit us up with any questions you have. And if you have any thoughts on training you would find useful, please let us know here or here.
Quality Product Research by the numbers
As 2024 draws to a close we thought we’d do a quick by the numbers post to review what we’ve been up to this year.
As 2024 draws to a close we thought we’d do a quick by the numbers post to review what we’ve been up to this year. It has been a busy but wonderful year, and we’d like to thank everyone who has crunched numbers with us, come along to our roadshows, invited us along to their events and done business with us.
Research Advisory Board events held this year: 3
Years in operation: 13
Team members: 16
Quotemonster roadshows held: 17 venues all around the country plus one online
Research: 8 types of personal, 5 types of business, 24+ insurers, 80 on-sale products, 200+ legacy products – phew!
Users of Kiwimonster so far: 198
Number of insurer price changes: 230+
Highest number of users logged in on one day: 495
Attendees at roadshows: More than 800
Subscribers: 1100+
Unique number of IT update and improvement tasks: 2941, exclude duplicate and on hold items of which the IT team closed and made live more than 89.46%
Kilometres travelled by the team: more than 9,200 kilometres travelled, from the smallest meeting in Taupo to the largest on the North Shore of Auckland. And yes, we use carbon offsetting!
Rating factors: 27,000+
Frequency of quotes produced: A quote every 13 seconds, on average. Even more during busy periods leading to…
Total quotes crunched to date this year: more than 2.5 million
Total quotes crunched ever: more than 30 million
Executive Team changes at Partners Life
From 1 October 2024, there will be some changes to the executive team at Partners Life. Andries van Graan is now Chief Distribution Officer and Kate Dron is now Chief Customer Solutions Officer.
From 1 October 2024, there will be some changes to the executive team at Partners Life. Andries van Graan, previously Chief of Adviser Distribution, will be Chief Distribution Officer. Kate Dron, previously Chief and Appointed Actuary, will be Chief Customer Solutions Officer.
Van Graan’s new role will focus on strengthening partnerships with independent financial advisers and working to amplify Partners Life’s customer referral partnership with BNZ.
Dron’s new role will focus on ensuring that Partners Life’s solutions service a wide range of customer needs with a particular focus on enhanced simplicity and accessibility and includes establishing a establishing a business led data, analytics, and insights team.
More news:
nib extends three months free offer until 31 October 2024
mySolutions webinar 'KiwiMonster' 9 October
Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Understanding artificial intelligence in financial services' 16 October
What advisers think of KiwiSaver
At our latest roadshows, we’ve been lucky enough to have Generate KiwiSaver Scheme join us, giving advisers insights into the benefits of offering KiwiSaver advice. We’ve also been finding out what our roadshow attendees think about KiwiSaver.
At our latest roadshows, we’ve been lucky enough to have Generate KiwiSaver Scheme join us, giving advisers insights into the benefits of offering KiwiSaver advice. We’ve also been finding out what our roadshow attendees think about KiwiSaver.
To date, the results show that for those advisers who are already offering advice on KiwiSaver investments, the top reasons for offering KiwiSaver are diversifying revenue, building a KiwiSaver book for long term value and adding value to clients. Advisers have told us that performance, ease of withdrawals and alternative fund options are most important to clients when choosing a KiwiSaver provider. And 27% of advisers were interested in additional resources or support related to KiwiSaver advice and independent research.
If you haven’t joined us already, come along to one of our remaining roadshows to find out more – along with info on KiwiSaver we’ll be highlighting some major new research, talking about two new regtech tools to help keep you safe, giving you a sneak peek at Kiwimonster, and much, much more.
More news:
Fidelity Life extend 3 months free until 31 December 2024
Michael Weston talks about key priorities at Partners Life
Jon-Paul Hale highlights the good advisers do
Asteron Life are looking for a Lump Sum Claims Specialist
Study finds three-quarters of respondents have realised the importance of financial knowledge
FAMNZ launch inaugural Adviser Elevate series on 28 August
AIA sponsor the Parliamentary Rugby Team
Charlene Overell is the Financial Advice New Zealand Volunteer of the Year
Generate KiwiSaver Scheme joins the Quotemonster Roadshow!
We are thrilled to announce that Generate KiwiSaver Scheme will be joining Quotemonster on our upcoming roadshow! This collaboration brings a fantastic opportunity for advisers to gain valuable insights about the benefits of offering KiwiSaver advice to your clients.
We are thrilled to announce that Generate KiwiSaver Scheme will be joining Quotemonster on our upcoming roadshow! This collaboration brings a fantastic opportunity for advisers to gain valuable insights about the benefits of offering KiwiSaver advice to your clients.
Learn more about how KiwiSaver works, understand its long-term value, and address any concerns or challenges you may have. Here's a glimpse of what to expect.
Why provide KiwiSaver advice?
Generate will share compelling reasons why advisers should consider offering KiwiSaver advice as a critical part of their advisory services. They will demonstrate how KiwiSaver advice can be a cornerstone of a robust financial plan, offering benefits that extend far beyond retirement savings.
Myth busting: Overcoming challenges
Advisers often encounter various myths and misconceptions that can act as hurdles when providing KiwiSaver advice. Generate will address these challenges head-on and explain how they can help you provide KiwiSaver advice seamlessly while meeting your advice obligations.
Compare KiwiSaver providers
We are excited to give you a sneak peek at our newest service – Kiwimonster! You won’t want to miss this.
Join us on the Roadshow!
Click on the links below to register for your town:
Click here to see all venues and dates.
The issuer is Generate Investment Management Ltd. A copy of the Product Disclosure Statement and advertising disclosures are available at generatekiwisaver.co.nz/disclosures.
