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.

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.

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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

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

FSC publish Spotlights on Life Insurance and KiwiSaver

The Financial Services Council (FSC) have published their September 2024 spotlights on Life Insurance and KiwiSaver.

There are now 4.15 million life insurance covers, with $3.21 billion in annual life insurance premiums. The split is about 60% males and 30% females, and more than half of cover is for those aged 46 – 65.

KiwiSaver member contributions are slightly less than last year but funds under management have increased by 21.2% in the 12 months to 30 September, reaching $107.25 billion. Members are at an all-time high of 3,006,163.

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. 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

Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector

29 Oct 2024 - Global privacy authorities, including the office of the Privacy Commissioner, have engaged with some of the world’s largest social media companies after issuing a joint statement on data scraping last year. As a result of this engagement, they have now issued a follow-up statement laying out additional takeaways for industry. This follow-up joint statement lays out further expectations, including that organisations:

• Comply with privacy and data protection laws when using personal information, including from their own platforms, to develop artificial intelligence (AI) large language models.

• Deploy a combination of safeguarding measures and regularly review and update them to keep pace with advances in scraping techniques and technologies.

• Ensure that permissible data scraping for commercial or socially beneficial purposes is done lawfully and in accordance with strict contractual terms. https://www.privacy.org.nz/publications/statements-media-releases/global-privacy-authorities-issue-follow-up-joint-statement-on-data-scraping-after-industry-engagement/

29 Oct 2024 - APRA has released its Life Insurance Claims and Disputes Statistics publication, covering a rolling 12-month period from 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-and-asic-publish-latest-data-on-life-insurance-claims-and-disputes-9

30 Oct 2024 - The FMA are consulting on renewal of class exemption for DIMS licensees from certain financial reporting requirements, consultation closes 29 November 2024. https://www.fma.govt.nz/business/focus-areas/consultation/consultation-renewal-of-class-exemption-for-dims-licensees-from-certain-financial-reporting-requirements/

30 Oct 2024 - ASIC has released findings from its financial reporting and audit surveillance for the 12 months to 30 June 2024, and announced a proactive surveillance focused on auditors’ compliance with independence and conflicts of interest requirements. https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2024-releases/24-240mr-asic-releases-fy-2023-24-financial-reporting-and-audit-report-and-launches-auditor-independence-surveillance/?altTemplate=betanewsroom

30 Oct 2024 - The FSC has published its KiwiSaver Industry Spotlight September 2024. https://blog.fsc.org.nz/kiwisaver-spotlight-september-2024

30 Oct 2024 - The Government is seeking public feedback on a proposed approved information sharing agreement (AISA) between Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). The AISA would allow Inland Revenue and MBIE to share prescribed information with the other agency for the benefits outlined in the discussion document. https://www.taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz/news/2024/consultation-information-sharing-ir-mbie-aisa

31 Oct 2024 - The FMA has decided to renew the Financial Markets Conduct (Disclosure of Relevant Interests by Directors and Senior Managers) Exemption Notice 2019, and the Financial Markets Conduct (NZCDC Settlement System) Exemption Notice 2019, for a further five years. They are working to finalise new notices to give effect to this decision, which they intend to have in place before the current notices are revoked on the close of 30 November 2024. https://www.fma.govt.nz/business/focus-areas/consultation/consultation-class-exemption-renewal-for-disclosure/

30 Oct 2024 - The FSC has published its Life Insurance Industry Spotlight September 2024. https://blog.fsc.org.nz/lifeinsurance-spotlight-september-2024

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

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Possible changes to probate threshold

The Ministry of Justice are currently consulting on a proposal to raise the threshold for distributing someone’s assets after death without the need for probate or letters of administration. The probate threshold of $15,000 (per asset) was last updated in 2009 and is set in the Administration (Prescribed Amounts) Regulations 2009. KiwiSaver was only in its infancy the last time the threshold was updated, and it has not been adjusted for inflation since.

The Ministry are seeking feedback on: how many payments are made without the need for probate; data on the average size of assets people hold when they die; how easy or difficult the current situation is to navigate when deciding whether to pay out; if there are any situations where account above $15,000 are unclaimed; what an appropriate new threshold would be.

Members of the FSC can contact the FSC if they want to contribute to the FSC’s submission.

More news:

Pinnacle Life introduces flagship life insurance product and updates its optional Trauma Cover – Critical Conditions Cover

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Are you Cyber Savvy enough?' 13 November

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 has new Chief Communications & Brand Officer

Tony Reid has joined Southern Cross as its new chief communications & brand officer. Reid started the role in September and his remit is to enhance the organisation’s communications strategy and brand presence across health insurance and healthcare services. Reid has previously held leadership positions at Kiwibank, Suncorp New Zealand and the Financial Markets Authority.

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Advisers can update client contact details through a new self-service request form in AIAHub

RiskInfoNZ poll finds 60% agree that life insurance is too expensive for the average Kiwi

Health NZ’s Mental Health and Addiction Workforce Plan increases training places for mental health and addiction professionals

AIA launch new campaign offering customers up to three months off their premiums

AIA NZ has launched its latest campaign which offers new and existing customers up to three months off their premiums.

• First month free when customers take out a new eligible insurance policy between 18 September and 22 November 2024, and have the policy issued by 23 December 2024.

• Second month free when customers add and activate AIA Vitality membership within 6 weeks of the policy being issued.

• Third month free when customers reach Silver Status with AIA Vitality within the first 10 months.

• Existing AIA Vitality member at Silver Status or beyond who buy a new eligible policy, automatically get three months premium-free on the new policy.

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The Adviser Platform is offering its CRM system free of charge

Kirk Hope has started his appointment as Chief Executive Officer at FSC

Financial Advice NZ's partnership with Massey University’s Financial Education and Research Centre extended for three years

The Adviser Platform Conference 2024 is on 18 October

Australian life insurance customers who stay loyal to their insurer likely to be paying higher premiums than new customers

Of the roughly 14,000 known chemicals in food packaging, around 25% have been found in the human body