nib to roll out life insurance offering next month

nib’s new Ultimate Life and Living products, which include life, trauma, TPD, income protection and mortgage protection will be available from next month. nib are currently running roadshows outlining its new products, but pricing will not be released until closer to the policies being in the market. QPR has rated the products, and they have come out favourably.

New customers buying bundled health insurance and Ultimate Life and Living policies will qualify for a 10% premium discount, while current members can qualify for multi-cover discounts ranging from 10% – 15%.

More news:

Fidelity Life increasing the underlying premium rates from 1 April

Partners Life’s QFA Phase 2 upgrade is now live

Financial Advice NZ Community of Practice: Central District 25 February

Willis Towers Watson will carry out the first independent investment review of ACC

Monsters in March – Registrations Now Open!

Advisers, don’t miss this must-attend event covering the latest research and tools for insurance and KiwiSaver. With limited seats, secure your spot now!

We are holding two in Auckland and one in Christchurch, dates and venues with links to register are below.

This event is a must-attend for advisers looking to refine their expertise, embrace new opportunities, and integrate cutting-edge research into their practice.

The events will each have three sessions – one on business insurance, one on personal insurance and one on KiwiSaver. You can choose whether to attend all three sessions or pick one or two.

Session 1: Business Insurance – Unlocking Growth & Overcoming Barriers

Explore the untapped potential of Business Risk Insurance and learn how to navigate this lucrative market. This session provides a deep dive into the New Zealand business landscape, highlighting key statistics on insurance uptake and identifying opportunities for advisers.

Session 2: Personal Insurance – Navigating Market Shifts & Research Innovations

Stay ahead of industry trends and leverage independent research to strengthen your advice process. This session covers critical developments in the personal insurance market and our research tools.

Session 3: KiwiSaver – Strengthening Advice for Better Retirement Outcomes

Enhance your KiwiSaver advice strategy with independent research and expert insights. This session highlights the importance of adviser-led KiwiSaver recommendations and the tools available to support better decision-making.

Benefits of attending this event include:

1.        Explore the latest new research and platform enhancements firsthand

2.        Gain insights from expert speakers and earn valuable CPD credits

3.        Connect with industry professionals through networking and enjoy complimentary catering

4.        Unlock exclusive access to extended free trials

18 March – Remuera Golf Club, Auckland Central

20 March – Addington Raceway, Christchurch

25 March – North Harbour Stadium, North Shore

Please reach out to us if you have any questions, we can’t wait to see you there!

Website and research upgrades: what you need to know – website version v4.6.6 / QPR v16.4

Our team have made some monstrously good updates to Quotemonster recently. If you’ve noticed we’re running a bit slower than usual, please refresh your page and scroll down to ensure that you’re on our latest version – QUOTE ENGINE V.3.0 B1 | QPR V.16.4 | WEB V4.6.6.   

Researchmonster updates:

- Pricing and research available for SBS Home Loan Repayment Cover  

SBS Insurance launched a new mortgage protection product on 1 February 2025.
To include the company in your price and research comparisons, simply ensure they are selected in your Product and Provider Settings.

- Upgrade to Multi Trauma Functionality 

We have made an update to how Fidelity’s Multi Trauma product is quoted, and this is a direct result of adviser feedback. When Instant Trauma Buyback is selected, Fidelity Life’s Multi Trauma product will now automatically be quoted in your comparison, alongside the following products:

Asteron Life and Chubb Life’s Continuous Trauma, and Partners Life Immediate Buyback.   

- Minor review of the following items:

Trauma - minor sub-item review for Inflation Adjusted Benefit (personal) and Life Cover Buyback (personal & business)

TPD - minor sub-item review for Counselling & Support (personal & business)

Income and Mortgage Protection - sub-item review for Reduction in Wait Period (personal)

Other noteworthy updates:

- Updated terms and conditions pop-up

We’ve updated our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to keep things fresh, legal, and slightly more interesting than watching paint dry.

What's changed? Some boring but important updates about Kiwimonster, data protection and slick new tools like API’s—because the future is coming, and our policies need to keep up!

Before you start crunching, please read our new terms and click Agree and Continue. Once accepted, you won’t see the pop-up again. However, if you’re in front of a client we will allow you to skip once, but you’ll need to agree the next time around or you will no longer be able to login.

This will appear on all logins including PA logins the next time each user tries to log in.

- Recent rate changes

- nib Ultimate Health and Ultimate Health Max effective 1 February

- Chubb Life & Living rates have been added into our Estimates section

- Kiwimonster is live

Our free KiwiSaver comparison tool, Kiwimonster is now live. We have collaborated with Morningstar and Investment News New Zealand to help deliver fund and fee comparisons to help elevate your KiwiSaver advice process. Research is coming soon…

If you’re an existing user, all you need to do is log in to your Quotemonster account and click on the Kiwimonster logo on the top left.

If you’re a new user, please head over to www.kiwimonster.co.nz and click the orange sign up button on the top right to have access to this new feature.

Join now with a free trial and you can also check out the research and advice services available with a subscription.

- Updated research infographics

Research on previous policy document versions (if applicable) can be found in our Standalone Head to Head.

The following infographics have also been updated:

·        Personal Product Rating Map

·        Standalone Head to Head Product Map

Training sessions:

Our team hosts online training sessions on a regular basis and invites you and your colleagues to join us if you’re interested in learning more about our services.  

Our next sessions will be: 

Introduction to Quotemonster – Tuesday, 18 February 2025 9:30 am-10:30 am

In this session Kelly Pulham, our National Partnerships Lead, will demonstrate the basic functions of our website, along with some handy tips and tricks along the way.

Demystifying Advicemonster - Tuesday, 18 February 2025 11:00 am-12:00 pm

In this session Aneel Ravji, our AdviceTech Lead, will demonstrate how to use our needs analysis and statement of advice (SOA) tools.

Business Risk Research and SOAs with Quotemonster – Wednesday, 19 February 2025 10:30 am-11:15 am

In this session, Aneel will demonstrate how to use our business risk pricing, research, and SOA functionality.

Introduction to Kiwimonster - Monday, 24 February 2025 11:30 am-11:50 am

A session on our brand spanking new service – Kiwimonster.

If you would like to join any of these sessions, please email your request to info@quotemonster.co.nz

Happy Crunching!

Introduction to Kiwimonster on Wednesday, 29 January

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!

Accessing our Terms of Use and Privacy policies

If you have any questions about our terms of use or privacy policies, find out how to access them here.

Happy New 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:

1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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?

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

Recent rate changes on Quotemonster

Dear Quotemonster users,

We are pleased to confirm that the following rate changes are live on Quotemonster effective 1 January 2025.

• nib Ultimate Health and Ultimate Health Max

• AIA monthly policy fee

If you have any questions or comments on these changes please reach out to us on info@quotemonster.co.nz

Happy Crunching!

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. 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

Last Research Advisory Board meeting of the year

Last month we held our final Research Advisory Board meeting of the year with our Southern members - Jeremy Bernstein, Travis Hamilton, and Wilhelmina Eveleens and our Independent Chair, Tony Dench.

Jeremy Bernstein

Travis Hamilton

Wilhelmina Eveleens

Independent Chair, Tony Dench

The feedback from our Research Advisory Board meetings has been very valuable to our Research team and allows us to strengthen our research ratings when we gain an insight into the adviser perspective.

Topics we reviewed were:

·         the proposed rating for Rural Key Person insurance;

·         the proposed design for product and provider settings (business);

·         the addition of new research rating factors;

·         the introduction of price change history.

We’re looking to recruit a new member in 2025 – if you know an adviser in the region who would be keen, please let a member of the research team know, you can find out more about the Research Advisory Board here. Being a member of the board provides an opportunity to participate in a governance structure and gain valuable wider industry experience.

Quality Product Research – Major Review: the proposed rating for Special Events and Future Insurability

Introduction

Special Events Increase (SEI) and Future Insurability Option (FIO) increases are valuable but often underutilised features in products like Life or Trauma insurance. Recently, we were challenged by a rated company on our methodology for assessing these benefits.  As a result, we have initiated a major review of these items.

While SEI and FIO share similarities, they cater to different needs:

• Special events increases are reactive to life milestones.

• Future insurability options are proactive, providing periodic opportunities for growth. This is an optional feature to be selected at application time, and often results in an increase in premium.

Both features provide flexibility, especially as life circumstances evolve, and combining them offers the best of both worlds.

·        Our review aims to assess the following:

·        The sub-items used for each benefit.

·        The weightings applied to each sub-item.

·        How the Amount score should be captured: per event, allowable increase at policy anniversary, or total maximum increase over the life of the policy.

Key Considerations for Scoring

1. Per event: Capturing the increase per special event may highlight significant variations in amount scores between insurers. However, this could lead to confusion, as insurers often apply different limits to different special events.

2. Over lifetime of policy: This approach would provide more straightforward scoring but may result in most insurers receiving the same amount score, which could fail to reflect nuanced differences in limits for specific events.

Below, you’ll find our proposed sub-item list with preliminary weightings. These weightings will be refined based on feedback received during this consultation process.

Review process

Our review began with internal discussions and a comprehensive analysis of policy wordings across the market. We have conducted an initial review of the sub-items, and our next step is to seek feedback from insurers and reinsurers. Once all relevant information has been gathered, we will make appropriate updates to our database and share the new ratings on our social media channels.

Your feedback

We highly value your feedback on how these wordings are being applied in the real world. Please email us at info@quotemonster.co.nz with details of your experience to help us refine our understanding, or alternatively please use the Adviser Claims Experience on Quotemonster to log your claims experience, a video on this feature can be found here.