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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New Active Benefits are now available to Accuro policyholders

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Asteron Life rating downgraded

S&P have lowered Asteron Life's financial strength and issuer credit ratings to 'A' from 'A+' and given them a stand-alone credit profile of 'a-'.

S&P have lowered Asteron Life's financial strength and issuer credit ratings to 'A' from 'A+'. After a review, S&P has given Asteron Life Ltd a stand-alone credit profile (SACP), which reflects the insurer's satisfactory business risk profile, of 'a-'.

The reason given for the downgrade is an expectation of reduced support from Suncorp Group Ltd in the leadup to the sale of Asteron Life, due to be completed at the end of January 2025. S&P have stated that the ratings on Asteron are on CreditWatch because they believe they will likely lower the ratings if the sale proceeds, with a likely outcome of a one notch ratings downgrade.

 

More news:

NZFSG introduce several changes within their distribution team, including appointing new Regional Manager Zane Low

Incentives for those advising consumer clients set to change on 31 March 2025

mySolutions webinar 'Asteron ConnectedCare' 4 September

UniMed Breakfast Series 'with Conrad Goodhew 8 October

Fidelity Life release details of their customer engagement forum

Fidelity Life announce Apollo enhancement

Financial Advice NZ Professional Ethics Workshop 26 September

Apex Advice looking for an experienced Marketing & Communications Specialist

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Fidelity Life announce the recipients of its 2024 Career connect scholarships

Fidelity Life has announced the seven recipients of its 2024 Career connect scholarships. The adviser training scholarships, worth up to $5,000 each, are awarded to new-to-the-industry applicants from underrepresented groups in the financial services sector.

Fidelity Life has announced the seven recipients of its 2024 Career connect scholarships. The adviser training scholarships, worth up to $5,000 each, are awarded to new-to-the-industry applicants from underrepresented groups in the financial services sector.

 

Pounamu scholarship – for an outstanding Māori applicant: Awhina Scott - Awhina is dedicated to improving the financial (and overall) wellbeing of Māori communities through better access to quality financial advice.

 

Kōwhai scholarship – for an exceptional Pasifika applicant: Jenny Silva - Jenny is passionate about empowering others to make informed financial decisions and contributing to the future financial stability of individuals and families within Pasifika communities.

 

Rural scholarship brought to you by FMG: Grace McIntyre - Coming from a rural community herself, Grace is passionate about raising awareness of the importance of advice and insurance in safeguarding rural livelihoods.

 

Women in Finance scholarship brought to you by Kaplan Professional: Anna Devereux - With a background in finance, Anna understands the need for people to receive advice from someone they trust. She looks forward to helping more New Zealanders achieve financial literacy and security.

 

Paua scholarship – for applicants who demonstrate excellence: Marna Breetzke - Marna is passionate about helping others and looks forward to being able to educate more New Zealanders on the importance of financial advice.

 

Toe Toe scholarship – for outstanding young applicants: Sydnee Taylor – Sydnee's background in the health and fitness industry ignited her passion for enhancing others' wellbeing and building strong relationships. She hopes to now leverage these skills to help others make informed financial decisions, resulting in financial wellbeing and security.

 

Rangi Po scholarship – for underrepresented identities in our industry: Taylah Marr – Passionate about supporting others, Taylah wants to help more New Zealanders get ahead financially and gain peace of mind over their financial futures.

 
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Southern Cross Health Insurance CMO talks about biggest challenges and opportunities

Southern Cross Health Insurance Chief Marketing Officer Regan Savage has been interviewed by Campaign Asia about the biggest challenges and opportunities they’re facing and where they're investing marketing budgets this year.

Southern Cross Health Insurance Chief Marketing Officer Regan Savage has been interviewed by Campaign Asia about the biggest challenges and opportunities they’re facing and where they're investing marketing budgets this year.

Savage calls out high inflation, the cost-of-living crisis and proving the value of premiums even when people aren’t claiming as the three biggest marketing challenges right now. In terms of opportunities, Savage mentions investing in newer, more capable communications platforms, how they are proactively offering members options to manage premiums as their needs change, and looking for opportunities to utilise AI to automate repetitive tasks.

 

More daily news:

Pinnacle Life are looking for a Head of Finance

The new Fidelity Life E-App is up and running

mySolutions webinar 'The Thousandth Client' 5 June

Southern Cross recognised at the 2024 Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand awards

Jon-Paul Hale says it's time to review how commission is paid when clients move to a new adviser

The Brand Experience Gap Study found insurers were among worst performers in NZ

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Post Budget Webinar - Economic and Consumer Impacts 5 Jun

MBIE acknowledge financial institutions likely need to comply with current COFI legislation until around 2026

MAS is calling for nominations for the role of Practitioner Trustee of MAS Members’ Trust

Bell Gully summarise the Customer and Product Data Bill that has been introduced to Parliament

New Zealand is 485 GPs short, with this number expected to grow

Zurich develops AI systems to streamline life insurance applications

UniMed give followers a chance to win a double pass to the Crusaders game this Friday

MAS publish their latest Member-exclusive quarterly magazine, OnMAS

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UniMed gets approval from RBNZ to take on Accuro’s portfolio

UniMed has received approval from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to take on the portfolio of insurance co-operative Accuro.

UniMed has received approval from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) to take on the portfolio of insurance co-operative Accuro.

Once Accuro’s 30,000 members have been transferred to UniMed, UniMed will be the third largest health insurance provider in New Zealand, with combined membership of 140,000.

Once the transfer is finalised, members will transition to being part of the UniMed society, though the Accuro brand will remain. Accuro members will continue to have the same policies and healthcare benefits as they do now. Once the transer is complete Accuro will cancel its insurance licence and take steps to dissolve the Accuro Health Insurance Society.

UniMed Chair Peter Tynan says

“The additional scale will ensure UniMed is in the best possible position to create efficiencies, develop new services and products and meet the challenges of increasing member expectations all at a time when the cost of health services is rising, and the regulatory environment continues to evolve.”

 

More daily news:

The FSC publish their Regulatory Outlook for April

nib would welcome Medicines Act review and regulation to get more treatment options approved

AIA launch 2024 CEO Think Tank programme

AIA offer one month's premium free on new eligible policies issued by 17 June 2024

The New Zealand Society of Actuaries appoints Helen Mexted as chief executive

Andrew Bayly says banks must take the lead on a national Anti-Scam Centre before the Government gets involved

Mental Health Foundation looking to lay off 18% of staff

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The role of financial advice in New Zealand

Take a look at the consumer case study and adviser case study videos Fidelity Life have produced to get another perspective on how kiwis view the financial advice industry.

We wrote about Fidelity Life’s Advice for good: Rethinking New Zealand’s relationship with financial advice report, here. Take a look at the consumer case study and adviser case study videos they have produced to get another perspective on how kiwis view the financial advice industry.

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FSC CEO resigns

Richard Klipin has announced his resignation as CEO of the Financial Services Council of NZ (FSC).

Richard Klipin has announced his resignation as CEO of the Financial Services Council of NZ (FSC).

Klipin has led the FSC for the past seven years and he will remain in the role whilst the Board starts the search process to find a replacement.

Rob Flannagan, Chair of the FSC, says

“Under Richard’s leadership over the past seven years we’ve developed from a small organisation of 29 members to one that is now has 119, and living its purpose as the clear voice of the financial services sector and growing the financial confidence and wellbeing of New Zealanders.

Richard has led this renewal in vision, strategy and purpose; and his strength as a community builder is evidenced by the active involvement of over 540 members across the many FSC Commitees, forums and working groups.

Richard is leaving the FSC in great shape, with a new strategic plan and a ‘Blueprint for Growth’ policy platform that unites the sector, and has support and backing from government and regulators.”

 

More daily news:

Fidelity life to launch improved e-App

46% of new Chubb Life customers have received the 10% Lifetime Reward discount

Chubb Adviser Resources Site has had a refresh

Women in Insurance Summit 2024 in Auckland on 27 February

UniMed partners with Snap Fitness 24/7 to give members a free gym trial

Nick Hakes reflects on the financial advice industry in Asia-Pacific

FSC webinar 'Will big data & AI change everything?' 27 February

The IFSO Scheme will partner with Banqer

FSC's CEO Richard Klipin to speak at FinTechNZ's Hui Taumata

The Reserve Bank is in the early stages of planning for the next five-year funding agreement

KiwiSaver providers sceptical potential changes KiwiSaver scheme will benefit members

Southern Cross Healthcare appoints Dr Erica Whineray Kelly as Chief Medical Officer

Southern Cross Travel Insurance appoints Anita Samu as Chief Underwriting Officer and Greg Sparling to the role of Chief Legal and Risk Officer

Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission says political parties need to reach cross-party agreement

7 habits to help banish back pain

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What do you want us to write about?

We’d love to find out what you’d like to read more of this year on the blog. Local industry news? Global insurance news? Health news? Insurtech?

We’d love to find out what you’d like to read more of this year on the blog. Local industry news? Global insurance news? Health news? Insurtech? Let us know here.

Our top read stories since we switched to the new look Chatswood website were Swiss Re’s take on sustainability in life and health insurance, Fidelity Life’s product enhancements and Accuro and Unimed's announcement of their proposal to combine.

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A year in review

We look back at some of the big industry news, mergers, acquisitions, court cases and people changes in 2023.

2023 has been a difficult year for consumers and businesses alike. Conditions are similar to last year, with inflation remaining high, resulting in a continuing cost-of-living crisis, the OCR set at 5.5% and the RBNZ not ruling out a further hike next year, and housing prices only just starting to rise. How has that affected the insurance sector? Combined with an increase in regulatory red-tape tangling up banks, there has been a spike in lapse rates that very much looks like it is driven by the same forces.

NZ was badly affected by natural disasters this year, with insurers having to fork out $3.5 billion in general insurance claims for the Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Such heavy claims have impacted general insurers, perhaps part of the reason why Tower is looking to do a strategic review of its ownership structure.

It is this situation which greets the new National-Act-NZ First coalition government. They  have outlined a 100-day plan that includes: stopping work on the Income Insurance Scheme; introducing legislation to narrow the Reserve Bank’s mandate to price stability (removing the mandate to ensure maximum sustainable employment); signing a memorandum of understanding with Waikato University to progress a third medical school; disestablishing the Māori Health Authority; taking the first steps to extend free breast cancer screening to those aged up to 74; repealing amendments to the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products Act 1990 and regulations; and setting five major targets for the health system. National promised to roll back the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) and to make changes to allow kiwis to split their KiwiSaver savings between different providers during the election campaign, so we will be watching how this plays out next year. In August, then National Party Leader, Chris Luxon, told the Financial Services Council conference that it was also their intention to repeal the Financial Markets (Conduct of Institutions) Amendment Act 2022. That hasn’t explicitly made it into the coalition agreement, but may possibly be covered by the planned regulation sector reviews to which the coalition commits under the Act Policy Programme. Although regulatory relief is often welcomed by the sector, so is long-term stability, so we have found views split on the proposed changes to the conduct law.

As of March 2023, all financial advice providers needed to have obtained their level 5 certificates to continue operating this year. We wrote about the impact of this on the market and just how many financial advice providers and financial advisers there are in the September 2023 Quarterly Life and Health Sector Report.

Accuro and Unimed members voted in favour of combining operations. Approval from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is likely to come early next year. The Lifetime Group acquired Protection Solutions. Fidelity Insurance, formerly known as Westpac Life, was integrated into the Fidelity Life Assurance Company. In March 2023 Cigna NZ changed its name to Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited (Chubb Life NZ) and is now trading under the Chubb brand. nib have told customers they are planning to amalgamate, with their health insurance company ‘nib nz limited’ and their life and living insurance company ‘nib nz insurance limited’ combining to form one single company known as nib nz limited. The acquisition of Partners Life by Dai-Ichi has been made more real by the appointment of new personnel and the announcement of Naomi Ballantyne’s change of role to come in 2024.  The Association of Financial Advisers (AFA) and the Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) have announced they will merge to form the Financial Advice Association of Australia. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) denied the sale of Suncorp Bank to Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ).

There were some interesting court cases, with AMP settling with Australian advisers for A$100 million; MAS were penalised $2.1 million for making false and misleading representations to customers; Cigna was fined $3.575m for false and/or misleading representations.

There were lots of new faces joining the industry or changing roles this year.

  • AIA New Zealand appointed Michele Embling as an independent non-executive Director; Ben Lovelock as Chief Risk Officer; Shaun Baird as Chief Financial Officer; Maddie Sherlock as Head of Customer Operations; Andrew Anisi as Senior Manager Contact Centre & Business Solutions; Aaron Gilmore and Katie Hunter as AIA Vitality Coaches; Calvin Romeo to the role of head of ASB Partnership.

  • Asteron Life appointed Kirsten Young as the National Manager Adviser Distribution.

  • Chubb Life board chairman Steven Fyfe retired and Paul Brock took over his role as Chairman while Linley Wood joined as an Independent Director to the board. Chubb appointed Monique Ravening as its new Head of Underwriting and Erica Hamer as Chubb's new Wellington-based Business Partnership Manager. Adit Witjaksono was appointed as property manager for Australia and New Zealand.

  • Fidelity Life made some new appointments to key roles.  David Winspear was appointed as Head of Channel Strategy, Michelle Doyle appointed as the new Head of Solutions and Kylie Oldham appointed as Senior Group Insurance Business Manager.  Leigh Bennett was promoted internally to the role of Head of Underwriting and Mat Bark was appointed as Head of Channel Enablement. Giselle Baker was appointed as Head of Data and Analytics. In October, Ian Clancy acted as the Acting CEO until Campbell Mitchell was bought on board as the new CEO after Melissa Cantell resigned. Sam Kelly was appointed as Head of Regulatory Affairs.

  • MAS appointed Matt Harvey as Chief Distribution and Marketing Officer, Craig Ward as Chief Innovation and Digital Officer, Dan Mead as an Investment Manager.

  • nib appointed Stu Crowther as new National Manager – Adviser Distribution; Ian Sargeant as National Manager – Group, Partnerships & Strategy; Chris Carnall as Head of Distribution; Stan Bennetto as Group Health Business Development Manager.

  • Partners Life appointed Gemma Vivian as GM Adviser Engagement; Gareth Allen as Senior Manager Adviser Partnerships. Naomi Ballantyne announced her retirement from Partners Life in March 2024.

  • Southern Cross Healthcare appointed Mark Phillips as Chief Digital Officer; Dr Erica Whineray Kelly as Transformation Lead for Women’s Health; Jo Fair as Chief of People & Culture; Monica Goldwater as Chief Nursing Officer.

  • Suncorp New Zealand appointed Suraiya Phillimore-Smith as its new Chief Customer Officer. Lindsay Tanner was appointed as an independent director of the firm’s three boards.

  • Justine Gilliland was appointed to Unimed's board.

  • ASB appointed Carl Ferguson Chief Financial Officer and Rebecca James as its new Executive General Manager of Business Banking.

  • Westpac welcomed a new GM of Consumer Banking and Wealth, Michael Norfolk.

  • Kiwibank appointed Julia Jack as chief purpose and brand officer.

  • TSB appointed Kerry Boielle as new CEO after Donna Cooper resigned. Penny Burgess was appointed General Manager Customer Delivery; Molly Auva'a-O'Brien as General Manager Operational Excellence.

  • AMP appointed Blair Vernon as CFO.

  • Tim Grafton announced he’s stepping down as chief of the Insurance Council of New Zealand next year.

  • Tony Dench started as Financial Advice NZ’s interim CEO following Katrina Shanks’ departure to head up The Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF). Sonja Barrett was appointed as Financial Advice New Zealand’s Board Member Director (Risk) and Peter Fa’afiu was appointed as an Independent Member Director on the Financial Advice NZ Board. Stefanos Boulieris joined Financial Advice NZ, communicating online webinars and the upcoming conference in 2024 and Sarah Maxwell joined as Communications and Social Media Manager.

  • Tim Tez and Sarah Phillips joined ANZIIF’s Board of Directors.

  • Anna Scott, Ana-Marie Lockyer and Campbell Mitchell all joined the board of the Financial Services Council (FSC). David Bishop was appointed to the Chief Marketing Officer role.

  • The FMA appointed Daniel Trinder as Executive Director – Strategy and Design; Michael Hewes as Director for Deposit Taking, Insurance and Advice; John Horner as Director of Markets, Investors and Reporting; Peter Taylor as Director Specialist Supervision and Response; Stuart Johnson as Chief Economist; Sharon Thompson as Executive Director – Transformation and Operational Delivery.

  • Graeme Edwards took on the role of Lifetime Group director and chairman and David Haintz was appointed as an independent chairman of Lifetime Group Holdings and its subsidiaries.

  • Craig Wagstaff joined New Zealand Home Loans (NZHL) as its new general manager for franchise, distribution, and marketing.

  • The Adviser Platform (TAP) appointed Pooja Shetty as Senior Operations Specialist and Naz Mistry as a Compliance Specialist and Adviser Support.

  • Some big names in the industry have retired, with David Haak, Tony Arthur, and our very own Rob Dowler retiring

Here’s to another exciting year in 2024!

 

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Members vote to combine Accuro with Unimed

The Boards of Unimed and Accuro have announced that Accuro members have endorsed the proposal to transfer the Accuro insurance portfolio and operations to UniMed.

The Boards of Unimed and Accuro have announced that Accuro members have endorsed the proposal to transfer the Accuro insurance portfolio and operations to UniMed.

Members voted in favour at both Special General Meetings, with 92.8% and 96.1% voting in favour at the first and second meetings respectively.

Next a portfolio transfer application will be made to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) for approval, which is likely to be completed early next year. If the RBNZ approves the application then the two brands will combine under the Unimed banner, making Unimed the third largest medical insurer in New Zealand with a membership of around 140,000 members.

 

More daily news:

Helena Harbrow talks about the benefits of Partners Life's EVINCE software

Shaun Baird announced as AIA's new Chief Financial Officer

Katrina Shanks writes how to get a better savings rate

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'Economic insights and what we should watch for in the future' 24 Jan

Financial Advice NZ Canterbury/Nelson Region Christmas Event 7 Dec

Financial Advice NZ Central Region Christmas Event 24 Nov

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