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.

Kelly O 31/01/2025 Kelly O 31/01/2025

Lee-Ann du Toit appointed new Chief Actuary at Chubb Life

Chubb Life New Zealand has announced the appointment of Lee-Ann du Toit as its new Chief Actuary. She will be part of the senior leadership team and report directly to CEO Gail Costa.

Chubb Life New Zealand has announced the appointment of Lee-Ann du Toit as its new Chief Actuary. She will be part of the senior leadership team and report directly to CEO Gail Costa. Du Toit has more than 25 years of experience in financial services and comes to Chubb Life from Deloitte New Zealand where she served as lead partner for Actuarial Service. Du Toit is also the president of the New Zealand Society of Actuaries.

Gail Costa said

“With our industry rapidly evolving, Lee-Ann’s extensive expertise in driving strategic business outcomes and fostering customer-centric solutions will be invaluable to Chubb Life NZ. The chief actuary plays an important role in supporting both our board and senior leadership team to make strategic business decisions, and we’re looking forward to having Lee-Ann’s voice and unique perspective at the decision-making table.”

More news:

Women in Insurance Summit 26 February in Auckland

Expressions of interest open for Partners Life's new adviser training course 24 - 26 February

Steve Wright shares his thoughts on CPD for giving life and health insurance advice

Massey Fin-Ed Centre Retirement Expenditure Guidelines released

Westpac launches several initiatives to improve accessibility

Kelly O 22/01/2025 Kelly O 22/01/2025

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

Kelly O 22/04/2024 Kelly O 22/04/2024

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

Kelly O 15/01/2024 Kelly O 15/01/2024

FSC produce a Retirement Planning Guide

The Financial Services Council (FSC) have produced a Retirement Planning Guide which introduces people to some key retirement planning considerations.

The guide has a retirement planning overview, a ‘how to’ guide for Sorted tools and explains how to use the NZ Society of Actuaries’ rules of thumb.

The key considerations in retirement planning are how much you should save for retirement and what you can reasonably spend in retirement. The guide gives examples of matters within your control and variables outside your control which will impact on both of these considerations.

The Sorted tools that are particularly relevant are the KiwiSaver calculator and the Retirement calculator and the guide gives some tips on how to adjust these to reflect your situation.

The guide also explains the different rules of thumb developed by The New Zealand Society of Actuaries: 6% rule, inflated 4% rule, fixed date rule and life expectancy rule.

We think that the most valuable step you can take towards securing a good retirement is to get some advice. Although the DIY tools suggested in this guide can be useful in getting you thinking, this is a complex area in which an adviser adds real value. We suggest talking to a financial adviser with the right skills, experience and qualifications to help you set up a plan, monitor it and revise the plan when circumstances change.

Kelly O 10/08/2023 Kelly O 10/08/2023

Fidelity Life announce Career connect Scholarship Recipients

Fidelity Life have announced the seven successful scholarship recipients for Career connect’s second intake. Career connect focuses on helping people from groups traditionally under-represented within the financial services sector to gain the qualifications and skills necessary to become a financial adviser.

Pounamu scholarship - to assist an outstanding Māori applicant: Josh Los’e (Ngāti Maniapoto), Auckland.
Kōwhai scholarship - to assist an outstanding Pasifika applicant: Nimmi Valia, Auckland.
Rangi Po Scholarship - to assist an outstanding applicant from other under-represented communities within financial services: Naveen Bhatia, Glenbrook.
Toe Toe scholarship - designed to assist an outstanding applicant aged 21-25 years old: Kiri Venkatesh, Auckland.
Pāua scholarship – to assist an applicant who demonstrates excellence in their submission: Chloe Balderstone, Lincoln.
Rural scholarships, brought to you by FMG – to assist two outstanding applicants with a rural connection:
Sara Buerki, Dunedin.
Alice Perry, Oamaru.

The current intake will complete the 6-month long programme in December 2023. The first intake of Career Connect graduates have completed their training programme and achieved their level 5 certificate in financial services.