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.
The future of NZ Superannuation
Andrew Coleman takes readers through the history of NZ super, how it differs from most overseas pension schemes, different ways schemes can be taxed and more in this series of articles on interest.co.nz.
Interest.co.nz ran a very interesting series of articles by Andrew Coleman around NZ’s superannuation system. He takes readers through the history of NZ super, how it differs from most overseas pension schemes, different ways schemes can be taxed and more. In particular, I though his bathtub metaphor was an excellent illustration of the difference between pay-as-you-go and save-as-you-go schemes.
Coleman advocates for a revamp of NZ’s superannuations scheme, including a compulsory savings scheme he dubs KiwiSaver 2.1. He makes the point that NZ super was designed so long ago it may not be fit for purpose for kiwis today and going forward into the future. He argues that New Zealanders under the age of 45 (those who were too young to vote in the 1997 referendum) should consider a fundamental restructure of the NZ government’s retirement income scheme.
All in all, a very interesting, easy-to-understand read – check it out if you haven’t already. Andrew Coleman joins The NZ Tax Podcast to talk more about KiwiSaver 2.1 here, if you prefer to listen.
A history of New Zealand’s retirement policy | interest.co.nz
Making the transition from PAYGO to SAYGO | interest.co.nz
Death, taxes, and wealth inequality | interest.co.nz
New Zealand Superannuation, behavioural economics, and investment choices | interest.co.nz
New Zealand’s unusual tax system | interest.co.nz
New Zealand’s odd taxation of retirement savings is bad for the country | interest.co.nz
Taxes and the housing market | interest.co.nz
Survey evidence on what New Zealanders want from retirement policy | interest.co.nz
KiwiSaver 2.1: why compulsory savings would be great for young New Zealanders | interest.co.nz
New Zealand's retirement income policy time warp | interest.co.nz
Government announces reforms to strengthen NZ’s capital markets
The Government has announced a package of reforms to help ensure New Zealand’s capital markets are working to support a productive economy.
The Government has announced a package of reforms to help ensure New Zealand’s capital markets are working to support a productive economy. The Government is making it easier for businesses to raise money from the public by making it voluntary to provide forward-looking financial information as part of an Initial Public Offering of shares. These changes are expected to be in place by May 2025.
The Government has also opened consultation on two proposals: enabling KiwiSaver investment in private assets; and potential adjustments to the climate-related disclosures regime. Consultation closes 14 February 2025.
The Financial Services Council (FSC) has expressed strong support for enabling KiwiSaver funds to invest in unlisted assets. FSC CEO Kirk Hope said,
“By enabling KiwiSaver investments in unlisted assets, such as infrastructure projects and innovative New Zealand businesses, we can unlock substantial capital for domestic growth.”
“This reform will not only provide Kiwi businesses with much-needed capital to innovate and expand but the opportunity of greater diversification for KiwiSaver.”
Some financial advisers warn that regulators need to get on board with the proposals, however. At a recent event we held in conjunction with the Financial Services Council, advisers asked questions about whether the Financial Markets Authority would be supportive of fund managers choosing to invest more in private assets and infrastructure projects which tend to be illiquid in nature. We think that these are good questions, and the answers will be highly sensitive to the context in each fund: for example, the scale of the investments relative to the total fund size and the liquidity of other assets, and the ages, balances, and probable withdrawal patterns of investing members.
More news:
Fidelity Life discounts on certain exclusions for Trauma covers are live
AIA release updated Working with AIA Guide
AIA webinar 'Webinar - Guide to Medical Conditions' 28 February
More locations offering AIA Vitality Fitness Assessments & Health Checks
Steve Wright dissects a recent FSCL complaint
nib promotion offers $300 woolworths vouchers to eligible applicants
Advice Link has appointed of a new general manager Sébastien Pierre
Tony Vidler writes of the importance of soft skills
Government announces hikes to ACC levies
Chapter Zero discusses experiences from year one of New Zealand's mandatory climate reporting
Significant increase in cyber incidents across New Zealand in Q3 2024
The FMA releases Consumer Confidence survey
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has released their inaugural Consumer Confidence Survey. The survey combines key questions from previous years’ Investor Confidence Survey and KiwiSaver Statements Survey as well as new questions around key focus areas such as fairness, investment scams and confidence in financial markets
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has released their inaugural Consumer Confidence Survey. The survey combines key questions from previous years’ Investor Confidence Survey and KiwiSaver Statements Survey as well as new questions around key focus areas such as fairness, investment scams and confidence in financial markets. Key findings include:
98% of New Zealanders have at least one banking product, with 49% considering at least one banking product in the next 12 months
Savings account ownership is up across all demographics
Credit card ownership has decreased 3% while buy-now-pay-later services are up 5% across all demographics
86% of New Zealanders have at least one insurance product, with the average number of insurance products being 2.5 per person
Younger New Zealanders (18 – 34) generally had fewer insurance products compared to other age groups but were more likely to own pet and health insurance
85% of New Zealanders have at least one investment product, with the average number of different investment products owned being 1.8 per person
KiwiSaver membership is highest amongst Chinese and Pacific ethnicities at 87% and 86% respectively
79% of New Zealanders actively chose their own KiwiSaver fund, with females and those aged 45 – 54 years having lower levels of participation in their choice of fund
KiwiSaver satisfaction levels have improved over the last two years, with 60% of Kiwis being quite/very satisfied
Catalysts for kiwis to consider making changes to their KiwiSaver/other investments include better investment returns from another provider (41%) or if their fees seemed high (39%).
FMA Chief Executive Samantha Barrass said
“The results of this survey provide us with valuable insights into how New Zealanders interact with financial markets and their level of confidence in those markets and in the FMA. It also helps us to see emerging trends that require our regulatory attention, so that we can focus our efforts on how we can better regulate for all New Zealanders.”
Additional reports will be published in early 2025 on several themes that emerged in the survey findings in 2025, including the experiences of women Māori, and other minority groups with financial markets; the relationship between knowledge of financial markets and confidence; investment scams and their link to confidence and consumer behaviour; the enablers of investment practices; comparative findings on fairness.
More news:
nib release their top 5 health claims for September 2024
AIA campaign offering up to three months off premiums extended to 31 March 2025
AIAHub Resource Hub now available to delegated users
The FSC is gathering feedback on life after licensing
O’Hagan Homes Loans & Insurances has merged with Apex Advice
FSCL reminds advisers policies need to continue to meet client needs
The FSCL has stated that advisers must ensure insurance policies continue to meet the needs of each client, each time it is renewed.
The Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL) has stated that advisers must ensure insurance policies continue to meet the needs of each client, each time it is renewed. This comes in the wake of a complaint where a customer paid out $37,000 in funeral insurance over the course of 17 years, for a policy that had a maximum payout of $10,000. The customer raised a complaint with the insurer and the FSCL and following a dispute process the customer was paid out compensation.
More news:
Southern Cross Health Society Annual General Meeting is on 4 December
Financial Advice NZ End of Year Celebration Canterbury Community of Practice 5 Dec
FSC Life Insurance Special Interest Group Networking Event 10 December
FSC Outlook 2025 is on 4 February 2025
The 2025 Women in Insurance Summit NZ is on 25 February 2025
FSC’s Regulatory Forecast for November, available to FSC members here
Early KiwiSaver withdrawals during October ticked over $200 million for the first month ever
Fidelity Life announces growth plans
Campbell Mitchell, Fidelity Life Chief Executive, has told delegates at the Engage Conference the company’s intentions to grow to a $1 billion company.
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.
More news:
mySolutions webinar 'New tools from Quotemonster' 13 November
nib release their top 5 health claims for August 2024
FSC Life Insurance Special Interest Group Networking Event is on 10 December
Tony Vidler says advisers need constant reinvention of value and service
TAP announce partnership with Bizcap
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
Survey finds 70% of millennials believe they may never be able to buy a home
The cost of living for New Zealand households has risen 3.8% over the past year
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, including information on the money being returned to customers as a result of remediation activity stemming from the Conduct and Culture review.
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
Chubb launches underwriting chat service
Chubb has launched a new chat function on their adviser hub site that allows advisers to ask the underwriting team questions.
Chubb has launched a new chat function on their adviser hub site that allows advisers to ask the underwriting team questions. Once the conversation is completed a chat transcript is able to be downloaded, for advisers to submit with the application or save to their customer files. You can find out more on their quick guide and their explainer video.
More news:
AIA NZ appoints Aaron Gilmore to the role of Regional Sales Manager – Northern
Asteron Life release their climate-related disclosures
AIA have updated their Change of Ownership forms
Hamish Patel has been elected to the board of Financial Advice NZ
FinTech NZ Hui Taumata is on 11 March 2025 in Auckland
mySolutions webinar 'Managing compliance using Sharepoint' 6 November
More than 7,500 people made early KiwiSaver withdrawals during September
This week is Cyber Smart Week
Running from 21 – 27 October, Cyber Smart Week is here! With the theme of ‘The Scamathon’, it highlights the importance of being more secure online.
Running from 21 – 27 October, Cyber Smart Week is here! With the theme of ‘The Scamathon’, it highlights the importance of being more secure online. Some key precautions you should be taking include:
Using long, strong and unique passwords
Using two-factor authentication (2FA)
Reporting any suspected scams to your management or IT teams
Turning on automatic updates
Stopping to think before you click – could it be a scam?
Own your online has produced a 5-part video series about business online security – you can watch them all here.
Episode 1 - How to protect your business: Learn why it’s important for your business to prioritise online security and how to start getting your business in better shape.
Episode 2 - How to protect your online accounts: Learn about the most important protections you can put in place for your online accounts.
Episode 3 - Protecting data and systems: Learn why it’s important to protect your data and your customers’ data and how to put these protections in place. Also learn how your business can best recover from an online attack.
Episode 4 - Protect your website and social media: Learn how to put the right protections in place for your website and social media accounts.
Episode 5 - How to spot phishing: Learn about the most common online attack – phishing – and how your business can avoid getting caught by it.
They are also running a series of online events around online security you can register to join.
· Online security for individuals, 1pm, Monday 21 October 2024
· Working together to improve cyber resilience across the health sector, 10:30am, Tuesday 22 October 2024
· Online security for small businesses – simple steps for a big improvement, 3pm, Tuesday 22 October 2024
· Supporting clients with cyber security - for mentors and advisors, 11am, Wednesday 23 October 2024
· Financial sector cyber security threats and protections, 2pm, Wednesday 23 October 2024
· Online security for seniors, 1pm, Thursday 24 October 2024
· Cyber security insights for tech professionals, 10:30am, Thursday 24 October 2024
More news:
David Whyte calls for financial advisers to be exempt from CoFi
Julian Fayad believes AI could handle up to 80% of advisor loan deals within seven years
New Zealand’s headline inflation rate fell to 2.2% in the September quarter
Clive Fernandes launches a new AI venture aiming to automate 80% of KiwiSaver client-servicing tasks
FMA acts against misleading customers
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has been busy, with the news this week full of stories of AA Insurance New Zealand Ltd (AAI) being ordered to pay a penalty and civil proceedings lodged against ASB Bank Limited (ASB).
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has been busy, with the news this week full of stories of AA Insurance New Zealand Ltd (AAI) being ordered to pay a penalty and civil proceedings lodged against ASB Bank Limited (ASB).
AAI was ordered to pay a penalty of $6.175 million, for failing to apply multi-policy and membership discounts, as well as guaranteed no claims bonuses.
AAI was found to have misled customers about its multi policy discount offer in marketing material – marketing material said existing policy holders who added another policy would receive the discount immediately; however, AAI’s systems only applied the discount once the original policy came up for renewal. This issue affected 112,463 customers, who were overcharged approximately $4.89 million. In addition, AAI failed to apply discounts promised to NZAA members, affecting 90,129 customers who were overcharged approximately $2.95 million in total.
AAI were also found to have misrepresented that certain eligible customers would receive its guaranteed no claims bonus “for life”. Up until December 2011 AAI offered the bonus for each customer’s lifetime, as long as they remained insured with AAI. From 2012 the benefit only applied to the policy’s lifetime – yet AAI marketing continued to use the “for life” language without limitation. This affected 17,973 eligible customers, who were overcharged approximately $3.28 million.
Margot Gatland, FMA Head of Enforcement, said of the AAI judgement,
“AAI’s systems proved to be inadequate and its marketing was not kept in line with internal policies. This judgment sends a strong message to the industry that companies need to ensure their systems and processes are fit for purpose and customers’ interests put first.”
The FMA has filed civil proceedings against ASB for allegedly making false or misleading representations in regards to insurance products and banking services. Similar to AAI, ASB allegedly failed to apply multi policy discounts on ASB-branded insurance products, due to errors in the manual process at point of sale. Another issue arose when ASB staff misinformed customers with policies of insurance for caravans and trailers that they were eligible for the multi policy discount, despite those policies being ineligible. ASB also allegedly failed to consistently apply fee exemptions to certain customer accounts with access to ASB’s Fastnet Banking service, again due to failings in the manual processes. Between April 2014 and May 2022, a total of 23,062 customers were affected by the multi policy discount issue with the total value of overcharged premiums being approximately $2.8 million. During the same period, 2,435 customers were affected by the Fastnet Banking issue, totalling approximately $1,147,276 in overcharges. ASB has completed remediation work on both causes of action and has repaid affected customers, including use of money interest, and they self-reported the errors to the FMA.
Both of these cases demonstrate the willingness of the FMA to prosecute organisations who don’t fulfil their obligations to customers. They also highlight the importance of language in customer communications being crystal clear and that it is essential organisations have the systems-wide processes and checks in place to honour any discounts and offers made to customers. The FMA expect that if you make commitments to customers, you need to keep them, which we think is fair enough.
More news:
FSC sees opportunities for increased contributions to KiwiSaver
KiwiSaver has been in the news recently with the FMA releasing their KiwiSaver Annual Report 2024. The FSC have welcomed the insights from the FMA report and said they see opportunities for increased contributions.
KiwiSaver has been in the news recently with funds under management surpassing the $100b mark and the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) releasing their KiwiSaver Annual Report 2024. The Financial Services Council (FSC) have welcomed the insights from the FMA report and said they see opportunities for increased contributions. Kirk Hope, CEO of the FSC said,
“With KiwiSaver funds under management surpassing the $100bn mark, this is a great opportunity to look at KiwiSaver contribution settings and how we can make it affordable over time so that New Zealanders can have dignity in retirement.”
“Increasing contribution levels, in combination with financial literacy that helps New Zealanders understand the benefits and mechanisms of KiwiSaver, are key to driving better retirement outcomes,”
More news:
nib join the Sustainable Business Council NZ
Asteron Life, Chubb Life & Fidelity Life are finalists at the New Zealand Insurance Industry Awards
Fidelity Life employees have unlimited access to LinkedIn’s library of courses
IFSO take their first enforcement proceeding against a Participant
Jon-Paul Hale recommends advisers are clear in explaining unfunded medicines
Workplace Savings End of Year Function 2024 on 4 November
Fidelity Life offer advisers opportunity to go on professional development course
FinTech NZ Annual Meeting on 6 November
Mental Health Minister announces Child and Youth Mental Health and Addiction Prevalence Survey