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.

Quality Product Research – Major Review: the updated research rating for Cardiac Arrest

Introduction

We were challenged by an insurer regarding our rating for Cardiac Arrest. Given the significant advances in modern medicine, it was an opportune time to conduct a major review of this item and evaluate how the definition of cardiac arrest has evolved in the market. Our conclusion is that claim criteria for this benefit have improved over the years, which can lead to better outcomes for customers.

Please find our proposed changes below.

Renaming Cardiac Arrest to Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Review Process

We began by notifying insurers and reinsurers of our intention to review this item. This included inviting them to share claims data and clarify how their definitions are applied to real claims, with appropriate references to their policy documents. We also shared a proposed rating with advisers during our research deep dive session earlier this year.

After gathering the necessary information, we updated our product database accordingly. The final rating was released in QPR v16.2 and is now live on Quotemonster.

Please note that while this document includes the proposed rating for comprehensive trauma cover, the updated rating has been applied across moderate, severe, and business covers.

Your feedback

We highly value your feedback on how these wordings are being applied to claims you may have encountered. Please email us at info@quotemonster.co.nz with details of any recent claims 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.

FSC’s FAP round table breakfast with the FMA

Quality Product Research are sponsors of the Financial Services Council’s (FSC's) FAP round table breakfast with the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) last month. Several of our team were there, including Aneel Ravji, AdviceTech Lead, Kelly Pulham, National Partnerships Lead, and Russell Hutchinson, Research Director.

The FMA covered how the new regime is working, approaches to enforcement and other initiatives. Attendees were taken through the background and given an overview of the Conduct of Financial Institutions (CoFI) regime.  Other topics included observations on remediations, fair conduct programmes and an overview of the CoFI intermediated distribution guide. Russell Hutchinson facilitated a lively Q&A session.

Here's a few snaps from the day. We highly recommend you attend the FSC round tables if you get the chance, they always make for an interesting and engaging start to the day.

Pictured, from the Financial Markets Authority, from left to right: Michael Hewes, Director, Deposit Taking, Insurance and Advice; Anna Jared, Technical Specialist – Deposit Taking, Insurance & Advice; Kyla Bottriell, Senior Adviser, External Relations; and Romil Ghelani, Head of Financial Advice

Russell Hutchinson, Director at Quality Product Research Ltd, facilitates a Q&A session.

More news:

ACC appoint Michael Frampton as Deputy Chief Executive for Service Delivery

Pharmac promises HRT alternatives after backlash to menopause patch switch

Phase One of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 Response has been released

Final training sessions for 2024 released

You’re invited to join our final training sessions for 2024, our team have had a great time running these sessions, meeting new and experienced advisers and receiving valuable feedback on what we can do to improve.

If you’re interested in joining us, please see our scheduled below:

• Introduction to Quotemonster – Wednesday, 11 December 2024 10:30 am-11:30 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 - Wednesday, 11 December 2024 12:00 pm-1:00 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 – Thursday, 12 December 2024 9:30 am-10:15 am

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

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

Happy Crunching!