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.
Using Company Reports on Quotemonster
Find out how to get additional information for specific insurers, including key performance metrics.
Find out how to get additional information for specific insurers, including key performance metrics, using Company Report.
Thoughts from advisers
Hear from Wilhelmina Eveleens, Financial Adviser – Risk at InsuranceBASE.
We reached out to some advisers and other experts in the industry for their thoughts and opinions on the job, advice they’d give to people looking to get into the financial services industry, what they’re looking forward to and steps people can take to set themselves on the best financial path at different stages.
Wilhelmina Eveleens, Financial Adviser – Risk at InsuranceBASE
What is the most rewarding part of your job?
Supporting clients to make better financial decisions.
If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to get into the financial services industry, what would it be?
Align yourself with the best people in the industry (and sign up to QuoteMonster!).
What is something you are looking forward to about the industry over the next 10 years?
Seeing the quality of advisers and advice improve.
What steps can people take to set themselves on the best financial path in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s?
Save, save, save … and make sure your KiwiSaver is appropriately invested.
What’s the last book you read?
Stolen Focus - Johann Hari.
Recent rate changes on Quotemonster
We are pleased to confirm that the following rate changes are live on Quotemonster effective 1 January 2025.
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.
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
Quality Product Research – Major Review: the proposed rating for Special Events and Future Insurability
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.
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
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.
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.
Downloading Research Reports
It’s super easy to download or email a research report from Quotemonster, find out how here.
It’s super easy to download or email a research report from Quotemonster, find out how here.
Linking health providers to life providers
Find out how to link any health provider together with any life provider on Quotemonster.
Find out how to link any health provider together with any life provider on Quotemonster.
Quality Product Research – Major Review: the updated research rating for Cardiac Arrest
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.
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.
Setting up your research report settings
Setting up your research report settings in Quotemonster is super easy - find out how here.
Setting up your research report settings in Quotemonster is super easy. Choose from heat map reports, benefit overviews or star rating reports as your default.
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.
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!
