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.
Motivations for Adrian Orr’s resignation as RBNZ Governor revealed
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has been drawing criticism this week after it has been revealed that the public was not told the full story of RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr’s resignation in March.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has been drawing criticism this week after it has been revealed that the public was not told the full story of RBNZ Governor Adrian Orr’s resignation in March.
At the time, the RBNZ said Orr’s resignation was ‘a personal decision’ and that now was the ‘right time’ to resign, with inflation back in the 1% to 3% target band. After journalists put through an Official Information Act (OIA) request, it has been revealed that Orr resigned after a dispute with the board of directors over the RBNZ’s five-year funding plan negotiated with the Government. The summary of events shows that the board was willing to agree to a considerably lesser amount of funding than Orr thought was viable.
The RBNZ missed OIA deadlines after journalists made OIA requests to the bank shortly after Orr resigned on March 5.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said,
“I have spoken to Chairperson Neil Quigley and expressed my view that they did not manage that OIA request well and that I expect them to do better.”
More news:
New CEO of nib announced
Skye Daniels has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer at nib New Zealand, effective from 4 August 2025.
Skye Daniels has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer at nib New Zealand, effective from 4 August 2025.
Skye Daniels
Daniels was formerly the Chief Financial Officer at Southern Cross Health Society and the Executive Sponsor for the Southern Cross life insurance strategy, Māori strategy, Te Ao Māori Rōpū and the Pacific languages collective.
nib Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Ed Close said
“We look forward to Skye joining nib NZ and leading our NZ team. Skye has strong commercial, strategic and financial service skills, and brings to nib knowledge of the local healthcare market, and extensive experience across a broad range of New Zealand industries.”
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Uploading a profile picture or logo to your Quotemonster reports
Adding a profile picture or a logo to your Quotemonster reports is super easy!
Adding a profile picture or a logo to your Quotemonster reports is super easy!
New Head of Strategic Accounts at AIA
AIA has appointed Jonathan Beale as Head of Strategic Accounts, a newly established role within its Distribution leadership team.
AIA has appointed Jonathan Beale as Head of Strategic Accounts, a newly established role within its Distribution leadership team. Beale will lead the Strategic Accounts channel, driving innovation, growth and alignment with AIA’s broader distribution strategy.
Angela Busby, AIA NZ Chief Distribution Officer, said
“Jonathan’s appointment reflects our commitment to advisers and to the growth and value of our strategic partnerships. I’m confident that Jonathan’s proven track record and innovative mindset will make him a fantastic addition to the team.”
Jonathan Beale, Head of Strategic Accounts
Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector
Independent review of CoFR underway; RBNZ put out statement around Adrian Orr’s resignation; FMA release new podcast; RBNZ Analytical Note finds that monetary policy affects some parts of the economy differently.
10 June 2025 - An independent review of CoFR is underway. The CoFR review will assess its effectiveness and make recommendations on how to implement a more strategic and purposeful future state. The review will examine CoFR’s structure, governance, and alignment with its statutory purpose. It will also examine similar overseas models and explore ways to improve efficiency and reduce regulatory duplication. A final report is expected in mid-July 2025. https://www.cofr.govt.nz/news-and-publications/quarterly-statement-by-cofr-june-2025.html
12 June 2025 - RBNZ Chair Neil Quigley put out a statement about OIAs on Adrian Orr’s resignation as Governor. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2025/06/oias-on-adrian-orrs-resignation-as-governor
13 June 2025 - The FMA release Jess Learns to Invest Episode 5: Property Investing with Vanessa Williams. https://www.fma.govt.nz/library/podcast/jess-learns-to-invest-episode-5/
16 June 2025 - An RBNZ Analytical Note, Monetary policy affects some parts of the economy differently, has found that sSome services, like household power prices and insurance, are slower to respond to increases in the OCR. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2025/06/monetary-policy-affects-some-parts-of-the-economy-differently
FSC Life and Health Insurance Special Interest Group Networking Event and launch of Money and You research
The FSC will be exploring trends and insights from their latest Money and You research report ‘'Protecting Possessions, Not People' at the upcoming Life and Health Insurance Special Interest Group Networking Event in July.
The Financial Services Council (FSC) will be exploring trends and insights from their latest Money and You research report ‘'Protecting Possessions, Not People' at the upcoming Life and Health Insurance Special Interest Group Networking Event in July. The event is open to FSC members in the Life and Health insurance community and will feature:
The value of Fringe Benefit Tax exemptions for health insurers with insights from the NZIER investigation, presented by Tony Reid from Southern Cross.
Genetic testing - examples of the impacts of banning the use of genetic testing in underwriting, presented by Stephen Potter from AIA New Zealand.
Outlining good practice for informing future MBIE consultations with Kirk Hope, CEO of the Financial Services Council.
Money and You: Protecting Possessions, Not People Research Launch - a taster of the FSC’s newest research with FSC Research Committee Chair, Mark Banicevich and a small panel discussion on the attitudes of New Zealanders and insurance.
The event will run from 10:30am – 12:30pm on 15 July at Russell McVeagh, Level 30, Vero Centre, 48 Shortland Street, Auckland Central, or people can join online, you can register here.
Asteron Life announce enhancements across Personal and Business Insurance
Asteron Life has announced a suite of enhancements across their Personal and Business Insurance products.
Asteron Life has announced a suite of enhancements across their Personal and Business Insurance products. All enhancements apply to in-force policies issued after August 2004 and will apply to claimable events from 5 June 2025.
Some of the key enhancements include:
New support benefits. An example is the new Family Member Accommodation & Transport Benefit which offers up to $300/day for accommodation and $2,500 in travel expenses reimbursed to support a family member during treatment.
Life Cover with accelerated Trauma Recovery Cover conversion benefit
Updated definition for major organ transplant, including widening the scope of eligible procedures.
Updated definition for diabetes, including reducing the threshold for claims from two complications to one.
New Rehabilitation and retraining Benefit for Business Insurance customers - increased support of return-to-work efforts by reimbursing rehabilitation and retraining costs.
Increased flexibility to increase cover in line with life or business changes that happen to customers.
More news:
FSC's Empower & Elevate Women in Finance Leadership series, Session 3: Male Allyship is on 22 July
The FMA has said the CoFI regime “is essential” for it
Russell Hutchinson writes of Australians longevity and some of the reasons for it
mySolutions webinar 'Booster - How to give KiwiSaver advice efficiently' is on 11 June
Kiwibank won't charge third parties for standard API requests
Gallagher named Official Insurance Broker for the All Blacks, Black Ferns
NZ consumer confidence dropped in May, with the ANZ-Roy Morgan index falling 5.3 points
Legal and regulatory update for the life and health insurance sector
APRA release March quarter insurance stats; FMA release AML/CFT guidance for Financial Institutions on risk ratings for new customers; ACC Board Chair resigns; APRA and ASIC update on life companies progress; new Assistant Governor Enterprise Services at RBNZ.
29 May 2025 - APRA has released its suite of quarterly industry aggregate insurance statistical publications for the March 2025 quarter. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/apra-releases-quarterly-insurance-statistics-for-march-2025
30 May 2025 - The FMA has released AML/CFT guidance for Financial Institutions on risk ratings for new customers. https://www.fma.govt.nz/library/guidance-library/aml-cft-guidance-for-financial-institutions/
30 May 2025 - ACC Minister Scott Simpson has accepted the resignation of ACC Board Chair Dr Tracey Batten. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/acc-minister-accepts-board-chair%E2%80%99s-resignation
5 Jun 2025 - APRA and ASIC have released an update on the progress life companies (life insurers and friendly societies) have made in addressing issues related to premium increases, product design, and disclosure and marketing materials. https://www.apra.gov.au/news-and-publications/asic-and-apra-provide-update-on-review-of-life-insurance-premium-practices
5 Jun 2025 - Kate Le Quesne has been appointed to the new role of Assistant Governor Enterprise Services at RBNZ. https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/hub/news/2025/06/new-appointment-to-the-rbnz-executive-leadership-team
Managing your login devices
Here’s a quick video showing you how to manage your login devices.
Here’s a quick video showing you how to manage your login devices.
Munich Re look at how insurers can develop prevention strategies
Prevention is all about intervening before a disease or condition occurs – trying to extend the health span of peoples’ lives and prevent claims from arising in the first place. Munich Re’s Life Science Report looks at prevention strategies insurers can implement.
Munich Re’s Life Science Report 2025 has insights on global trends and risks that will shape the insurance industry over the next decade. We’ve written about their in-depth looks at AI in Healthcare and Improving Cancer Outcomes sections, and now we’re looking at their Prevention chapter.
Prevention is all about intervening before a disease or condition occurs – trying to extend the health span of peoples’ lives and prevent claims from arising in the first place.
In order to develop effective preventative strategies, insurers need a deep understanding of each of their clients’ unique characteristics, risk factors and health trends. Insurers should focus on areas where they’ll get the most bang for their buck, addressing lifestyle factors that contribute to the most significant preventable health risks and claims drivers – namely cardiovascular disease, cancer and mental health conditions. The key preventable causes for these are obesity, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, smoking, excessive drinking and poor sleep patterns. Munich Re have a range of tables showing the impact of preventive measures on mortality, disability, critical illness and health care costs.
Munich Re categorise preventative health measures based on the stages of disease they are intended to prevent:
Primordial prevention - preventing development of risk factors for the entire population
Primary prevention - prevent onset of disease e.g. through lifestyle adjustments and medications
Secondary prevention - early diagnosis (e.g. through screening programmes) and prompt treatment
Tertiary prevention - manage existing disease to minimise complications and improve outcomes to prevent further morbidity and mortality
Quaternary prevention - protect from medical interventions that are likely to cause more harm than good.
To be effective, targeted interventions need to address an individual’s unique needs. By using personalised risk profiling, digital risk scores and advanced analytics, insurers can tailor interventions to maximise impact. To be efficient, insurers need to be able to amplify their prevention efforts to reach a wide audience and use digital systems to automate processes and incorporate real-time feedback. One of the most effective means of prevention is improving health literacy, the ability to navigate health information and make informed decisions. Munich Re suggest that informing policyholders about prevention benefits, enhancing health literacy, making things easy and incentivising members will all help drive positive health outcomes.
As we’ve already seen starting to occur here in NZ, insurers are positioning themselves as active participants in the well-being of their policyholders (with AIA’s Vitality programme perhaps the most notable example of this). We’d love to hear from you instances where your clients health insurance has led to them taking proactive steps to improve their health.
More news:
AIA employees return to newly renovated office space at AIA House in Smales Farm
AIA launch the third edition of Hikitia Mai, their Women in Leadership programme