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.
‘Therapy’ chatbots lead to FTC complaint over unlicensed mental health advice
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission has received a complaint about Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots allegedly engaging in the ‘unlicensed practice of medicine’.
In the US, the Federal Trade Commission has received a complaint about Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots allegedly engaging in the ‘unlicensed practice of medicine’. A coalition of digital rights, consumer protection and mental health groups have submitted the complaint about Meta and Character.AI chatbots that purport to be mental health professionals. The complaint has also been submitted to Attorneys General and Mental Health Licensing Boards of all 50 states.
The complaint has two premises. First, that therapy bots had falsely claim to be licensed therapists with training, education, and experience - despite Meta and Character.AI’s terms of service, which claim to prohibit the use of Characters that purport to give advice in medical, legal, or otherwise regulated industries.
“In its complaint to the FTC, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) found that even when it made a custom chatbot on Meta’s platform and specifically designed it to not be licensed to practice therapy, the chatbot still asserted that it was. “I'm licenced (sic) in NC and I'm working on being licensed in FL. It's my first year licensure so I'm still working on building up my caseload. I'm glad to hear that you could benefit from speaking to a therapist. What is it that you're going through?” a chatbot CFA tested said, despite being instructed in the creation stage to not say it was licensed. It also provided a fake license number when asked.”
And secondly, questions of confidentiality. Users have had millions of interactions with these bots, often divulging deeply personal circumstances, and the complaint asserts that confidentiality is repeatedly asserted. However, the companies' Terms of Use and Privacy Policies explicitly state interactions with the bot are not confidential, and that anything users input can be used for training and advertising purposes and sold to other companies.
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Claire McArthur is moving to SHARE
Financial Advice NZ webinar 'CoFi Incentives Regulations- A FAP Perspective' 6 August
Financial Advice NZ 'Microbusiness Risk Management Course' 14 - 15 August
Financial Advice NZ session 'Wellington Women in Financial Advice' 24 July
Fidelity Life offers premium relief for severe weather-affected customers
Psilocybin being researched as treatment for clinical depression brain health and longevity
The Government announces the reestablishment of the Health New Zealand Board
Medical premiums keep on rising – Jon-Paul Hale takes a look at why
Jon-Paul Hale has taken a look at the pressures that have resulted in sharp increases in medical premiums this year.
Jon-Paul Hale has taken a look at the pressures that have resulted in sharp increases in medical premiums this year. From more claims leading to additional people and resources needing to be hired by insurance companies to the flight of clinicians overseas and training on new technologies and tools, there seems to be a perfect storm leading to the hikes. Hale compares premiums in NZ to those in Australia, and despite the recent increases, we’re still looking affordable in comparison. Hale also ponders what would help stabilise premiums, giving a few examples. It mostly comes down to spreading the cost across a wider pool of people. A good article, one we’d recommend you check out.
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Chubb Life's Essential Underwriting Guide is now available
nib produce Warrant of Wellness guide
Nominations open for Chubb Life Support Person of the Year award
mySolutions webinar 'Leo Moloney-Geany from Minitech - using AI in your business' 28 May
Apex Advice announce a new partnership with the Evidential KiwiSaver Scheme
Financial Advice NZ's Community of Practice: Hamilton event is on 2 July
Westpac announce they won't charge fintechs for standard API calls
FinTechNZ roundtable 'Digital payments for all: Exploring innovative solutions to improve access to basic transaction services' 3 June
MAS announce appointment of new CEO
Jo McCauley has been appointed new Chief Executive Officer of MAS, starting 4 August 2025.
Jo McCauley has been appointed new Chief Executive Officer of MAS, starting 4 August 2025. McCauley is currently CEO of Southern Cross Travel Insurance, and she has a general insurance and consumer finance background, having led marketing, sales and product teams.
MAS Chair Brett Sutton said
“Jo brings a rare combination of leadership experience, commercial insight and strong people skills. We are excited to work with Jo as we build on a strong FY25 result and invest further in technology and service enhancements for our Members”.
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AIA Group’s operating profit after tax reached $6.61 billion for 2024
Arthur J. Gallagher acquires First Capital Financial Services and First Capital Wealth Management
Gail Costa thanks advisers in her farewell message
Financial Advice NZ Special General Meeting 2025 is on 19 May in Auckland
Banking Reform Coalition wants ComCom to prosecute big four banks
AMP are looking for a Senior Application Analyst
IBANZ chief executive Mel Gorham will step down on June 26
BNZ offer relief for customers affected by recent severe weather events
ASB offer tailored emergency relief to customers affected by severe weather
Westpac's net profit after tax for the six months to March 31 was $565 million
Paddy Gower calls for Health Minister to better fund paediatric palliative care
Quality Product Research: Research Advisory Board – Northern
Last month we held our first Research Advisory Board meeting of the year and got lots of valuable feedback on items ranging from ratings for rural key person to proposed rating of disclosure.
Last month we held our first Research Advisory Board meeting of the year with our Northern Representatives and as usual returned to Quotemonster HQ with lots of valuable feedback.
Board members: Allan Gillbanks (Owner, Director of The Quantum Group) and Katrina Church (Director, Head of Client Engagement of Insurance People)
Independent Chair: Tony Dench
Insurer Observers: Laura Fitzpatrick (Asteron Life)
Research Team: Russell Hutchinson, Doreen Dutt, Sara Alani and Kim Oliver
The research advisory board reviewed the following topics:
Interim Cover: based on discussions, QPR will look to create some educational material on interim cover.
The Addition of Legacy Research to our Standard Quote Flow: for improved clarity, we’ll review renaming ‘Legacy products’ to ‘Closed products’ and look to include a workflow to help advisers handle legacy products.
Specific injury add-on compared to built-in for IP: we will review the value of Specific Injury as a built-in item vs a standalone item.
Finalised Rating for Rural Key Person: we announced the launch of rural key person cover ratings for five providers - AIA, Asteron Life, Fidelity Life, Chubb Life, and Partners Life. Based on discussions, we will review the rating differences for some specific features. We’ll also gather feedback on the weighting for home modifications and vocational rehabilitation to ensure the ratings accurately reflects their value.
The Proposed rating of disclosure: this is all about how easy it is to find policy documents on insurers’ websites and for customers to access all required documentation easily. We plan to review and rate this feature across all products in future.
The Proposed rating of Waiver of Premium: members liked the idea of splitting up the different types of premium waivers and having them as separate items (injury {traditional WOP}, parental leave, unemployment, and redundancy being the main 4 categories). Our research team will look to implement these changes in our database in the next few months.
Quote Functionality - Error Message / Exact Match vs Near Match: we’re looking into whether we’ll be able to implement near matches (rather than just exact matches) for products that are similar but not the same.
As always, the feedback from our Research Advisory Board meetings has been very valuable to our Research team and allows us to strengthen our research ratings by getting more insight into the adviser perspective. We look forward to meeting with our Central and Southern Advisory Boards later in the year.
Product changes at Chubb Life
Chubb Life introduce a Moderate Trauma Cover option, make enhancements to Assurance Extra Trauma Covers and Assurance Extra Business Life, Trauma, Complete Disablement and Monthly Disability Covers and change underlying premium rates.
Chubb Life have introduced a Moderate Trauma Cover option under Assurance Extra. Offering coverage for the same critical illness conditions, it is a more affordable alternative to Trauma Cover. Moderate Trauma Cover requires a higher level of severity to be met on 11 of the more common conditions to be eligible to claim. Customers have the option to take Moderate Trauma on its own or mix and match their cover level across both Trauma and Moderate Trauma Covers. They’ll also have the option to take out Continuous Trauma on both covers.
Chubb have also made enhancements to Assurance Extra Trauma Covers and Assurance Extra Business Life, Trauma, Complete Disablement and Monthly Disability Covers. Assurance Extra Trauma Covers have added a Newborn Children’s Benefit, Complimentary Children's Benefit conversion enhancement and added a feature allowing policyholders to convert Trauma Cover to Moderate Trauma Cover. Assurance Extra Business policies have had to Age 65 and to Age 70 level premium review periods added and the payment term options have been extended to include a two-year payment term for Replacement Labour.
Chubb Life has made changes to the underlying premium rates on their Specific Injury Cover under Assurance Extra, Assurance Extra Business, Business Assurance and Agribusiness Extra. The new underlying rates come into effect on 8 May 2025 and will see the average Specific Injury premium increase by $3.10 per month depending on gender, occupation and cover level.
They have also updated their non-medical codes and associated limits – reducing the number of medical code categories and removing several mandatory testing requirements, and making some improvements to limits.
Chubb Life have also extended their 15% Lifetime Reward and 2 months’ free cover for new policies or cover increases under an existing eligible policy until 31 March 2026.
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Rob Hennin to step down as nib CEO
Steve Wright writes of how advisers need a mindset change away
Naomi Ballantyne to lead TAP's inaugural Women in Advice event
Chubb Life appoints new CFO
Chubb Life has appointed Jaco Grobbelaar as its chief financial officer.
Chubb Life has appointed Jaco Grobbelaar as its chief financial officer. Grobbelaar has more than 25 years of experience in the insurance and financial services sectors. Grobbelaar was most recently at Partners Life, where he led the finance function team across a range of activities to help strengthen organisational resilience and growth.
Chubb Life chief executive Gail Costa said
"Jaco has a strong track record of optimising financial planning and reporting processes, driving efficiency and successfully leading teams through change. I'm really looking forward to having Jaco on board and have every confidence that his expertise, experience and leadership will further strengthen our senior leadership team."
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mySolutions roadshow 'Persistence: it's your Superpower' in May
Fidelity Life publish February turnaround times
Partners Life webinar 'Quote for Alteration Changes' 3 April
nib delay launch of Ultimate Life & Living Insurance suite
Southern Cross Healthcare looking for a People and Culture Business Partner
The FMA is looking for a Head of Deposit Taking
Chubb Life New Zealand appoints new Chief Executive Officer
Paula ter Brake has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Chubb Life New Zealand, effective 5 May, subject to regulatory approvals.
Paula ter Brake has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Chubb Life New Zealand, effective 5 May, subject to regulatory approvals. Paula has 30 years of experience and the retail banking and insurance industries and was most recently Executive General Manager, Consumer Brands for IAG New Zealand.
Paul Brock, Board Chair at Chubb Life, said
“Paula’s proven track record in driving growth along with transforming large businesses will bring real value to our customers, partners and our people. She is recognised for her dynamic leadership style and success in driving strategic initiatives and will play a key role as we continue the growth and success of our business.”
More news:
Russell Hutchinson's outlook on the life and health market for 2025
mySolutions webinar 'Case Study - Client engagement and fact-finding process ' 12 March
Sophie Sargent joins Apex Advice as Operations Manager
The FMA is looking for a Senior Adviser, Media Relations
Paul Brownsey says there should be more downward pressure on KiwiSaver fees
Amy Florian says advisers’ relationships skills are more important than money management skills
Chubb Life introduce Smart Start, Change of Mind and the ability to delete quotes
Chubb Life have announced the launch of their new “Smart Start” feature, a new “Change of Mind” window for cancellations and withdrawals and the ability to delete quotes in Adviser Hub.
The Smart Start feature will be rolled out from 13 – 20 February. With “Smart Start”, once underwriting for an Assurance Extra or Assurance Extra Business policy has been completed at standard rates or an Offer of Terms has been accepted, Chubb Life’s systems will initiate a temporary pause period and advisers will receive a “Ready to Issue” email which outlines the planned commencement date, first payment date, payment frequency and premium amount. The default pause period is five working days, after which the policy will automatically issue, though advisers can adjust the pause period to anything from 0 – 5 days. During the pause period, advisers can request changes by replying to the email or calling the New Business team.
From 14 February, cancellation requests will be processed as soon as they’re received and the “Change of Mind” 14-day window will apply, whereby customers will be able to withdraw their cancellation request and retain their cover without going through underwriting again. If customers were to experience a claimable event, they’ll continue to be protected until the end of the change of mind window, or the effective date of the cancellation, whichever is the latest.
Advisers will be able to delete quotes from AdviserHub – individual quotes can be deleted from within the quote itself, or advisers can delete multiple quotes through a bulk delete function on the “retrieve quote” screen.
In other Chubb Life news, AM Best has reaffirmed Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand Limited's Financial Strength Rating of A (Excellent) and Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a+” (excellent) with stable outlooks.
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Women in Insurance Summit speakers announced
FMA looking for a Senior Adviser, Insurance
Chubb Life NZ appoints new Head of Claims
Chubb Life NZ has announced that Reeta Anthony has been appointed as its new Head of Claims, effective immediately.
Chubb Life NZ has announced that Reeta Anthony has been appointed as its new Head of Claims, effective immediately. Anthony will report to Debbie Eyre, Chief Operating Officer, and will be responsible for the strategic delivery of the claims proposition. Anthony has over 25 years of financial services experience and expertise and was most recently Head of Claims at Fidelity Life.
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Kate Jorgensen has been appointed to the Board of Southern Cross Medical Care Society.
ASB's NPAT for the six months to December 2024 was $763 million
Pharmac announces decision to fund medicines for a further five health conditions
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.”
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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