MAS announce appointment of new CEO

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

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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 

Health workers across NZ take part in “May Day” strikes

Bigger not necessarily best when it comes to KiwiSaver

Consumer NZ has taken a look at how KiwiSaver is going. Big banks, with their brand recognition and big budgets, have long been an almost default choice for people deciding who to invest their KiwiSaver funds with. That looks like it’s starting to change. Encouragingly, 29% of new members chose their KiwiSaver scheme independently, and 8% consulted a financial adviser about what their best option would be, though 14% were automatically allocated a default scheme. There is still some reluctance to change providers, with 12% of people feeling it’s too much hassle to change provider, 8% having thought about switching but haven’t gotten around to it and 5% not knowing where to start.

With more than 3.3 million members and more than $111 billion of total funds under management, it’s worth putting in a little effort to see which fund best suits your situation.

While banks in general are big spenders on advertising, ANZ outspends them all. Yet ANZ’s KiwiSaver returns are underwhelming, coming in last (12th) for its management of conservative KiwiSaver funds, 6th (out of 12) for moderate funds, second to last (out of 15) for balanced funds and 10th (out of 12) for growth funds, according to Morningstar’s December 2024 results. Yet ANZ holds the largest share of the KiwiSaver market, with $21.9 billion funds under management.

As of 2021, ANZ and ASB are no longer default KiwiSaver providers, leaving BT Funds (Westpac) and BNZ as the only default big bank providers for new members. It will be interesting to see how this impacts the various banks’ KiwiSaver market share over the next decade or two.

In good news, Consumers NZ’s annual survey on KiwiSaver satisfaction highlights growing satisfaction, with February 2025 results showing 82% were satisfied with their provider.

And what do people most want from their KiwiSaver provider? Good returns with responsible investments came out top (42%), followed by the best returns (37%) and investing responsibly, even if it comes with slightly lower returns (14%)

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Southern Cross Health Society using Patient Feedback to celebrate surgeons

Shaun Phelan is retiring from his role as National Manager of MAS Business Advisory Services

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MAS announce appointment of new Board member

MAS have announced that Melissa Macfarlane has been appointed to the MAS Board as a director, effective 1 February 2025.

Currently, Macfarlane serves as the New Zealand Country Head for Constantinople, a fully managed software and operations platform for banks to enhance customer experiences.  Macfarlane has held a variety of prominent roles in the financial services industry, including Chief Digital Officer, Head of Corporate Strategy, and COO of Wealth and Insurance at Westpac Bank.

Brett Sutton, MAS Board Chair, said

“I’m delighted to have Melissa join us on the Board, as she brings a diverse set of skills in the financial services sector that will be valuable to the governance of MAS. In recent years, MAS’s regulators at the Financial Markets Authority and Reserve Bank of New Zealand have set robust expectations for the governance of financial services boards, so it is critical for the MAS Board to ensure we has the right balance of skills and experience to appropriately discharge our duties.”

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FSC Life Insurance Special Interest Group Networking Event 25 March

FMA looking for a Senior Adviser, External Relations

Aurora Capital looking for a Client Service Manager

nib’s A Healthier Approach Launch events run across February

nib is running nib Ultimate Life & Living insurance and nib Balance launch events  from 10 February - 3 March. The events will explore nib’s latest offerings, unveil comprehensive new nib products and insurance products and will feature a keynote speech from renowned psychologist, author and media personality, Nigel Latta.

• Tauranga 10 February

• Hamilton 11 February

• Auckland 12 February

• Wellington 14 February

• Christchurch 17 February

• Timaru 18 February

• Dunedin 19 February

• Invercargill 20 February

• Queenstown 20 February

• Auckland Central 24 February

• North Shore 24 February

• Nelson 25 February

• Palmerston North 26 February

• Napier 27 February

• Whangarei 28 February

• New Plymouth 3 March

Quotemonster team members will be at the following venues:

• Auckland 12 February

• Auckland Central 24 February

• Auckland North Shore 24 February

• Hamilton 11 February

We look forward to seeing you there.

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Resolution Life has completed its acquisition of Asteron Life

nib’s 12 months free child health cover promotion ends 28 February

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MAS are looking for a Programme Director

Lifetime Financial Wellness Showcase on 4 February

The FSC has released its latest Money & You research

The Financial Services Council (FSC) has released their latest research report, Money & You: Managing Risk Through Challenging Times, which explores the attitudes of New Zealanders towards risk management. Some of the key findings are below.

• Only 41% of respondents had life insurance, 39% had health/medical insurance, 23% had trauma/critical illness insurance, 18% had total and permanent disability insurance.

• For the 12 months to 30 September 2024, FSC industry data showed 1,521,740 health insurance policies and 4,145,287 life insurance products (one person may have more than one policy e.g. life insurance, income protection insurance and total and permanent disability insurance policies).

• The majority (66%) who have life and health insurance consider it value for money.

• The biggest drivers of taking out life and health insurance policies are peace of mind and worry about financial consequences.

• The most common reason given for not having life and health insurance was that insurance is too expensive (74%), followed by being healthy and not seeing the need for it (14%), and not trusting insurance companies (13%).

• Cost of living meaning people can no longer afford insurance was the top reason given for no longer having insurance across life, trauma or critical illness, income protection, total and permanent disability and health/medical.

• For those without insurance, 64% would consider taking out an insurance policy if they had more money, 25% would take out an insurance policy if their health started declining and 18% would take out an insurance policy if they started a family. There is a gap in understanding of how insurance works, with only 3% of those who would consider taking out an insurance policy if their health started declining knew that they might not be able to get cover for certain health issues or they might face higher premiums because of them.

• The majority of health (61%) and life (77%) insurance policies are paid by individuals, with the remainder being partially or fully subsidised by employers.

• When it comes to health/medical insurance or life insurance being provided by employers, 54% really want this and a further 35% might possibly want this.

• 45% of respondents have a poor understanding of the relationship between risk and return.

2,002 online survey responses were collected during March 2024 and were representative of the NZ consumer population in terms of age, gender and income.

It is worth noting that as a low engagement product, life and health insurance is something that respondents find hard to recall accurately. That leads to interesting results - this survey contains a probable over-estimate of the number of people who own health insurance, and a probable under-estimate of the number of people who hold life insurance. But the recalled level of cover is, in itself, interesting. For example, if you think you do not have life, trauma, or income insurance, but in fact you do, you or your estate may fail to claim when you may be eligible to do so.

Readers interested in contrasting these survey results with data on the eligible population should contact us.

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Partners Life has decided to stop using its Customer Outcome Matrix

Southern Cross Health Insurance appoints Grant McIvor as chief digital officer

MAS looking for a Head of Technology Strategy and Architecture

AIA appoints new Chief Technology Officer

AIA NZ has appointed Luke Longney as Chief Technology Officer. Longney joined AIA in 2021 as Head of Technology – Digital and progressed to Head of Technology Experience.

AIA NZ CEO Nick Stanhope said

“We’re aiming to deliver the best possible online experience for our customers, advisers and partners, as well as our employees that support them. With his extensive experience and commercial background, Luke is well placed to lead the teams responsible for enabling and uplifting our digital delivery and capability into the future”.

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Bell Gully have a good overview of the recently announced financial services regulation reforms

Rick Willis talks about the importance of not cancelling cover until you have moved to new insurance

AIA are finalists for two awards at the 2024 NZ Law Awards

mySolutions webinar 'Interviewing techniques: how to get people to open up' 11 Sep

MAS publish August 2024 issue of onmas

Kiwibank report $202 million after-tax profit

Kiwibank has featured in the news a lot recently, from the Commerce Commission’s recommendation that the Government should consider what is necessary to make Kiwibank a disruptive competitor, to the release of Kiwibank’s latest financial results.

Kiwibank posted a record $202 million after-tax profit for the year to June 30 2024, up 15% from the previous year. Kiwibank were able to grow their lending book by 9.3% to $32.4 billion. Impressively, home lending grew 2.7 times faster than the market and business lending grew 3 times faster than the market. Deposits increased by $2.4 billion, growing the deposit book by 9.4% to $28.2 billion

Steve Jurkovich, Kiwibank CEO, has said a $500 million capital infusion would

“give us a lot of runway to keep growing as fast as we are now, which is 9.5%, 10% [per annum], which is pretty large gains. That sort of investment over the next three, four years would give good runway.”

"With the right support and delivery of the right business plan and right initiatives, I think we could double our size in five years.”

Jurkovich has also said it may not be essential for the bank to remain 100% NZ owned, pointing to other examples of successful majority owned businesses like Air New Zealand. Jurkovich cautions that any requirement to pay sizeable dividends could impact their ability to grow, given that capital growth to date has mainly been via retained earnings.

Mortgage advisers now account for around 35% of Kiwibank’s total mortgage book, having originated 71% of Kiwibank home loans this year. Kiwibank’s accredited advisers have grown to about 1,000 now, up from 250 at June 30, 2022.

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Report on the MAS 2024 Annual General Meeting released

Antonia Watson says the big banks can't afford to be NZ owned

TSB respond to the Commerce Commission’s banking study

FinTechNZ Hui Taumata 2025 is on 11 March 2025

Investment News release their KiwiSaver annual report

Study finds a majority of New Zealanders feel financially uncomfortable

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FSCL sees significant increase in complaints over the past year

Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL) has revealed that complaints rose by 6% in the last year, to 1,426. Of these, complaints against financial advisers were up by 18% and complaints against insurers were up by 14.5%. The biggest driver of complaints was against lenders, particularly involving car, personal and small business loans. In all, new disputes involving formal investigations by FSCL increased by 10% to 359.

FSCL Financial Ombudsman Susan Taylor has said

“We expect this high level of complaints to persist as long as economic conditions remain difficult. The new rules increasing our financial loss compensation to $500,000 (previously $350,000), which took effect in July, could also lead to a further rise.”

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Quotemonster has added a KiwiSaver comparison and research service

Russell Hutchinson writes about issues insuring those with complex incomes

Financial Advice NZ webinar 'How the latest Dispute Resolution Scheme rules affect you' 14 August

MAS Annual General Meeting 2024 is on 21 August

Asteron Life offers four $5,000 grants to advisers who attended MDRT annual meeting

ANZ has announced that Nagaja Sanatkumar will join its board

ANZIIF has released an IT outage preparedness video

Gallagher Insurance support the Poipoia te Kākano Programme

Westpac announce their first third party Open Banking integration is live

Poll finds expectation of higher growth in health insurance advice than life insurance advice

A riskinfoNZ poll has found that advisers are expecting to see more growth in health insurance advice than life insurance advice in the near future. Currently, 41% of respondents expect health insurance to generate the most business, compared to only 23% expecting life insurance to generate the most business. 30% of respondents expect a 50/50 split between health and life insurance advice.

We’d love to hear your thoughts, what do you see the split as being in your organisation over the next 6 – 12 months?

More news:

MAS looking for a Life and Investment Centre Manager

Kiwibank has pleaded guilty to systemic breaches of the Fair Trading Act

Workers are choosing work-life balance over a better salary

NZ’s CPI showed annual inflation fell to 3.3 per cent in the June quarter

AIA releases data on claims by age bracket

 AIA has released information on claims by age bracket – counter to what is often seen in the media about elderly people having the highest health costs, the age bracket that had the most claims in 2023 was those aged 50 – 59. This age group was paid out more than $197 million in 2023 out of $734.8 million in total claims.

Those aged 60 – 69, while still making up a large proportion of total claims, had  a total of more than $139 million in claims paid out, with $65.55 million being on life policies, while those aged 70 and over claimed just $71 million, with $50.52 million being against life policies. The lower level of claims of those aged over 70 could be due to people reducing or dropping their cover as they get older and no longer have dependants to consider or mortgages to pay off.

It comes as no surprise that those aged 20 – 29 had a low level of claims, with only $2.6 million paid in claims against life policies and $7.7 million paid on health policies in this age bracket.

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Insurance Business Mag highlights ways AI can impact health insurance

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