We are proud and privileged to have received the PAA New Insurance Adviser of the year award for Jon-Paul. The PAA is the Professional Advisers Association and helps advisers to better themselves and their businesses.

The award is for adviser professionalism based on how the adviser works and how they give advice. It is not one of sales targets or sales volumes as some awards sometimes are.

The assessment process reviewed two client files for how the advice was put together and given. With the way we conduct business this was not a difficult request, aside from the printing and copying.

For us the most challenging part of this was ensuring client privacy protection, as every document needed to be sanitised for names and identifying information. As a client, you will appreciate how many that is.

By posting this, I’m going to raise a contentious topic. One that clients often do not understand, advisers generally avoid discussing, providers publicly discourage but operationally encourage and the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) is starting to have a closer look at.

I have stated the previous parties in a very specific order, from most impacted to the one with the stick they can use, and the players in between.

An interesting question that is often asked. In a nutshell, whatever you like, just that it gets deducted from your ACC weekly compensation claim.

ACC weekly compensation is there to cover loss or replace a loss of income. You earn something that loss is reduced; your ACC payment will be reduced too.

How does this work?

ACC have published the new motor vehicle levies and they make interesting reading.

ACC have gone through and assigned a rating system from L1 to L4 for most vehicles, L1 being the most expensive and L4 being the least. If yours is not defined then the levy works on a year of manufacture basis. L1 for older vehicles and graduating though to the cheapest L4 for newer vehicles.

The reason I’m writing this is I disagree with some of the assertions in the NZ Herald article. ACC have done this review based on claims risk from actual injury data not vehicle safety. Injury’s drive ACC’s costs, not vehicle safety. Yes safer vehicles generally means less injuries and less ACC cost, but that doesn’t always translate directly from vehicle safety testing.

The short answer: depends.

The longer answer: maybe, maybe not.

No I am not trying to be difficult, it does depend on the policy you have so maybe, maybe not.

The simple answer:

If you have indemnity or loss of earnings yes, it is tax assessable. If you have agreed value, it is generally not tax assessable. But there's more, no not a set of steak knives, really there's more.

Interesting question, up there with what's the best value income protection?

The answer to both questions is a good quality income protection solution. It will both work at claim and give you great value as a result. The way to do this is talk to a good adviser who will arrange this for you, that's me.

If you mean best value equals cheapest premium, then you have to ask the question do you expect to claim? If not, why have it? Cheapest like most things in life usually translates to inferior.

Ok I have raved about this in other blog posts, I have had an idea, general concept, that access to medicine was becoming a problem. A real problem with one of the four pillars in New Zealand society, Health, Education, Justice and Social Support.

Now with this latest report, there is a clear indication we’re well behind with Health funding. Education, Justice and Social support all have their challenges, I am sure, but Health is an area I spend a lot of my time working with on behalf of my clients.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will have come to realise that there more to life insurance than just having a policy, dying and getting some money.

I have touched on this subject in other posts; this is another post that explores this much more deeply. Level premiums are a somewhat lesser used but potentially considerable part of your insurance planning.

I’ve got insurance this under insurance thing doesn’t apply to me? It probably does apply to you

What I’m referring to by underinsurance are the various studies around the world, that are pretty consistent with saying about 70% of the population are under insured when it comes to life insurance.

Why do I say it probably does apply to you?

This is where as an adviser, I’ve sat down across the table and the eye’s have rolled, saying here we go again.

You know what, it probably is a good idea, she has been thinking what if?

Especially 'what if you're not here?'

Mental Health - Not so much the resources but the funding

As an adviser, mental health comes up in discussion on a regular basis. Be it working through an existing application, discussing the terms of cover an insurance company has offered or dealing with a claim.

February 2015 saw the start of Malcolm Law's latest audacious challenge, 50 peaks and 50 marathons in 50 days in the name of Mental Health, fundraising and raising awareness for Mental Health foundation of New Zealand. A very audacious challenge indeed! More on this here 

This prompted me to have a closer look at what services are available and what funding and financial support for mental health exists for you, if you need it.

Something that often pops up in the insurance industry and media, but what does it really mean for you.

Over insurance is where you are carrying more protection than you need and under insurance is when you have less than you need.

This is not about you having insurance or not, it is about you having the right type of insurance, at the right level for your situation.

Looking at the numbers, most households will have some form of insurance. It might be House, Contents or Car cover, it may also be Life or Medical Insurance.

What the numbers do tell us though, about 80% of households, possibly higher, will have exposure if someone was to be disabled and 75% of you would have to use the public system for medical treatment, or pay your own way for private medical treatment.

A posting on LinkedIn got to the crux of this quite succinctly. If your business cannot run without you for 30 days, you do not have a business.  You have a J-O-B with a very expensive sign that has your name on it. When you can sit back and say ‘my business will work without me’, you probably have a strong business and a succession plan.

KPMG International’s 2014 Global Audit Committee Survey has highlighted some positive things about the management and structure of New Zealand companies, specifically around the role of CFO.

It has also highlighted issues with succession planning. When it comes to succession planning, New Zealand is doing just as poorly as the rest of the world.

Breast cancer, or for that matter any form of cancer, with women gets a reaction in the media. Breast cancer has certainly been the one that has had the majority of attention over the years.

2003 there were large headlines about the access to herceptin and it's costs, especially as the Aussies had access to it from an early stage. Here in NZ the budget of the time just didn't have the capacity to handle the cost. On the insurance side, there were only two medical insurers at the time able to offer cover, one that stopped not long after herceptin hit the market leaving 1 insurer providing non pharmac cover for new policies for nearly 10 years.

Now that we've got over most of the funding discussion on herceptin, it's partially funded rather than fully funded, other areas around cancer treatment are getting attention.

 If you own a business that makes or builds things then you are in for a year of changes.

Couple of big things going on:

Changes to health and safety laws and classification reviews for businesses and self-employed people.