PINNACLE LIFE today claimed another first in NZ… Cancer Cover… now available as a fully underwritten product instantly online.

Cancer Cover, as explained in this Stuff article, is a straightforward insurance policy that pays a cash lump sum if the insured person is diagnosed with cancer… simple as that!

With the purchase of a Cancer Cover policy, Pinnacle Life will donate the first three monthly payments to either the NZ Breast Cancer Foundation or the Prostate Cancer Foundation of NZ (depending on the gender of the person covered by the policy).

Cover up to $250,000 can be purchased immediately online, without a medical.

The policy is applied for and issued online in the same way that existing Life, Mortgage and Funeral products are offered on the PINNACLE LIFE website. The buying process from application to policy issue is fully automated using advanced electronic underwriting software developed by Intelligent Life Limited.  The on-line underwriting is supported by reinsurance giant Hannover Life Re of Australasia.

The entire application process takes less than 10 minutes after which applicants can see a draft version of their personalised policy document before committing themselves.  On payment, consumers are emailed their policy document instantly.

Whilst Cancer Cover is designed essentially for the under-45 consumer, it is available online to anyone aged 20 to 59.

Buying Cancer Cover is now as straightforward as buying an airline ticket… maybe even easier!

Today’s ‘instant serious illness cover’ follows the launch of instant Life Cover, instant Mortgage Cover and instant Funeral Cover by PINNACLE LIFE over the past 18 months.

See also Stuff article here.

The media have taken a keen interest in the company tax changes that are about to be introduced for life insurance in NZ.  See Herald and Good returns stories this week.  We did comment on this topic once before (see blog post here) but clearly, with all the renewed interest, we thought it worthwhile to comment again.

What’s it all about?

In 1990, New Zealand enacted new tax rules for life insurance products resulting in life insurance companies today being taxed at a lower rate compared with other companies. The proposed tax changes are ostensibly to ‘remedy’ this situation and bring insurance companies onto an equal footing with all other businesses from a tax perspective.

Who’s benefited all this time from the low tax rate for life insurance?

Well, you’d think it’s been the insurance companies winning all the way to the bank, so to speak.  But… no.  With the competition that exists in the NZ insurance industry (at least 15 insurers in the market chasing less than 2mil tax payers), the price of life insurance has been shaved so that no insurer is making any extra profit from the tax advantage. In effect, the tax advantage has already been passed through to consumers by way of lower premiums.

What impact will the tax changes have on insurance companies?

There are mixed views on this.  Sovereign said this week that premiums would need to increase by 30% to neutralise the impact of the tax changes.  We have every right to disagree, of course.  Pinnacle Life’s view is that the increase shouldn’t need to exceed 20% to neutralise the impact of the tax change. Noel Vaughan (managing partner of Pinnacle Life) said as much in this Herald article last week. He even intimated that anything more than 20% would be profiteering!

So… what’s likely to happen for consumers after the tax change takes effect on 1 July 2010?

We’re not sure. But NZ insurance companies are now starting to announce what they’ll do.

• Sovereign Insurance’s going with 15%
• Pinnacle Life has advised a 10% increase.

We’ll wait and see what the rest have to say.

Two further TV promos currently running for Pinnacle Life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJvcVlMVoxY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLT3ZVqy9CU&feature=related

We’ve taken some interesting calls regarding these ads… look forward to yours.

Ok, we admit we’ve been rather quiet on this Blog lately.

There’s a lot to catch up on, starting with the fact that Pinnacle Life is now advertising on TV.

If you’re a regular TV watcher, you’ll see the PINNACLE LIFE ads on TV3, Prime and some of the SKY channels.

Here’s the first of three ads, right off YouTube… click here to view

Feel free to let us know what you think…?

JOHANNESBURG

Start-up financial services company ‘Instant Life’ has become the first company in South Africa to offer consumers fully underwritten life insurance online.

The website, launched through a newly created insurance brand ‘Instant Life’ is the first website in South Africa to offer on-line life insurance with electronic underwriting. The website utilises the same Intelligent Life technology as New Zealand insurer Pinnacle Life (launched ’first-in-the-world’ in 2007) and Once Life (launched in Australia in 2008).

Instant Life opened in September 2009 with six online products covering life, critical illness, cancer, workplace disability, accidental death and funeral costs; all underwritten by Guardrisk and reinsured by Hannover Life Re.

HOW IT WORKS

The entire process from application to policy approval is fully electronic with consumers receiving their policies online, instantly.

Visitors to the simple immediate-fulfilment site are greeted by an intuitive interface, which leads them through a series of typical insurance questions regarding age, health and occupation.  The process takes less than ten minutes, by the end of which full and immediate cover up to R6million is granted without the need for a medical examination, unless certain specific conditions are highlighted. You even get to see a draft of your customised policy document before you decide to buy.  The online business model is so efficient that Instant Life are able to offer life insurance policies at up to 50% lower cost than their much larger competitors.

Visit www.intelligentlife.co.nz for more information on the technology used.

 Ever wondered why insurance documents can’t be written in plain, simple, non-legal English?

Well actually… they can!  

Last week, Pinnacle Life won the New Zealand 2009 Best Plain English Document Award (Private Sector).

This award was presented in Wellington at the Plain English Awards run by WriteMark New Zealand.

Pinnacle Life won this award for its life insurance policy document described by judges as “clear, sophisticated” and “as good as it gets”.

Not only was Pinnacle Life a winner in the best document category, but the Pinnacle Life website was a finalist in the “Plain English Website Awards”.

So… no need to put up with insurance jargon any longer or wrestle with legal English… just go online and see for yourself why Pinnacle Life is not your regular, old fashioned, overpriced life insurance company.

And here’s the highlight… Kerry Vaughan (Marketing Manager Pinnacle Life) picking up the trophy presented in Wellington.

Last week Pinnacle Life was selected as a finalist in the 2009 New Zealand Internet Industry Awards.

These awards are run out of Wellington by the Liz Dengate Thrush Foundation acknowledging and rewarding websites in four categories:  Best Business Application on the Internet, Social Benefits, Educational Programs and Internet Entrepreneurship. 

Whilst Pinnacle Life didn’t win, we’re immensely proud to have been recognised as one of the four finalists in the Best Business Application Category for 2009… and the only non-Wellington-based organisation to reach the final round! 

Finally…

 Pinnacle Life has been able to remove the last remaining piece of paper from the process of buying life insurance.

Actually that’s not quite true.  The process was always 100% paperless if you paid by credit card or by internet banking, but not for direct debit payments.  To authorise a direct debit, you always needed to sign a piece of paper that Pinnacle Life conveniently attached to the policy document.

Happily, this is no longer so…

Now that the NZ banking industry has moved with the times, online direct debits have just become possible.

So at Pinnacle Life you can now authorise your direct debit and pay for your policy simply by ticking a few boxes and entering your account number on the Pinnacle Life website when you buy a policy.  (Buy a policy and see for yourselfJ)

Quick, simple, clean and… green.  Here’s to saving those forests.

Yep… our blog is two years old today J

When we launched it on 30 April 2007, this is what we said…

“The Life Insurance Blog has been created to demystify life insurance for consumers by providing insight and advice as well as generating debate and conversation about all things to do with life insurance.

Whilst life insurance is a serious business and something we all need at some point in our lives, it is essentially a simple commodity.”

(I mean, hey, you get a lump of money when you die… how simple is that?)

We also said

“This blog isn’t going to be your top entertainment site on the web BUT if you’re thinking of buying life insurance there are some things you’ll want to know.”

“When it comes to life insurance Pinnacle Life is for the consumer. We’re not here to sell you a product or extras that you may not need. We’re about cutting through the insurance mumbo jumbo, getting the price down and cutting out any middlemen that don’t add value.”

We greatly appreciate the feedback received over the past 2 years.  Mostly its “keep doing what we’re doing”.  So a warm thank you to all our readers for reading and contributing and to those that have bought policies from Pinnacle Life…  ‘cos at the end of the day this blog’s not for us… it’s for you  

Ed and Steve

PS:  Our thanks to Bullet PR who helped us design and launch this blog.

When it’s Funeral Insurance Cover… so we’re told.

Six months ago, Pinnacle Life launched a $15,000 funeral insurance policy. But clearly, $15,000 is not enough.

Seems that by the time you’ve footed the bill for the burial, the stone and the unpaid credit cards and then the wake or Hangi, $15,000 of funeral insurance doesn’t touch sides for some families.

Well, now this is a problem solved.

Pinnacle Life’s now launched an enhanced Funeral Cover policy that allows you to select the cover you want – $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 at the click of a mouse.

No room for excuses now… just go online and buy funeral cover up to $20,000 in less than 10 minutes.