29 August is Daffodil Day, the Cancer Society’s annual flagship event – creating awareness and raising funds for the society’s important work. 

Why a daffodil?  

Because it’s one of the first flowers of Spring. Its yellow blooms remind us of the joys of the new season and represent hope for people affected by cancer.  

Why Daffodil Day on our blog? 

Because the simple fact is that more people die from cancer in NZ than from any other cause… around 30% of males and 26% of females. So almost 30% of all life insurance claims in NZ are for cancer!  (See our earlier blog post)

Here are a few more stats that may interest you… 

Top 6 cancer-killers for Men

• Lung               24%

• Prostate         17%

• Bowel             16%

• Stomach        5%

• Pancreas       5%

• Leukaemia    5%

 Top 6 cancer-killers for Women

• Breast             21%

• Bowel             19%

• Lung               18%

• Ovary              6%

• Pancreas       5%

• Stomach        4%

 Cancer Stats 07

Sad but true, these are the countries with the lowest life expectancy in the world. What this means in practice is that life insurance premiums in these countries would be proportionally higher… 

Life expectancy at birth                 Country 

• 32.63 years                             Swaziland

• 33.74 years                             Botswana

• 34.40 years                             Lesotho

• 39.29 years                             Zimbabwe

• 39.65 years                             Liberia

• 39.82 years                             Mozambique

• 40.03 years                             Zambia

• 40.22 years                             Sierra Leone

• 41.70 years                             Malawi

• 42.73 years                             South Africa

As an insurance company insuring people’s lives, we’re all for people with long healthy lives. The longer the better quite frankly. We make no bones about that. A long life is better for our insured clients, better for their families and better for us.  

So if you owned an insurance company today, what country would you want to operate in? Surely where people live the longest… right?  And which countries would they be…??   These are the top 10 countries you’d want to do business in because people live longer…      

    Life expectancy at birth             Country

• 83.51 years                             Andorra (in France)
• 82.19 years                             Macau (near China)
• 81.71 years                             San Marino (in Italy)

• 81.81 years                             Singapore

• 81.59 years                             Hong Kong

• 81.25 years                             Japan

• 80.51 years                             Sweden

• 80.51 years                             Switzerland

• 80.50 years                             Australia

• 80.42 years                             Guernsey (in the English Channel)  

Ok, I can hear you asking “where’s New Zealand”?    Answer 78.88years!!…  

(Stats as at June 2007) 

Received on this blog…

Question    Hi , we – an immigrant family – are interested in 2 life policies. We are NZ permanent residents and have lived in NZ for the last 6.5 years. What happens if we buy the policies and in the future we need to go back to our birth country for a while, e.g. to take care of dependent grandparent. Will we remain covered?   

Answer    You are eligible to buy a life insurance policy from Pinnacle Life because you are a NZ resident. Once you have purchased the policy, you are covered wherever you are in the world. Even if you return to your country of birth and give up your NZ residency, you will still remain covered. Because it is a NZ policy, your claim will be paid in NZ Dollars to the bank account of your choice, anywhere in the world.

A question from NZMoneyTalk website… 

Question 

“No, I am not feeling depressed. I am curious though as to whether or not a life insurance policy would have any coverage if you were to commit suicide. Would your loved ones receive any pay out at all or would suicide be one of the ways in which your policy is effectively cancelled?” 

Answer 

Yes… life insurance does cover suicide, but life insurance policies typically exclude cover for suicide for the first 13 months.  The reason for this is to prevent people who are in a suicidal frame of mind from quickly buying a policy with the sole purpose of having their family ‘hit the jackpot’ so to speak. 

It is usual when you apply for life insurance to be asked if you have any history of mental illness or depression or if you have reported having suicidal thoughts. These questions are designed to determine your potential as a suicide risk for an insurer.

As the Olympics kicks off in China on ‘lucky day’ 08/08/08, bet you didn’t stop to think about life insurance in that vast country… considering life insurance in China is still in its infancy.

Some numbers to ponder…  

• 300 : The number of times you can fit the population of NZ into China

• 132 : The number of life insurance policies in China for each policy in NZ

• 300% : How much faster the Chinese life insurance market is growing relative to NZ

• 90 : The number of insurance brokers in China for each broker in NZ and still growing like topsy 

• 0 : Number of instant life insurance websites in China 

• 1.3% : Life insurance premiums in NZ as a % of premiums in China
• 0.7% : The above ratio when the 2012 Olympics comes around if life insurance in China keeps growing at the current rate.  

…so we’ll beat them in rowing…

Pinnacle Life has today released a more advanced (3rd generation) version of its electronic underwriting software that should see an even higher number of first-time applicants issued with immediate life cover. 

Pinnacle Life first launched its direct-to-consumer life insurance with electronic underwriting in May 2007.  The buying process from application to issuing the policy is fully automated via its website, with consumers receiving their policies online. Visitors to the website are led through a series of typical insurance underwriting questions covering their health, lifestyle, occupation and pastimes. Those with no indicated health issues are covered instantly and receive their policy document electronically.  

In November 2007 Pinnacle Life released an upgraded version of the electronic underwriting rules that determines which applicants can be offered an instant policy. These are the rules that automatically assess mortality risk and apply loadings or exclusions to a policy without human involvement. 

The latest upgrade boasts yet further improvements to the underwriting rules with increased second-tier questions asked to enable as many as 65% of first-time applicants an opportunity to buy immediate cover – or as many as 80% of applicants under 40.

A few months ago we wrote a blog about how laughter increases longevity and we asked readers to send us their life insurance jokes or related stories. Well… LOL… we’ve received quite a few. Some good. Some not so good. You be the judge

Here’s one of them… 

A couple we know enjoys getting away from their high-stress jobs in the city by spending a few weekends out camping and relaxing in their caravan.However, they often found their peace and quiet disturbed by well-meaning, but unwelcome, visits from other campers. So, they devised a plan to assure themselves some privacy.  Now whenever they set up camp they place this sign on the door of their caravan…  “Insurance broker. Ask about our term-life package.”   

Keep them rolling… we promise we’ll publish them… just make sure they’re family friendly!