An insurance joker once professed, “Insurance employees don’t need titles on their business cards; white shirts actuarial, blue shirts marketing, black shirts underwriting”. Underwriters are viewed as the morgue of an insurance company, “the policy prevention department” as my business partner once put it. Assessing individual mortality is part science and part luck. But the advances made in genome sequence are going tip the scales greatly towards the world of science.

The X Prize Foundation is offering US$10M to the first team to sequence the genomes of 100 centenarians.  In layman’s terms “find the genetic code for those that live beyond 100 years”.  The competition starts Jan 2013, and the sequencing has to take place in 30 days.  The competition aim is two-fold. First, find a way in which genomes can be sequenced accurately in a relative short period of time, second, determine what genetic pool is consistent with longevity. No easy task apparently (read the article in the economist for more info).

Back to the black shirt underwriters. The ability to sequence genomes quickly will make the cost of getting a report on an individual’s DNA make-up much more affordable. A hair sample will give an underwriter an accurate description of the likelihood of all or any serious alignments that may linger, and a much better view of longevity. No more blood or urine tests; simply send a hair sample and with-in minutes the underwriter will have a health assessment waiting on their PC with the aid of some ingenious piece of software. The push to economise genome sequencing is going to revolutionise the underwriting world, and my pick is it is going to happen a lot quicker than underwriters are prepared for.  Resistance to change will fall by the wayside when their masters learn of the cost savings to be made, and the improved outcomes these new techniques will deliver, particularly when underwriting for critical Illness and disability products.

The tag-line of the future?……  Life insurance premiums as unique as your DNA

Insightful question received from a reader…

Q

I would love to buy life insurance but I have one concern. If insurers cover you until you are 100 years old, there’s a 100% chance the insurance company will have to pay you the amount you are covered for.

I have put together a spreadsheet with a $30/month payment and interest at 8% pa. I could not save even $250,000 in 50 years, whereas if I die, the insurance company would have to pay out $420,000 – the amount I covered myself for.

What am I missing here?  How come the insurance companies don’t go broke?

Thanks, Roxanne.

A

Thanks for this Roxanne.

There are a few things that you haven’t factored into your spreadsheet.

Firstly, a life insurance policy that covers you until you are 100 years old would have a monthly premium that increases each year.  This annual price increase takes into account the fact that your risk of dying increases each year, as you age. In the first year you may be paying $30/month but after say 20 years you would be paying something like $200/month. So you’ll need to factor this annual increase into your spreadsheet numbers.

Secondly, a large proportion of people taking out life insurance cancel their policy long before they die.  Life insurance is like car insurance in some ways… you only need car insurance while you have a car. Once you sell your car, you can stop paying the insurance and cancel your policy.

Most people don’t continue with their policy past age 75. Besides the fact that it gets very expensive, the purpose of life insurance is to financially protect those people that are dependent on you. By the time you are 60 or 70, most people don’t have financial dependants – their children generally have their own income. So they no longer need the insurance and they stop paying.

That’s insurance for you… collecting premiums from the many, only to end up paying the few.

Great business:-)

When I saw the statistic that 632,920 New Zealanders were injured in their homes last year I thought there must be some mistake… maybe an extra zero. But nope, the number is correct.

With a total population of only 4.4mil people in New Zealand, this means around 1 in 7 people are injured at home each year. That’s like 5 to 10 people in every street in New Zealand ended up in a doctor’s waiting room or a hospital because of a home accident.

However, if we drill a little deeper into these numbers we notice that 621 people died in home accidents last year…  more than the total number of people killed in road accidents and workplace accidents combined!!

So what does this mean for life insurance?

Well… typically, if you engage in dangerous pastimes such as abseiling, rock climbing, sky diving or hunting, or if you are employed in a dangerous occupation such as working on an oil rig, you’ll be charged a higher price for your life insurance.

It sounds like we should be adding one more dangerous occupation/pastime to the list… staying at home!

A survey released in the US found that 69% of single parents with children still living at home are uninsured… confirming that children of single parent homes are at greater risk of enduring financial hardship if their sole provider were to pass away.

Whilst this was a US-based survey and not a Kiwi survey, we suspect that a similar study in NZ would turn up similar results. This would be consistent with many studies that have been carried out around the world highlighting the problem of people being under-insured.

Specific results of the survey were these…

• 79% of single men and 66% of single women with dependent children, and who earn less than $50,000 per year, have no life insurance
• 79% of single men and 56% of single women with dependent children, and who earn between $50,000-250,000 per year, are uninsured.

The survey suggests that single fathers with dependent children are more uninsured than single mothers. It also suggests that the level of under-insurance for single parents is not radically affected by level of income.

So why is this? Is it because single parents don’t worry about the financial consequences of dying?  Umm, probably not.

Maybe it has something to do with single parents being very pushed for time and simply not getting around to it, or maybe a single income family is more likely to be financially stretched.

Thankfully ‘online’ life insurance has changed all this. Buying online takes as little as 10 minutes and you’ll typically pay around 20% less!

So… if you’re

• a working single parent
• without life insurance
• and your children are financially dependent on you

just click here!

We copped some flack this week for standing up for policyholders whose premiums are about to be increased by some life insurance companies. The flack from some professionals in the industry was a little unfair, we thought, with some comments bordering on what we would regard as ‘myths’. I’d like to bust a few of them…

Myth 1

Pinnacle Life sources it’s new business by somehow ‘piggy-backing’ off the hard work of other insurers…

Busted! Pinnacle Life spends significantly on radio/TV advertising and employs its own underwriters and administration staff… fair to say that Pinnacle Life pays its own way for its new business.

Myth 2

Consumers that buy insurance from Pinnacle Life don’t understand what they’re buying…

Busted! It’s patronising to suggest consumers are illiterate and can’t understand a straightforward policy document, particularly when Pinnacle Life won the NZ WriteMark plain English Award in 2009 for its clear and understandable policy wording. We think consumers are smarter than that.

Myth 3

An adviser that switches a policy to Pinnacle Life to achieve a 20% saving for a client, while earning a 75% commission is “shameless”…

Busted!  If that adviser is shameless, what do you call an adviser that switches a policy to achieve a 5% saving for a client and then pockets a 220% commission?

Myth 4

Pinnacle Life’s only point of difference is price…

Busted! Besides offering the most competitive prices in NZ, life insurance policies from Pinnacle Life are jargon-free, straightforward and relevant… and can be purchased online in less than 10 minutes…

There’s a lot going on in the life insurance industry around price increases, brought on by a change in tax legislation. Pinnacle Life made several comments (see Good Returns and Stuff) about insurers unjustifiably raising premiums for their existing policyholders and we’ll stand by that.

The nub of the issue is that we have new tax legislation in NZ specifically for life insurance companies, as mentioned in a previous post. The new legislation effectively increases company tax on life insurance policies sold after 1 July 2010.

But what about policyholders that already have a life insurance policy today? Is there an increase in company tax for these policies?

The simple answer is “no”.  The new tax legislation protects existing policyholders by effectively waiving increased tax on these policies for a period of 5 years. For what it’s worth, the concept has been termed ‘grandfathering’.

So why are some insurers increasing premiums for their existing life insurance customers? After all, there’s no added cost related to these policies so we’ve questioned the logic.

And who’s standing up for these existing customers?

We also wonder what the IRD will make of all this given their extraordinary effort to avoid this happening.

Couldn’t help commenting on this Herald article that talks about the upcoming tax changes for life insurance.

In the article, Sovereign Insurance announced that three parties will shoulder the increased tax burden…  the consumer will take one third (15% increase in premiums), the broker will take one third (commissions reduced from 230% to 200%), and Sovereign itself will soak up anything that’s over.

Well, I have to say, I couldn’t get the math to work.  Watch this…

Selling a policy before the tax change…

• Assume a policy with premiums = $1000.00 pa
• Commission paid @ 230% = $2,300.00

Same policy after tax change…

• Premiums increased by 15% to $1150.00 pa
• Commission paid @ 200% = $2,300.00

Somebody… help!

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.

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…?

We all know Christmas can be a stressful time. Family obligations, financial pressures and excess consumption all lend themselves to an insurance claim. We thought we’d give you some insightful hints on how to deal with all this Santa stress.

Ms Clause

A happy Ms Clause makes for a stressfree Santa. Hints… don’t mention the word dry and turkey in the same sentence, do the dishes before you’re asked, don’t make her play cricket, and when she does:- don’t laugh at her inability to catch, bat or understand the purpose of the game. If this is all done right… it may even lead to a little Ho Ho Ho (keeping her wine glass full helps)

Chimney squats

So you’ve been squatting in front of the chimney for the last 12 hours trying to assemble the latest toy for the little elf. Your Chinese is much improved, but clearly not good enough to read a set of instructions. Your thigh muscles are burning, the vital piece seems to be missing, your fore-arm is aching with screw-driver overuse and now Ms Clause is now offering her advice (a bottle of wine will help interpret the Chinese)

In-law sprints

Just the thought of the in-laws gives you angina, and they’re always the first to arrive. So get your head down and sprint in the opposite direction. The longer the sprint, the better the chance of getting your heart rate up and lowering your stress levels. Be thankful for the food, the company and the fact that you only have to see them once a year. (To help, scull a glass of wine as their car enters the driveway)

Managing elves

For once, give them what they asked for… not what’s good for them. Educational toys suck. Make sure you have the batteries and earplugs (also helpful for in-law chatter). Sharing is NOT caring. (a full wine glass also helps your 5am start )

Christmas Carrols don’t rock

It all starts in November with the first Christmas advert.. then the cacophony of endless carols heard at prize-giving, retail shopping, radio stations, TV adverts, banner-ads and soon you’re dreaming for silent nights. Jingle bells don’t rock and Reindeers don’t have red noses or fly. (You need more than a glass of wine for George Michael’s last Christmas)

So if you don’t need the Santa stress, and to keep our claims down, stay at home and buy online.