Fidelity notes adviser support

Fidelity Life says it will support its advisers through upcoming regulatory change.

Tuesday, October 27th 2015, 2:42PM 1 Comment

The insurer has released its results for the 2015 financial year, showing income of $25.1 million, down from $35.3 million in 2014.

But once the proceeds of the Fidelity Life KiwiSaver scheme sale are removed from last year’s result, the company’s profit has grown.

Premium income has increased 8% to more than $200 million.

Fidelity is now third-biggest in market share with 10.5% of in-force premiums.

Chairman Ian Braddock said sales were particularly strong in the group risk sector, where Fidelity Life is number one for new business production.

“During the year we expanded our policy retention team, with the aim of keeping as many policies as possible on our books. Largely due to their efforts, our net lapse experience on our retail risk portfolio has improved. This will remain a major focus in the year ahead.”

Commission expenses increased 4% to $49 million. Braddock said while retail risk new business commissions were lower due to reduced sales this was offset by an increase in renewal commission and an increase in commissions on superannuation transfers.

Chief executive Milton Jennings said the company’s new Trauma Multi range had been successful but the Financial Markets Conduct Act and other increasing regulation meant it was no longer viable to keep some legacy superannuation schemes open.

“As a result we have wound-up the Fidelity Super-Super Plan, the Fidelity Super-Super Plan No. 2 and the Fidelity Super Cache Plan. We are in the process of distributing fund balances to each of the members and expect this to be completed later this year. We continue to keep our main investment offer open, the Fidelity Super-Super Plan No. 3, and it continues to benefit from the influx of UK pension transfers.”

He said Fidelity received strong support from advisers and the company wanted to be able to repay that.

“In November 2014 we took our technical platform and support for advisers to a new level with the launch of the new AdviserMobile app,” Jennings said.

“Designed specifically for advisers and available via the App Store and Google Play, the app offers advisers a range of on-the-spot calculations allowing details such as eligibility, premium levels and loadings to be provided as an indication to clients immediately. It also includes a mortgage repayment top up calculator for income protection as well as access to product sheets. Take-up from advisers has been strong with in excess of 1000 downloads at the end of June 2015.”

Tags: Fidelity Life