What an Aussie learnt about NZ advisers

AIA chief partnership officer Sam Tremethick has returned to Australia. Before he left he reflected on his time in New Zealand with Good Returns publisher Philip Macalister. In part one of this series he talks about NZ advisers and Vitality.

Thursday, September 15th 2022, 3:46PM 1 Comment

Tremethick’s decision to return to Australia is all about family. While his children will finish their academic year in New Zealand, moving back to Australia so they can be closer with family and grandparents was important to Tremethick.

Reflecting on the years he has been in New Zealand is a little family like too. Tremethick pays tribute to advisers in New Zealand for being so welcoming.

The adviser community have “been incredibly welcoming even to an outsider, an Australian, which is very kind of them.”

He has worked in several different countries and says in New Zealand, “undeniably you can't question the advisers’ passion for their clients.”

“I've genuinely enjoyed working here on the basis that advisers want to do the right thing and more importantly actually want to be there for their clients.

“And I think that's a really powerful thing. If I was to compare it to other markets, I think whilst we're going through a fair bit of change from a regulatory perspective, I think, and don't get me wrong, change is always difficult. I think if you look to other markets, whether it's Australia, whether it's the UK, even the US, I think you could argue that it's a light touch change, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't impact people.

“I don't think we've genuinely worked through that regulatory piece yet. I think there's still a bit to do.”

Tremethick talks highly of his AIA New Zealand family.

“I'm super proud of the team. I honestly think that the team here at AIA is amazing and fantastic and it's made it a joy to come in to work and to work every day. “

Two of the biggest things in his time here have been bringing AIA and Sovereign together as one company and the other is the launch of Vitality.

With bringing the companies together he rates the exercise highly.

“There's a litany of failed acquisitions of life companies in this country,” he says but this one has been successful.

“We've continued to grow. We've continued to build, and I think we've actually continued to build a good proposition for advisers and for customers.”

AIA Vitality has radically changed insurance and the offering is not the traditional insurance model. The programme has close to 40,000 members and advisers have incorporated it into their advice proposition.

“We're on the right path to realise our ambition, which is to make New Zealand the healthiest and best protected nation in the world.

AIA Vitality is built on a shared value model of getting people healthier through taking proactive steps and rewarding them for taking proactive steps for their health. The outcome for the company is that they claim less.

“When they're on claim, they're on claim for a smaller period of time. From an insurance company's perspective, less claims means that we don't need to pass on the premiums.”

PART TWO is due out at the start of next week and will cover commissions, premiums and a new initiative.

Tags: AIA Sam Tremethick Vitality