Risk Commissions Poll Results

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Are life insurance commissions in New Zealand too high?

  • No - present levels are appropriate (75%)
  • Yes - there should be a lower cap (21%)
  • Not sure (5%)

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The results of our latest poll suggest most Kiwi advisers are comfortable with their current commission arrangements – but the sentiment is not universal.

As we noted last week, it may be have been a silly idea to ask whether you’re earning too much commission, but we still wanted to ask you the question, given the public statement made by the RBNZ (see: Reserve Bank Questions Risk Commission Levels), and the fact of Government-mandated adviser remuneration reforms taking place in other countries – countries with whom Kiwi regulators correspond regularly.

While 72% of advisers are okay with current commission levels, almost one in four (23%) agreed there should be a lower cap on risk commissions in New Zealand.

We note that while we never claim any scientific validity to our poll results, we know that because of the volume of votes we’ve received and the significant proportion of our audience who are advisers, this result suggests that at least a proportion of your peers think a lower upfront commission cap may be in order.

NZ regulators are not too concerned about commissions, but rather whether advisers are …serving their clients’ best interests

Our thanks to well-known adviser, Jon-Paul Hale, for the extensive thoughts he shared in response to last week’s poll article where, among a number of comments, he raised the point that NZ regulators are not too concerned about commissions, but rather whether advisers are doing the right things with their advice and are serving their clients’ best interests.

In a climate of global regulatory change, have you considered what your advice business might look like if you were forced to re-calibrate its commercial set-up? While this question wasn’t the focus of our poll, it’s a natural ‘flow-on’ consideration.

In any case, our poll remains open for another week if you want to cast your vote and make your voice heard…