Podcast News Wrap For 5 August 2020
Speakers for the upcoming Financial Advice NZ conferences have been confirmed with a wide range of experts and thought leaders leading the pack.
This year the conference is called Bounce and is being held at 4 location across New Zealand from September 21 – with all events also being broadcast online.
Among the keynote speakers are Keith Abraham, Erik Qualman and political economist Dr Angus Hervey. Tickets are available now.
Melanie Purdey
Melanie Purdey has been appointed Head of Aligned Advice at AIA New Zealand and will report to Sam Tremethick, the company’s Chief Partnership Insurance Officer.
She was previously CEO at Newpark Group, a role she left in March.
Fidelity Life
Fidelity Life has completed the first phase of a $25 million technology upgrade with the migration of 3,000 policies to a Microsoft cloud platform.
Fidelity Life’s Chief Technology Officer Dan Wilkinson says the updates will help the firm build trust and ensure the business remains in a strong position.
The second and final part of the update is underway now and Wilkinson says the firm’s transformation strategy is planned out until 2025.
White paper
The regulatory framework firmly places the onus on financial advice providers to meet client needs and deliver good outcomes for vulnerable clients, concludes a white paper released by training company Strategi.
According to the report, which lists some of the traits advisers should be looking for to identify vulnerable clients, one in four people face literacy difficulties, one in six can be diagnosed with a common mental disorder, and 10% of all people aged over 65 will experience some form of elder abuse.
“So having robust practices, processes and policies in place is essential,” says Strategi.
Poll
Perhaps it is too early in the year to tell but it seems a fifth of advisers have been hit hard by Covid-19 and are yet to start turning the tide on the downturn their business faced during lockdown.
Last week we asked “Are you and your business back to operating at pre-Covid-19 levels?”.
Of those who have so far taken part in our latest survey 42% voted ‘yes’, 36% say they are ‘getting there’ and 21% say their business is still below pre-covid levels.
Cigna
21-year-old Victoria University of Wellington student Sabrina He has been awarded the 2020 Cigna Actuarial scholarship valued at $5,000 for her university fees and a summer internship working in the Cigna actuarial team.