Focusing on its staff, customers and advisers – along with pushing ahead with its company-wide transformation – meant something had to give, and for Fidelity Life that was its arrangement with US-based Sharecare and its wellbeing app.
The insurer has announced the end of its agreement with the company, meaning the digital healthcare firm may be looking for another way into the New Zealand market.
Sharecare was founded by TV’s Dr Oz and its smartphone app encourages users to make better lifestyle choices. The marriage of Fidelity Life and Sharecare was announced in March by the insurer’s former CEO Nadine Tereora and the app released to customers in May.
…we needed to place our focus on supporting our advisers, staff and customers…
“When Covid-19 came along we thought it would be a good time to launch Sharecare, but one thing we quickly discovered was that we needed to place our focus on supporting our advisers, staff and customers through the disruption – and so we dialled back our emphasis on value-add products such as Sharecare,” says Hamish Anderson, Fidelity Life’s Head of Corporate Affairs.
“We’ve supported 600 of our customers facing financial hardship, we helped advisers upskill on video calling and other technology to help them continue doing business during lockdown, and of course we had a big focus on our 250-members of staff as we made the transition to working from home.
“It all added up to not being able to deliver on our plans for Sharecare, which we are disappointed about.”
Looking ahead, Anderson says the insurer has plenty coming down the pipeline for advisers in the New Year, including its annual Engage conference which is due to take place mid-February.
“We’ll keep working hard to support advisers up to and beyond the transition to the new financial advice regime,” he says.
“At Engage we will be updating advisers on our transformation progress, including previewing our commission framework and some digital initiatives to make it easier for advisers to do business with us.
“Later in 2021 there will be more customer-focused initiatives to look forward to.”