The company's application to join the Investment Savings and Insurance Association has been turned down so it won't be providing sales figures to the associations quarterly survey.
Partners Life chief executive Naomi Ballantyne says she was told the application was turned down as the association wanted to monitor the new company's behavior.
She said that referred to how Partners Life would handle transfer of business.
Ballantyne says the although the company was denied membership it would still observe the ISI's policy on transfers.
ISI chief executive Peter Nielson confirmed the membership had not been accepted at this stage, but he left the door open for future membership.
"I don't think anybody has been turned down per se," he said.
"It's incorrect to say somebody's been rejected. It's simply a matter of working out the time in which it would be appropriate and on what basis."
"I think it was just simply a question of the timing in which that [their application] would be received in terms of when the organisation was in operation. I think that was what the nature of the response was, it wasn't us saying no forever, simply saying not at this stage."
Citing the fact that membership procedures were under review as part of a general review of the organisation, Neilson said he was unable to comment further, however he did hold out an olive branch for Partners Life.
"I have a plan to visit and talk to Naomi at some point hopefully about those matters."
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Suggest you get yourself down to Partners Life quick smart for that meeting with Naomi (if she has time for you with all the business flowing in her door). Not only could she teach you all there is to know about insurance distribution but give you some handy tips on how to win friends and not alienate the industry. Because it seems you and your board need some help with that.
If I'm not mistaken, the voting process on the ISI board is weighted according to market share...So that means that Sovereign would have had considerable more voting power than any other member. And again, if I'm not mistaken, this is the same Sovereign who provided takeover terms AON and Crombie Lockwood business last year. Peter - perhaps you can explain why that activity (and all the evidence proving it was taking place) was pushed under the carpet yet Partners Life is refused membership under mere suspicion of similar activity? Should it not be a case of whats good enough for one is good enough for another?
Perhaps the quarterly graphs showing Partners Life taking a chunk of their already tanking market share is just too painful for "NZ's largest life insurer".