Partners Life cuts some policy pricing, promises more

Partners Life is taking a number of steps to make its policies more affordable, including reducing the underlying rate for yearly renewable term (YRT) accelerated trauma policies by 10%.

Tuesday, June 20th 2023, 4:41PM

In an email sent to advisers, the firm said this reduction will apply to both moderate and severe trauma cover.

The company will also reduce its Partners Protection Plan policy fee to $100 a year from $132 previously and will increase the large sum discount for sums insured of $500,000 or more on life cover policies, life income cover, terminal illness cover and accidental death cover.

It is removing the minimum risk premium of $7.05 per month too.

“With life in New Zealand getting more expensive, we're pleased to let you know that we'll be doing our bit to help make our quality cover more affordable by introducing exiting product flexibility and pricing changes,” Partners Life said in the email.

“Every change we put in place is designed to help make life easier for clients seeking comfort and certainty in today's challenging economic times,” it said.

The pricing changes apply to all policies written after June 19 and to existing policies from their renewal dates.

Graeme Lindsay at Strategy Financial Services says the changes “brings them more into line with the rest of the industry.”

Lindsay notes that Fidelity currently has a two-month promotion of no policy fee, normally $78 a year, for the life of the policy and that Resolution Life, on both AMP and AXA products, and Asteron don't charge policy fees.

Partners Life said it is planning further product changes.

“You will have the ability to better customise our top-rated products to best suit each client's unique set of needs and budgets,” it said.

“It means your clients will be able to benefit from our high-quality products, just without every bell and whistle if they really don't need them all.”

The company said it will notify pricing changes in about August to income, mortgage repayment and household expenses cover as well as to the specific injury opt-out option and critical illness opt-out option.

It expects to notify advisers of changes to pricing of total and permanent disability (TPD) opt-out cover in about October.

Tags: Partners Life