Chubb launches new SME insurance product

Chubb, formerly Cigna, has launched a new insurance product to help protect small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) called Assurance Extra Business, the company told a conference for advisers last week.

Tuesday, June 27th 2023, 10:19AM

Simon Tohill, strategy and marketing general manager, said the new product consolidates and replaces three existing products aimed at the SME market and will include a feature allowing cover to remain in place when a business is sold and a disability insurance feature with monthly benefits that can be tailored to the particular needs of each business.

Tohill said 97% of NZ businesses are classified as SMEs, employ a third of New Zealanders and two-thirds of these businesses have a single employee and they are “significantly under-insured.”

Chubb wants to make it easier for advisers to have conversations about life insurance with New Zealanders and to help ensure New Zealanders get the right financial advice, Tohill said.

“You, as advisers, understand your customers and communities better than us and one of the fundamental principles we have is that we want to partner with you and work alongside you to help more New Zealanders get the insurance they need,” he said.

The covid pandemic has fundamentally changed the business and now more than 82% of its business is done using its eApp compared to about 80% of applications being paper-based before the pandemic, Tohill said.

Earlier, Chubb NZ chief executive Gail Costa told the conference that her company set out two-and-a-half years ago with “an audacious goal” to become New Zealand's largest life insurance company.

While it is still aiming for that, it hasn't quite got there yet, but has taken its market share of new premium sales from about 3.5% to 16%, making it the second largest life company in the country, Costa said.

“It's something you all should be really proud of. We're very aware of the importance of partnership with you and we don't take that lightly.”

The company has spent the last two-and-a-half years on making improvements and seeking feedback from advisers about how to improve its offerings, Costa said, urging advisers to keep providing such feedback.

Tags: Chubb