New Partners boss presents his plan to advisers
New Partners Life chief executive Michael Weston reveals his plans for the business.
Thursday, May 30th 2024, 12:18PM
He told 650 advisers at the company’s annual conference last week that since starting he has spent considerable time on the road talking to advisers.
“Some of that feedback has been pretty fearless and frank and I haven’t enjoyed it but it’s the only way we are going to learn and get better.”
He is “committed to building more of these feedback loops into our processes so we can listen learn and improve”.
One thing which worried him as he learnt about the New Zealand market was the “significant mortality protection gap” (aka under insurance).
That the gap was $2.4 billion of additional life insurance premiums.
This gap has “lowered financial resilience significantly.”
Overall, the life market has not kept up with the country’s GDP growth, he says. “And that’s pretty unusual.”
At first he was worried about this trend but now he sees it as an opportunity.
Under his leadership Partners Life will stay true to its values, he said.
“It’s quite clear to me these are part of things are at the heart of DNA.”
He listed client centricity, product innovation, no legacy technology, advocating for financial literacy and access to advice, as the pillars which support the company.
To address the mortality gap the company needs to stay true to its values and to continue to do “what is working.”
At the heart of Partners’ DNA was client centricity and product innovation.
He was proud the company had no legacy technology.
“We will continue to invest and keep our systems up to date and secure,” he said.
Weston also reassured advisers the company would continue advocating for financial literacy and access to advice.
Besides sticking to the recipe which has worked for the company he said “we need to think differently and act bolder” as there are numerous unserved and underserved customers out there.
Data is one tool to access this market.
Partners Life will be “unlocking data inside of our systems to help you enrich the relationships with your clients."
It will go further and use third party data sources to identify new customers to help with shrinking the protection gap.
While the company avoids legacy technology, they will keep evolving it.
“While our systems are good, good is never good enough.
He wants the company to build “delightful experiences for advisers and customers.”
In his closing messages he told advisers “We want to work with you all.”
The company will be successful as “we work with the best advisers in industry.
Partners will work hard to differentiate its services. “Our business is entrepreneurial and we have momentum," he said.
Partners, he says, has reported 50% year-on-year growth of annual premium income and wants to keep that rate going.
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