New insurance comparison tool hits the market
KAN has revamped and relaunched the late Graeme Lindsay's Strategy insurance research business.
Friday, May 15th 2026, 10:49AM
by Sally Lindsay
Picture: Warwick Slow. Source: KAN Conference/Whitedoor
It comes into a market that is highly competitive with several comparison companies battling for business in a small sector.
Trail Research has been built by Trail, a CRM software platform for mortgage, insurance, and KiwiSaver advisers bringing together insurance product ratings, premium quoting, and side-by-side comparisons in one place.
Promoted through Kiwi Adviser Network (KAN), the aggregation partner of Trail, it was developed when advisers found the insurance research process too manual and time-consuming.
Running Trail and KAN gave us a close understanding of the practical challenges insurance advisers face, Warwick Slow, Trail and KAN chief executive says.
“Many advisers were taking client information from one system, entering it into another tool to compare options, then bringing the information back into their advice documents.”
Trail saw an opportunity to reduce that double-handling and bring research closer to the advice workflow for the wider advice market, he says.
“The main benefit is that Trail Research can integrate directly with Trail, helping advisers remove painful double-handling from the insurance advice process.”
Advisers using Trail can work from a single client record across CRM, fact find, needs analysis and advice documents, rather than moving the same information between multiple systems.
Slow says it is designed to support adviser research and documentation, not replace adviser judgment. “Advisers remain responsible for considering each client’s circumstances and making suitable recommendations.”
Trail Research has been built on the foundation of Strategy, the longstanding insurance research tool created and maintained by the late Graeme Lindsay from 2002.
Trail acquired Strategy in early 2024, and the product data and history within Strategy gave Trail a strong base to build from.
Slow says from there, Trail rebuilt the platform from the ground up to meet modern expectations around security, usability, scalability and integration.
“It has been a significant project, involving both the technology build and the work required to review, structure and update a large amount of product information across the New Zealand insurance market.”
Trail believes its new tool covers all insurance companies active in the New Zealand adviser market.
It includes on-sale adviser-distributed insurance products, as well as a large number of historical and off-sale products.
“That historical information is important because advisers are often reviewing existing client cover, not just recommending new policies,” Slow says.
Trail Research is in its initial release and is available to any adviser, regardless if they’re a member of Trail or KAN.
Trail has already published multiple updates since its launch.
Trail advisers have free access during the initial release period, which runs until at least 1 October, when it will become a paid subscription product.
For advisers using Trail, it can be added to their existing Trail subscription. Advisers not using Trail CRM can access it as a standalone tool.
“We want advisers to use the tool in real advice scenarios and provide feedback while we continue adding functionality and improving the experience,” Slow says.
Trail Research is part of Trail’s wider investment in adviser technology.
Slow says on the insurance side, Trail’s focus over the next 12 months is to keep improving Trail Research, expanding its functionality and integrating it more deeply into the advice process for advisers using the wider Trail platform.
“More broadly, Trail is investing in technology that helps advisers work more efficiently, including meeting intelligence, workflow improvements and tools that reduce admin.”
He says the focus is on using AI where it adds the most value, so advisers can spend less time on manual work and more time with clients.
Competitive industry
The new Trail tool is in direct competition with Quotemonster and other comparison sites.
Quotemonster has 2,500 advisers with free access to premium comparisons and 1,200 of those advisers subscribe to the company’s research, Aneel Ravji, Quotemonster advice tech lead says.
“It is a competitive industry and a huge job to get to a level where advisers want to become subscribers,” he says.
The company has a team of 16, five working full time on insurance research. Insurance companies are constantly making changes to their pricing and policy wordings. “We work hard to keep that information up to date, including pricing.
“What we do is time consuming and expensive. It's just phenomenal. And new insurers have entered the market in the past year.
Quotemonster works across all the major aggregators, adviser companies and independent advisers. Ravji says many KAN advisers subscribe to Quotemonster.
He says the company’s point of difference to its competitors is the level of personalised research offered.
“What that means if an adviser enters the client’s age, gender, occupation, employment status and family situation the research is personalised to that client. For example, some products work slightly differently if a client is self-employed compared to a salaried employee. And other products work differently for people who do or don’t have children.
“The adviser knows the advice they are giving is backed with independent research. We are not owned by a group, and we are independent of insurance companies.”
KiwiSaver aspect
A new KiwiSaver tool has recently been launched by Quotemonster.
Kiwimonster is a comparison tool allows advisers to compare different products and providers across the market.
Ravji says if an adviser has a client with KiwiSaver or is going to join a scheme, the tool runs through a few steps to identify the investor’s profile and what sort of fund they should be in. “Then the adviser can drive the conversation and do some comparisons about what they are recommending versus the market.”
| « Is protecting retirement provision a life adviser’s duty? Part One | AIA claims stats released; Heart claims high » |
Special Offers
Comments from our readers
No comments yet
Sign In to add your comment
|
|
Printable version |
|
Email to a friend |
