tmmonline.nz  |   landlords.co.nz        About Good Returns  |  Advertise  |  Contact Us  |  Terms & Conditions  |  RSS Feeds

NZ's Financial Adviser News Centre

GR Logo
Last Article Uploaded: Monday, November 4th, 8:01PM

Insurance

rss
Latest Headlines

Sovereign explains its cuts to adviser commissions

Advisers who sell Sovereign life insurance products are unlikely to earn lower incomes even though the company has cut upfront commissions on some policies.

Monday, May 24th 2010, 9:34PM 2 Comments

by Jenha White

Last week Sovereign announced it was lowering commissions and increasing premiums in response to the impact of coming changes to tax on insurance funds.

Adviser up front commissions for term life insurance YRT will be cut from 230% to 200% and premiums will be increased by 15% in response to life insurance tax increases which come into force on July 1.

If you assume a policy with premiums is $1000 a year, then commission paid at 230% is $2300.

The same policy after the tax change would see premiums increased by 15% to $1150 a year and commission paid at 200% would still be $2300.

Sovereign chief executive Charles Anderson says if adviser commissions had not come down, then advisers would have benefitted from the tax change by receiving more commission.

"This would not have been acceptable in the context that Sovereign is trying to deal with insurance tax increases equitably."

He says that this is not the case of all companies, with some increasing premiums which means advisers will have a net gain with bigger commissions on bigger premiums.

"We didn't feel that was an acceptable position."

Anderson says there could potentially be less business for life insurance advisers when the tax increases come in because of affordability issues with the premium increases.

"It is likely advisers will either sell fewer policies, work harder, or the money people pay for premiums won't increase or customers will decide to have less cover."

He says taking the likelihood of less business into account, Sovereign tried to create a compensating mix with its changes, by not making advisers better or worse off with the changes.

The premium increase only applies to new business and Anderson says Sovereign will not be making any changes to its existing book on 1 July.

"Our initial response was to not increase premiums in the spirit of wanting to support our customers, we didn't want to go out aggressively when we didn't have to."

Jenha is a TPL staff reporter. jenha@tarawera.co.nz

« TOWER premiums to rise 7%Asteron premiums to increase 7.5% »

Special Offers

Comments from our readers

On 26 May 2010 at 3:25 pm Steve said:
'Taking a cut' in commissions (as was reported by Sovereign in the Herald on 19 May) is very different from Sovereign now saying that 'advisers will not benefit' from the tax changes. Interesting how the story changes... caught out on the spin I'd say?
On 26 May 2010 at 3:46 pm Neil Smith said:
All Advisers were told this story on the day the cut/adjustment was made, by way of emailed HOTLINE.

The only difference between what Sovereign said in the HOTLINE, and here, and the way the media put it is the media dressed it up differently.

Sovereign's message was the same in the HOTLINE and this article.

I'm not an employee of Sovereign. I support them because they suppport the market place with leading edge customer care and products.

What you're anonymously proposing is stirring.

We don't need that in this market with FSP, FAA, and who knows what's around the corner!
Commenting is closed

 

print

Printable version  

print

Email to a friend
Insurance Briefs

nib launches tool to support women through menopause
nib has launched a new health management programme designed to support women as they navigate the stages of perimenopause and menopause.

Employees are wanting health and life insurance
A new survey shows potential employees what life and health insurance benefits, but less than a third of employers plan to offer such benefits.

Chubb Life makes changes to trauma benefit
Chubb Life has made a series of enhancements to its Assurance Extra and Assurance Extra Business policies, including the addition of a new Continuous Trauma Benefit,

Resolution Life gets new president
Global life insurance group Resolution Life has appointed Moses Ojeisekhoba as its new President.

News Bites
Latest Comments
Subscribe Now

Cover Notes - Specific news aimed at risk advisers

Previous News
Most Commented On
About Us  |  Advertise  |  Contact Us  |  Terms & Conditions  |  Privacy Policy  |  RSS Feeds  |  Letters  |  Archive  |  Toolbox  |  Disclaimer
 
Site by Web Developer and eyelovedesign.com
x