New life insurance company coming
A new life insurance company is planning to launch later this year and has already made some senior hires.
Wednesday, January 8th 2025, 8:17AM
by Jenny Ruth
A South African company specialising in providing insurance for professionals, which already has a presence in Australia, is preparing to launch in New Zealand and has already made some hires of well-known locals.
William Lynch, known as Billy, is the company's local chief executive who has previously worked for Westpac New Zealand as chief operating officer and for Barclays in South Africa, according to his profile on LinkedIn.
The profile shows he has had some involvement of working with PPS in South Africa since 2017 and was also a non-executive director of the Australian company for two years to July 2020.
PPS has already hired Len Elikhis as chief operating and financial officer, who was previously AIA NZ's chief products and investments officer and has also worked for Sovereign, and Adrienne Lowe, a long term Asteron underwriter.
The company has been advertising for other staffers including a lead business analyst, a product and pricing actuary and a chief of staff and is particularly seeking applicants with a life insurance background.
PPS isn't ready to talk about its plans for New Zealand yet but says it may be ready to in a couple of weeks. It is yet to get a licence from the Reserve Bank but Good Returns understands an application has been made.
But it appears to operate in a similar fashion to MAS, a life insurance and investment company for medical professionals, that has been operating here since 1921 and which is also a mutual society.
PPS stands for Professional Provident Society, a mutual organisation formed in South Africa in 1941 by a group of eight dentists to focus on providing life insurance products to professionals such as doctors, lawyers and other professional graduates.
Its website says: “It provides tailor-made insurance, investment and healthcare solutions to its members, their families and associates, to create wealth, peace of mind and security during their working lives and in retirement.”
PPS Mutual launched in Sydney, Australia in February 2016 and is also a mutual society. It says in 2023/24, the profit-share pool passed A$10.7 million.
The Australian firm requires members to have a four-year bachelors, masters or doctorate degree in a designated professional field or to be currently or previously elibible to practice in their field.
While New Zealand used to have a number of life companies that were mutual societies, and rural specialist FMG is still a mutual society owned by its members, many such as AMP and National Mutual have converted to companies or have been sold.
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