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Russell Hutchinson Opinion

Building a recommendation – remember to substantiate your data assumptions

Tuesday 4th of October 2022

What data is most commonly used in insurance portfolio modelling? For us the key data elements and their associated sources are as follows:

  • Taxation brackets
  • Social welfare benefit levels
  • Funeral costs
  • Age-adjusted life expectancy
  • Age of independence, retirement, and of loss of independence
  • Childcare costs
  • Savings rates
  • Appropriate discount rates
  • Income inflation
  • Cost price inflation, both current and expected
  • Expected return on investment
These are for the most part readily available on a quarterly basis and at worst, at least annually. Go grab them and use them to update your recommendations. Here are some of the favourite sources for the information above:
Inland revenue has a calculator, of course, for personal tax rates. If you need to talk personal tax, then referring to the IRD’s calculator is going to keep you on the side of the angels. https://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax/income-tax-for-individuals/tax-codes-and-tax-rates-for-individuals

For most working clients if one of them is sick or disabled, payments can be very low or non-existent. Simply showing the level of assistance can be a powerful tool to demonstrate the value of insurance. You may like this site: https://check.msd.govt.nz/

What about when people retire? Of course, you may want to use your client’s goal, but either way, this article is a great resource: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/124601147/never-or-as-soon-as-possible-when-is-the-optimum-age-to-retire

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