Wealthpoint delivers strong life insurance activity growth

Speaking to their 50 business owners at the annual conference in Tauranga last week, Wealthpoint management reported a year-on-year production growth rate of 40% for life insurance and said they expect similar rates to continue in the coming year.

Wealthpoint head of strategy and growth, Mark Nalder, attributed this success to several initiatives that were put in place during 2022.

He said that management and the board recognised that significant opportunity existed across the network to reinvigorate risk activity after several years of minimal growth. Wealthpoint advisers operate across all advice categories, including general insurance, investments and lending, and focus had shifted to these areas in the wake of the Hayne Inquiry in Australia and FMA report on replacement business practices in New Zealand in 2018.

“Advisers possibly lost a bit of confidence in their processes around replacement business activity, making sure they could evidence risks were appropriately explained, the right level of comparison undertaken, and good customer outcomes consistently delivered”  Nalder said. In addition, the suite of technology tools and the technical support available to members needed considerable investment.