The persistent gender gap in life insurance in New Zealand can be observed through two major metrics.

One is that women are heavily under-represented in the advisory industry; according to the Financial Markets Authority (FMA), as of June 2021, women make up around 28% of financial advisers in New Zealand.
The other - likely a consequence of the first, at least in part - is that in an overall underinsured nation (per Financial Services Council research), women have significantly less cover, with between 14 and 25 percent lower sums insured than men for trauma, life, and income protection insurance.

Gemma Vivian (pictured), general manager Adviser Engagement Distribution at Partners Life, knew nothing about insurance when she started working in the field nearly 14 years ago.

“Back then, Naomi [Ballantyne] was one of the only female CEO’s. If you put on a women’s event, there were about 15 women on the invite list as they were really the only ones in the industry. When I joined the BDM team six years ago, there were only two women and now half our team of 15 are female."

"What I’d like to see though are more women, especially younger women, in the field as insurance advisers as they play a huge role in education and wield massive power for change.” She notes that anecdotally just around a third of those who have income protection with Partners Life are women.

A common misconception, Vivan says, is that working in the world of insurance requires a sharp suit and a mathematical mind.

“You’re not in the financial services industry, you’re in the people industry. You’re changing people’s lives. The more diversity of thought we have; the more people are represented and the closer we all come to seeing more equal insurance protection across gender and ethnicity.”

Vivian points out that insurance advisers have the flexibility to get out what they put in. For women who are looking after young children, for example, the hours are flexible and bringing your authentic self to meetings – many of which now take place online – actually attracts clients who are drawn to that.

“Dealing with rejection is also a big part of the job, and so is the tenacity it takes to make approaches and seek connections to people who could be helped. Confidence plays a role in this, and this is an area where the vocabulary should be more inclusive of young girls whose view of the world and their place in it is being critically shaped at a younger age with the modern connectivity we now have.”

The comparatively low profile of women in the advisory sector arguably contributes to lesser awareness of what insurance can do - even among people who do hold policies. Raelene Rees, a self-employed chartered accountant, has had extensive cover for herself, her family, and her accountancy practice for many years, and for the past two decades has used the services of her friend and one of the industry's top female advisers, Steph Wiki.

When she switched to Wiki from her previous adviser, Rees says, "It was just a relief to have someone in charge of our insurances that knew our family and had our back. I fell off my bike and broke my pelvis and was telling Steph I was on crutches. She said, You can claim for that. I would have had no idea otherwise - Insurance not being front of mind I never considered being able to claim."

Though her professional background meant the claims process was not daunting, it is telling that the strength of Rees's relationship with her adviser - mentioning in a casual chat that she'd had an accident - was the necessary trigger for a claim.

Rees has ideas for how to improve New Zealand’s woeful stats around personal insurance: "I think when someone starts their job, takes out KiwiSaver, they should also take out insurance. Get good habits early on. I have never understood why so few people have trauma cover when the risk of trauma is so high."

Cheryl Bowie, director and executive coach at Mind Coach, also works with Steph Wiki and says she selected her for her experience, credibility, and rapport, having used a different adviser previously. In terms of specific advice about issues she hadn't been aware of, Bowie says,

"Steph did an amazing job of finding a way to get more cover for pre-existing conditions that no longer existed or risk factors which felt, in my mind, really unfair to be penalised for.

"I feel very strongly that there needs to be more financial literacy in our school curriculum, especially targeting girls and young women so they are empowered to have more choices later in their lives that financial literacy and savvy affords."

What can the industry, and wider society, do about this gender gap across pay, insurance, and even KiwiSaver inequalities – where data gathered by Te Ara Ahunga Ora the Retirement Commission shows the average balance for a woman is 20 percent lower than that of a man?

Encouraging more women into the advisory space to offer guidance to people who can relate to them is a start.

The team at Partners Life see that closing the gender pay gap, and properly calculating the value of all work done by women, whether inside or outside the home, translates to more equitable insurance outcomes. The difference in the sums insured between men and women exists in part because men earn more than women on average, so they have a higher income to replace in the event of their death or inability to work.