Insurers and their lawyers are urging the government not to scrap the industry’s exemption from the unfair contract terms provisions of the Fair Trading Act 1986, warning of a higher litigation risk, higher premiums and “significant” uncertainty for both insurers and policyholders if the exemption is removed.

OnePath Life (NZ) and Cigna Life Insurance have agreed to pay the Financial Markets Authority $180,000 after admitting breaches of the fair dealing provisions of the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 (FMCA).

Smooth-talking Fred Pye, the chairman and CEO of Canada’s first – and largest – digital asset investment fund, breezed into Auckland late last month to introduce Kiwis to two new crypto funds which were about to be listed on Cboe, Australia’s exchange for alternative investments.

Though 53% has been wiped from the value of their fund in the past 15 months, New Zealand investors in the high-risk Ark Disruptive Innovation fund are being urged to hang in there.

Fund managers are beginning to stick their heads over the parapet in the wake of the release last week of the FMA’s Valuer for Money report into KiwiSaver and managed fund fees.

Cigna New Zealand is working on an income protection offer aimed at young professionals who are new to the workforce.

Challenging global equity markets have wiped $2 billion from the NZ Super Fund in the past year and the downturn is expected to continue over the next 12 months.

Generate Investment Management will next week launch five new funds, including three more KiwiSaver options.

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The insurance sector was shut out of the planning and design process for the government’s proposed $3.5 billion-a-year income insurance scheme (NZIIS).

Despite concerns about greenwashing, nearly three-quarters of New Zealanders (73%) want their funds to be invested responsibly and ethically, and 56% say they would consider switching KiwiSaver funds if they discovered their fund was invested in companies that were not consistent with their values.

In response to questions from advisers and insurers, the FMA has spelt out what it means to put customers front and centre of their businesses – a key requirement for compliance with the industry’s new conduct regime.

Insurance market players have hit back at claims in a recent Consumer magazine article that lambasted the industry for “unfair” practices and slammed mental health exclusions in insurance policies as a sign of “systemic failure in the insurance market which could amount to discrimination on the grounds of mental health”.

Insurers and advisers who are putting processes in place to comply with COFI have hit a blind spot: exactly how the two groups will be expected to interact will not be known until the government produces a supplementary order paper (SOP) sometime after the bill receives its second reading in Parliament.

New Zealanders between the ages of 18 and 39 are at risk of becoming the “lost generation”, with many expected to head overseas for higher-paying jobs and lower living costs once our international borders re-open.