I would be roundly derided if I declared life companies are generally sound, and then there was a string of massive failures. But, relatively speaking, life companies don’t give up the ghost quite as easily as others types.

For all the exasperation the industry felt at insurance being left out of the KiwiSaver party, it turns out that it has had a boost from the scheme.

Is there any plain reason why you pay road user charges for diesel and a license fee for petrol? Not really. You can argue about it, quote the history, but the argument is evidence for the question – not against it.

There is a saying about pizza that runs, "even when it's bad, it's good". It could also be applied to sex – assuming an adequate level of consent and protection. But occasionally some people are so scarred by their first love they take a long time to learn to trust again.

If you walk into a shoe shop, pick up a shoe with a scratch on it, and you wouldn't buy it. The problem with insurance is that this is harder to do – not usually life insurance, but more likely the murkier world of disability insurance. You can't always see the scratch until it's too late.

"It's a profession," and "it's complicated" is heard a lot. That's a sort of defensive mechanism against those who say advisers are paid too much. They aren't – they are paid the price that clears the market, and in economic terms, that's efficient.

There is a bugbear lurking in the bushes just up the path a little for the life insurance industry and people don't really want to talk about it. It's Taxation. Yes – capital "T". Because while the rest of us will be getting our 'block of cheese' tax cut in September, life companies will shortly face a big tax hike.

Time for advisers to hold their head up high – even if the most venal, over the past few years, shunted clients from one insurer to another for higher commissions… the clients' cover has been good and provided they don't plan on suicide, complete at all times.

While most of us need to be optimistic just to get out of bed in the morning, the skilled insurance salesman is working out how to 'back the hearse up to the sitting-room window' – metaphorically speaking. It's an important component of success – nice eh?

Business insurance training is as perennial as the grass, but the big question is always – why doesn't it seem to work? Certainly to judge by a recent Sovereign course I attended, there is no obvious reason. The course was excellently presented.

The main theme on display at a recent Asteron launch was claims. It was a 'back to the future' type of presentation.

AIA’s General Manager for New Zealand, Bernard McCrea declared as “Illogical” claims that policyholders may be put at risk of tax penalties by their stand on the tax treatment of Agreed Value disability income insurance.