NIB Medical Acquires Onepath Medical Business

Late last year, NIB Medical purchased the entirety of Onepath's medical insurance business for $25 million. Onepath will continue selling life and disability insurance unchanged.

Since NIB arrived in New Zealand after expanding from Australia, it has grown into a substantial presence in the medical insurance marketplace. Originally buying Tower's Medical policies, this further expansion solidifies them further as top players in the NZ insurance market. This development will mean that NIB services 200,000 NZ clients, or around 15% of those with health insurance in the country.

For clients with existing Onepath policies, these policies will be transferred to NIB around the middle of the year. They will then be responsible for your claims and changes to your medical policy. Your premiums and the structure of your policy will remain the same. Notifications from both Onepath and NIB will be sent out to you before then. If you have any questions about the transition, you can contact us anytime and we'll be happy to help.

Spratt Financial Christmas News Roundup (Part Two)

1. Tips to avoid becoming a Christmas burglary statistic. - Yahoo.co.nz

It's an unfortunate fact that burglary is rife during the festive season when many of us are away on holiday. Here are some tips to stop this from happening to you. Home and contents cover is a good start, but it's a good idea to be prepared, vigilant and take precautions to make sure your Christmas is as happy and stress free as can be.

2. Onepath life introduces new products to meet consumer demand. - Good returns

In the most significant product enhancement in years, Onepath has released two new income protection covers and one redundancy cover, including enhanced features such as new loss of earnings cover and 115% cover on mortgage repayments.

3. Rising housing costs hit wallets hard. - Stuff.co.nz

Average NZ incomes have not risen at a high enough pace to keep up with rising housing costs. Whilst incomes have risen 3.1%, the average spent on housing has jumped by more than double this figure, by 8.6%.

4. Why some people work on Christmas Day - BBC News

Spare a thought for those of us working on Christmas day, providing valuable service. Here are some of their stories courtesy of the BBC.

5. Forecasters predict a warm Christmas with a chance of rain. - NZ Herald

The last weeks, Auckland has experienced some horrendous weather on and off, the weather for Christmas is forecast to be warm, with a chance of rain. Fingers crossed it passes us by, surely we are due for some good stuff!

6. Top 10 hot items for Christmas. - NZ Herald

Statistics from recent Trademe searches reveal the hottest Christmas purchases for New Zealanders in 2014.

News: Onepath Life Insurance to become truly One.

Onepath Life Insurance has announced that it will be consolidating its two life insurance companies into one. The move is primarily about simplification, and will not result in any changes to its existing insurances. Currently, Onepath has one company which services advisers and brokers and one company which directly sells their life insurance product, distributed through banks.

The process has begun, subject to approval from the Reserve Bank. There is anticipated to be no issue moving forward, and the merger is expected to be approved and completed. Onepath says that the merger will enable them to avoid two companies worth of compliance costs and streamline their services, ultimately aiming to provide a future benefit to customers.

Onepath is also planning a major product relaunch next month which will feature a focus on income protection. We will keep you posted with what this entails, what changes could be made and how this could benefit you as news emerges.

Changes are on the path ahead for Onepath.