http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/ The latest Blog feeds from www.assurelegal.co.nz en-us Fri, 20 Dec 2019 00:04:22 +1300 Rocketspark http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/42308/Xu-and-Bryant-The-Supreme-Court-decision/ The Supreme Court has issued its decision in Xu v IAG. A split decision with 3 Justices (William Young, O’Regan and Ellen France JJ) against the appeal and 2 Glazebrook and Arnold JJ dissenting. My quick reading is that Bryant is still in force, although clarified and somewhat limited. The Majority appear to have been swayed by moral risk arguments that are, in my view over-stated (the learned Paul Michalik advises that 19th century insurers lobbied for and got the right to re-instate precisel... Wed, 03 Jul 2019 11:46:36 +1200 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post42308 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/42014/More-bad-news-for-the-insurance-Industry/ Consumer New Zealand has published the results of a survey showing that public trust and confidence in the insurance industry is low (1). The specific conclusions from the study are: Our latest survey research found:Consumer trust in the insurance industry was low.  Just 13% of consumers felt confident insurers could be trusted.Only 8% thought insurers always offered fair terms.Just 18% felt they fully understood their insurance policy.As many as one in four have had a problem with their in... Mon, 24 Jun 2019 10:14:09 +1200 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post42014 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/41893/Does-the-building-code-need-to-be-re-vamped/ There has been a lot of comment lately about whether the building code is fit for purpose(1). This is wrapped up in the media/PR drive around "risk based pricing" and coincides with concerns around the safety of modern compliant buildings under earthquake conditions. The argument is that new, fully code compliant buildings failed in the Canterbury Earthquake sequence (CES) and in Wellington during the Kaikoura Earthquake, therefore, the code must be flawed or faulty. The Insurance Council (ICNZ)... Wed, 19 Jun 2019 13:45:33 +1200 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post41893 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/41034/Radio-New-Zealand-interview/ Insurance in New Zealand is about to go some significant changes, I was invited to give my opinion on an aspect of this on Radio New Zealand this morning. Please listen below (I'm on for the last 10 minutes)https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018697237/is-the-property-insurance-market-broken... Wed, 29 May 2019 14:42:53 +1200 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post41034 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/40022/New-Zealand-Law-Journal-Article-canindemnity-plusclaims-rights-be-assigned/ ... Wed, 01 May 2019 13:15:41 +1200 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post40022 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/39392/Lost-in-Translation/ Note this article was originally published by Legalwise https://legalwise.com.au/nz/insurance-non-disclosure-lost-in-translation-for-esl-speakers/IntroductionNew Zealand is a nation of immigrants, the 2013 census showed that one in four Kiwis were born overseas. If new migrants do not have good English, problems can arise when contracts are entered into. In applications for insurance policies, which require often large amounts of relatively complex personal information, there are significant pro... Thu, 11 Apr 2019 10:47:33 +1200 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post39392 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/38272/Sharing-the-risk-update/ So we've heard that IAG's reason for ceasing to offer domestic insurance in Wellington is because they are over-exposed in the region. Apparently IAG through its many and varied brands (State, AMI, Lumley, various Bank products, Lantern, and NZI) has over 50% of the market in Wellington. I'm not sure if this is just in the domestic market or also in commercial property as well (IAG have a large commercial book as well). This suggests that IAG is being prudent (over-exposure in Christchurch and l... Thu, 14 Mar 2019 13:02:22 +1300 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post38272 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/37186/Sharing-the-risk/ In light of news that insurers are now using "risk based pricing"* which means that "high risk areas" won't be offered certain classes of business https://www.radionz.co.nz/news... I thought I'd offer some thoughts on the performance of the domestic insurance market in New Zealand since 2010 (specifically since September 2010). The reason for my musings are that since the CES events, earthquakes are a bit of a trojan horse/bogeyman. For example, if you talk to geophysicists, their asse... Tue, 12 Feb 2019 08:58:57 +1300 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post37186 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/36852/The-Reserve-Bank-and-FMA-review-of-the-life-insurance-industry/ The Reserve Bank and FMA have publicised their findings of poor practices within the life insurance industry; https://fma.govt.nz/news-and-r... . The review raises issues around culture and practice in sales and claims. It's no secret that there have been concerns around the use of sales incentives for brokers and other intermediaries in the sale of life policies, for a number of years, and I am unsurprised by the outcome of this aspect of the review. It's also no surprise that there a... Wed, 30 Jan 2019 08:27:22 +1300 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post36852 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/post/30930/Canterbury-Earthquakes-Insurance-Tribunal-Bill/ Yesterday, 1 August 2018, the Ministry of Justice published the a bill to establish an insurance Tribunal to address insurance disputes arising from the Canterbury Earthquake Sequence of 2010 in 2011. The Tribunal will be called the Canterbury Earthquakes Insurance Tribunal ("the Tribunal").  This development is welcome although as with anything, the devil is in the details. My thoughts are: THE GOOD That the tribunal is being established at all is a great development and all credit to the... Thu, 02 Aug 2018 11:22:57 +1200 http://www.assurelegal.co.nz/blog/#post30930