New Zealand

Axco provides details on the life insurance sector including New Zealand market participants, reinsurance and distribution channels. The reports describe classes of business from both individual and group life such as whole life, endowment, term life and unit-linked.
Information on non-life classes for example critical illness and private medical insurance.

The report describes the public and private healthcare system in New Zealand, the scope of cover, accessibility financing and provides an analysis of how the public and private systems complement each other.

Axco reports on the three pillars of New Zealand's pension provision.

• State pension benefits including benefit calculations and eligibility criteria 
• Workplace pension provision; types of schemes calculations eligibility and; tax implications
• Voluntary individual pension provision, type of products and tax implications

The New Zealand report provides an in-depth analysis of the regulatory framework governing social security as well as details on financing and eligibility. Information includes but is not limited to

• state pensions,
• permanent disability benefit
• occupational accident and disease
• maternity and paternity payments 

Notionally, the New Zealand life insurance market posts steady low single digit premium growth year-on-year, up 4.28% in 2019 to NZD 2.68bn (USD 1.78bn). Structural dysfunction, however, has long undermined the market, depressing provider profitability and inflating consumer costs. Lapse rates have exceeded new business since around 2012 reported the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) in May 2016; in reality, the market is "stagnating" with penetration a little over a third of that of neighbouring Australia ....

Pillar I provision under New Zealand Superannuation (NZ Super), is a universal non-means-tested benefit paid from age 65, widely regarded as adequate for the lower paid. The target benefit for couples is 66% of the average, ordinary time, post-tax weekly wage. A 2013 report from the Commission for Financial Capability (CFFC), an independent government body, found that around 60% are reliant solely on NZ Super for income in retirement ....

New Zealand provides universal and comprehensive public health with high quality hospital care, free to citizens and permanent residents. The public sector is complemented by extensive private provision, meeting market demand by those prepared to pay to avoid potential rationing and extensive waiting periods in the public system.