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Insurance and Wearable Devices

Do you spend your lunch break walking around the block to reach your step count? You could be using this information to reduce how much you’re paying on health and life insurance…

There’s an increasing trend around the world for insurance companies to offer discounted premiums in return for the data from your wearable device.

Fitbits, apps, smart watches… with technological innovations only set to improve accuracy, step count, sleep patterns, heart rate, and physical activities are all able to be measured. You can record your weight through wifi scales, or add this and a wealth of other health indicators manually, including calorie and water intake, and general nutrition.

Using this information, data analysts can personalise the algorithms used to calculate your risk to the insurer of making a claim. If your individual risk assessment shows you’re less likely to be a cost to the health system, they can reduce your premium to retain you as a sought-after low-risk customer.

People who have a wearable device as part of their policy are also incentivised to improve health and fitness to meet targets for lower premiums, again improving their chance of living longer, healthier lives and reducing costs to the insurer.

Here in New Zealand, AIA’s Vitality program was launched in 2019 focusing on improving kiwi’s health and well-being through tracking key metrics on nutrition and activity.

Interested in learning more about offsetting your premiums through your wearable device health data?

Contact Joel at Advice Kiwi for a friendly chat to discuss your options.

Merry Christmas from everyone at AdviceKiwi

By Joel McLachlan • 20 Dec, 2022
It's almost Christmas! Joel, Steffi and the team at AdviceKiwi want to wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our office closes on Wednesday, 21th December 2021 and reopens Friday, 20th January 2022. Should you need to contact us urgently during this time, please do not hesitate to email Joel directly - joel@advicekiwi.co.nz Should you need to contact your insurer during this period please use the relevant Free Phone number below: HealthCarePlus: 0800 600 666 AIA New Zealand: 0800 500 108 nib nz limited: 0800 123 642 Southern Cross: 0800 800 181 Fidelity Life: 0800 900 167 Asteron: 0800 737 101 Partners Life: 0800 145 433 Cigna: 0508 464 999

ACC Cover Plus Extra and Private Income Protection

By Joel McLachlan • 14 Jun, 2022
Don't be like Jim. We love meeting with Self Employed people to help them structure their ACC levies and their Private Income Protection to make sure they're adequately covered, should they become disabled and unable to work. If you are Self Employed and you have haven't looked into ACC Cover Plus Extra; we would love to meet with you to go through your options. Send us a message, we'll buy you a coffee https://sharethis.video/will-acc-actually-cover-you/joel-mclachlan/?cache=62a7e0c5e37ce

Jennifer – The Unexpected Trauma Claim

By Joel McLachlan • 07 Apr, 2022
Jennifer (not her real name) had Life and Trauma cover which she took out with her then husband, a few years before we became her insurance advisers. Jennifer wanted to meet with us to talk about taking out new policy just for herself, as she and her husband had been divorced for a year, but their current covers were still jointly owned. Through the process of reviewing Jennifer’s existing policy, she mentioned that she had a heart attack which was trigged through the stress of her relationship breakdown. Her previous adviser had told her that she didn’t have cover for such an event – but that didn’t sound quite right to us. We had Jennifer provide us with the medical information, and we then approached her insurance company on her behalf. The insurer came back within a few days later and confirmed that Jennifer was in fact entitled to a payment of $50,000 under her Trauma Cover Policy. Whilst it is never nice to go through such a traumatic medical event, Jennifer was really appreciative that we had her best interests at heart, and took the time to ensure she got the funds which were rightfully hers. The funds enabled Jennifer to take time to make decisions about her next step in life, without having to worry about her immediate financial future. If you haven’t heard from your advisers in a while – send us a message. We’d love to meet with you to review your covers, and make sure you have the right types and levels of cover in place for your personal financial situation.
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