What AMP's changes in New Zealand mean for you

What AMP's changes in New Zealand mean for you

Over 10,000 of our Lifetime clients have AMP policies and investments. Lifetime Group’s Managing Director Peter Cave explores the impact AMP’s New Zealand disinvestment is likely to have on you.

OPINION: Last week, AMP announced its decision to exit its Australian and New Zealand life insurance business after more than 160 years here, to focus on its core business in Australia.

This move is part of the insurance company’s strategy to simplify its product offering to exclude life insurance and cease all operations in New Zealand.

AMP will sell its New Zealand life insurance portfolio to global company, Resolution Life Group. The sale agreement preserves the terms and conditions of all existing policies and cover will be honoured.

If you have any AMP products, you don’t need to do anything. Your policy will continue offering the same level of cover, despite the change in ownership. You are fully protected as per the terms of your existing policy. If you need to make a claim against your policy, you can contact your Lifetime financial adviser as you normally would.

The sale of AMP’s life insurance book is set to take place in the second half of 2019, and Resolution Life will take over as the insurance provider (subject to approval by regulators). But who exactly are Resolution Life?

Resolution Life is a global, specialist life insurance group, focusing solely on taking over existing policies. They do not take on new customers, but rather focus on looking after existing life insurance policy holders.

For more than 15 years Resolution Life has successfully managed life insurance policies in different countries. They’ve bought 27 other life insurance businesses in that time, so they do know their stuff.
A major benefit of Resolution Life stepping in is that existing policy holders will have an insurer dealing only in life insurance, with no other area of business competing for attention or equity.

I expect Resolution Life will focus on keeping existing clients happy in order to retain them. Lifetime customers can expect to benefit from their solid, international expertise and commitment to customer service.

AMP also plans to take its KiwiSaver, superannuation products and wealth management portfolios to the market next year in an initial public offering (IPO), subject to market conditions and regulatory approvals.

While this process takes place, you can expect no change to the value of your investment. There will be no impact on how AMP’s fund managers oversee investment portfolios. Because your money is invested in the market, not AMP, it’s business as usual.

Once the IPO is complete and there is a new ownership structure for these investment products, there may or may not be changes in products offered. New owners or shareholders can possibly lead to an improvement in management and product offering. We’ll keep you informed of developments once the IPO exercise is finalised.

If you’d like more information or have any concerns about these AMP changes, please contact your Lifetime financial adviser.

Every customer has the option to move their policy and investments – but it’s important that if you do this, you do so for the right reason. At the moment, there’s nothing to suggest any changes to existing AMP policies, cover or investments and therefore we see no need for you to make changes.

However, if you have concerns or would like to consider other options. As experts in the field offering “Advice For Life”, we will happily assist you to carefully weigh up the options available to you.

Peter Cave is the Managing Director of Lifetime Group Limited and Camelot NZ Limited.