The Financial Services Council (FSC) has announced the finalists for its 2026 awards programme at a moment when New Zealand’s life insurance sector is absorbing simultaneous pressure on three fronts: a regulator expanding its mandate, documented technology infrastructure risk, and a persistent gap between cover numbers and population size.
The FSC Awards Dinner is scheduled for Aug. 13 at the FSC26 Amplify conference, where Hon. Cameron Brewer, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs – who has held the portfolio since April 7, 2026 – will deliver a keynote address. His appearance carries regulatory significance. Brewer oversaw the departure of both the Financial Markets Authority (FMA) chair and chief executive in the months following his appointment. According to Risk Info NZ, the FSC welcomed Brewer’s appointment in April, with CEO Kirk Hope stating the council “looks forward to engaging constructively on matters that impact our sector and the consumers we serve.”
The FMA became New Zealand’s single conduct regulator for financial markets on July 1, 2026, absorbing consumer credit oversight from the Commerce Commission. That transfer arrives against a documented enforcement backdrop: close to $29.8 million in penalties and enforceable undertakings were issued against New Zealand insurers in the prior 12 months, including a $19.5 million penalty ordered against IAG New Zealand by the Auckland High Court in October 2025 for fair dealing breaches.
The FMA’s second annual Financial Conduct Report sets out three insurer-specific priorities for 2026/27: product design for new and redesigned products, the use of complaints data to drive improvements, and fraud detection and prevention – specifically insurance fraud. Dispute data from the Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO) Scheme points in the same direction: it accepted 600 disputes for investigation in the year to June 30, 2025, a 25% rise on the prior year and more than double the 285 recorded in 2022. The FMA has also written to insurers flagging that the Contracts of Insurance Act, which comes into effect on Nov. 15, 2027, represents a significant reform of New Zealand’s insurance contract law, and that delayed preparation increases the risk of compressed timeframes and avoidable compliance risks.
All four finalists in the Innovation of the Year Award, sponsored by PwC New Zealand, address operational inefficiency in life insurance – a pattern that directly corresponds to findings from the FMA’s own thematic review of insurer operational resilience, published July 8, 2026. Nearly three-quarters of respondents (74%) use legacy systems – defined as technology more than 10 years old – for core operations, and of those, 43% said more than 30% of their business functions depend on that infrastructure. The survey also found that 77% of insurer boards receive no regular operational resilience training.
Fidelity Life’s entry is its 3D Tool, designed to manage long-term disability claims assessed as non-recoverable or permanent. Partners Life submitted its Quote for Alteration (QFA) platform, which processes in-force policy changes in real time within a single system, cutting turnaround times from days to minutes. Public Trust entered its digital KiwiSaver early withdrawal system, launched in December 2025, replacing a manual process for financial hardship and serious illness applications. Simfuni submitted its Claims Workbench, developed in direct response to the fragmented legacy technology stacks across the life insurance industry that the FSC described in its awards documentation. Fidelity Life holds nominations across three separate categories – Innovation of the Year, Emerging Trailblazer, and Team of the Year – more than any other organisation in this year’s programme.
The community and ESG finalists are operating against a documented underinsurance backdrop. FSC industry data shows four million life insurance covers across New Zealand against an estimated population of 5.35 million as of March 31, 2026, with annual life insurance premiums reaching $3.31 billion – up 2.7% year-on-year – even as cover numbers continued to fall across several key products. The FSC’s 2024 Money & You: Managing Risk Through Challenging Times report puts the access gap in sharper relief: only 41% of New Zealand respondents hold life insurance and just 11% hold income protection cover, while around 70% of New Zealanders are underinsured. FSC CEO Kirk Hope has said New Zealand “continues to grapple with an underinsurance challenge.”
The Booster Foundation’s nomination relates to its My Money Kete programme, developed in partnership with Ngā Tangata Microfinance from 2022, which provides free financial education and mentoring to beneficiaries and low-income New Zealanders. nib New Zealand’s entry centres on a health access programme for Pacific Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers operating since 2022. Raizor’s Insurance for Good programme has raised more than $568,000 for charities since launching in 2020, with $350,000 donated in the past two years alone.
In the Excellence in ESG category, Sharesies was nominated for a KiwiSaver contribution matching programme contributing $0.25 for every $1 parents contribute to their children’s KiwiSaver accounts between July 2026 and June 2027, up to $100 from Sharesies. AIA New Zealand was nominated for operational sustainability work, while Public Trust’s nomination covers governance and financial wellbeing work through its Corporate Trustee Services division.
AIA New Zealand also appears in the Excellence in Wellbeing & Inclusion category for its Neurodiversity Toolkit, developed with disability organisations and made publicly available to other New Zealand employers. Southern Cross Medical Care Society was nominated in the same category for its gatHER women’s network, established in March 2025. The Emerging Trailblazer Award, sponsored by Swiss Re, names five individuals: Amy Cavanaugh of Public Trust; Michelle Doyle, Raffi Rassam, and Vincent Colombié of Fidelity Life; and Monique Ravening of Chubb Life Insurance New Zealand. The Team of the Year finalists are the Asteron Life Claims Team, the Fidelity Life Claims Team, the Partners Life Medical Claims Team, the Simfuni Transformation Team, and the Westpac Financial Inclusion and Wellbeing Team. The Chair’s Award for Service to the Industry and the Workplace Savings Award recipients will be announced on the night. Ticket sales for the dinner close July 29, 2026.
