FSC Guidance On Coronavirus and Life Insurance

On 16 March the New Zealand Financial Services Council released a press release about COVID-19 (coronavirus).

The “guidance” offered was “have a look at your policy”.

The guidance was very sparse on any detailed information with the promise that “our members are working to ensure that they can give both new customers and current policyholders the certainty and information they need”.

The release further stated that “we’ll continue to monitor coronavirus and its impacts on the insurance market closely.” The insurance industry will be very concerned about COVID-19.

I question what, if any utility there was in releasing this statement. In my view, this release was guidance without any concrete guidance. Very helpful indeed.

Compare the above NZ FSC statement with the guidance from the Australian FSC which stated that: “There are no exclusions in existing life insurance policies that would prevent the policy paying out for a death claim related to coronavirus”.

I know which guidance I think is more useful.