Originally Posted by
Edbear
Oscar has always been the cute one!
I considered both whether to and where to post this thread, and since returning to the financial services arena after about 18 years, I was finding it a very interesting field! We specialise in personal and business risk insurance, but cover the areas in my sig. with people and companies who are top experts in their fields.
For example, out trust guy is none other than Jonathan Cron, Director of NZ Trustee Services and the only company authorised by IRD to do their auditing and provide specialist advice. He flies up from Chch each fortnight for Lighthouse, so that should also indicate the mana of my company... I can get my clients an interview with Jonathan free, so if anyone wants to know about setting up a family or commercial trust and wants it set up properly, who better to ask?
Our GM is an adviser to the insurance industry, apparently there are only about four people in the country who know what he knows - when insurance companies want to know stuff, they ask Kevin! He has enormous clout within the financial industry and has his own financial services company. I have seen him rescue seemingly hopeless situations that others have written off, simply due to his product knowledge and his influence with banks! Lighthouse were very keen to have him on board and it says something about the partners that he agreed to join!
Lighthouse is unique to NZ currently and as salaried advisers, our job is to review our clients situation and obtain the best outcomes for them. We combine the services as a package and are able to do things that many can't, or don't know about. We do at times find that a client has a very good broker for insurance who is doing well and getting good cover for their clients and in that instance we advise the client to stay where they are. We are advisers, not commissioned sales agents and as such we have more flexibility and credibility. We have, regretfully, also found clients who were obviously "advised" by agents and brokers more interested in their commission than the clients needs and have saved them anywhere from 25-45% on their costs.
We also find clients who have been sold the wrong products and would be at a loss in the event they needed to claim. Either not being able to claim at all, despite paying premiums, or that the payout would be much less than they would need, making their insurance a waste of money - not worth claiming on. Many are also simply paying far more than they need to for what they have.
Stand alone bike insurance, we refer to specialist bike insurers, as it's better to either do that, or as part of their entire insurance package. People like Tim, Classic and Kiwibike do good rates, hence me going to Tim rather than my own insurer. Star's quote was much dearer, and I was suitably impressed that Tim could get me a very competitive rate with Star, good enough that I didn't take the Classic quote.
It is true that some insurance companies want a broker's entire business or close to it, and Lighthouse turned one company down, which wanted 85% of our business for us to represent them. We said, "Sorry, we don't work that way" and they wouldn't deal with us. Upshot is, Lighthouse weren't too worried, as while the insurance company was one of the better and bigger ones, there are several above them and they are now willing to deal if we feel they are right for a particular client's needs.
We don't charge for our services, so anyone can meet with us and have us review their needs for free with no obligation.
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A pleasure to be of assistance.
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