…and wankers?
Wankers know what they’re doing.
Westpac sells NZ life insurance business
Westpac has signalled a gain on the sale of its New Zealand life insurance unit to Fidelity Life Assurance Company for $NZ400m ($373m), as it also weighs final bids for its larger Australian life division.
Westpac announced the sale in an ASX statement on Tuesday, highlighting it had also entered a 15-year distribution agreement with Fidelity for life insurance products to the bank’s customers. Completion of the deal remains subject to regulatory and other approvals and is expected by the end of 2021.
Thirty years ago I was a life broker in NZ when the banks muscled into the life business to make their fortunes. A wise old fellow told me then ‘They’ll fuck it up.’ And they did.
Bankers don’t understand insurance and insurers don’t understand banking.
That’s why you didn’t see insurance companies rushing into the banking business.
No Minister 
“That’s why you didn’t see insurance companies rushing into the banking business.” Quotes Adolf
Well in my view Insurance Companies are already Banks.
They take your money, they offer you a crap return, they tie you up in a contract, they end up with shit loads of cash in their vaults, and they have loads of customers who dont understand the risks or what they are truly getting into.
Just like a bank, so why buy or start a bank when you have a ready made one.
They fail just like banks too, moving into investment products they dont understand, just like AIA. That American Insurer who backed the All Blacks)
Rossco
You now little about that of which you speak.
Insurance companies don’t offer returns. Banks do. **
Insurance companies pay out large sums of cash in the event of a specific calamity. Banks don’t.
AIA IN America went broke because it overexposed itself to substandard mortgage default cover for people (mostly black bastards) who could not service and never could have serviced their loans. Such was Bill Clinton’s gift to financial services.
AIA in Australia and New Zealand were not affected.
**Insurance companies refer to past returns but never offer specific returns.
Sorry Adolf I could not disagree more with your assessment of my knowledge of the insurance industry. Certainly a large part of your working career was spent in the industry and you may have more detailed knowledge but
An insurance company is till just a specialised bank.
It offers a return to its customers.
For instance take car insurance I can self insure or I can buy car insurance.
Clearly I have evaluated the risk profiles of both actions and decided the better return for me is buying insurance
If I self insure then if one of my employees sticks the company truck up the arse of a Porsche Cayen SUV it is going to cost a “truck load” of money to repair both.
By parking that risk I increase my rate of return. (in my view)
The insurance company makes a shit load of money off my Premium as they have the inside knowledge on the risk profiles.
Life insurance policies are exactly the same. I never took out a Life Policy and neither did I take out medical insurance, I self insure.
My rate of return has been far greater than investing with either life or medical insurers, or for that matter investing it in the bank.
This investment behaviour and return analysis can all be proved with discounted cashflow anaylsis, and time horizons etc etc.
So insurance companies are exactly like banks, I think in fact they grew out of a need to offer services banks didnt offer.
They take your money. Tick
The inherently offer a rate of return. Tick
Some of their products are crap. Tick
They tie you up with the fine print. Tick
They end up with truckloads of money they need to find a home for. Tick
They have loads of customers who dont understand their products. Tick
They have loads of customers who dont understand the risk/ reward trade off. Tick
Like a bank once deposited you funds are not legally yours, the bank supplies an IOU. Tick
Insurance companies aRe no different to any other business, they wander off into non core businesses and mis spend their customers money.
There all solved.
You – just – do – not – understand.
Bankers assess return on investment.
Insurers assess risk.
Spot the difference.
“So insurance companies are exactly like banks, I think in fact they grew out of a need to offer services banks didnt offer.”
Go and read some history. You’ll find life insurance was invented by the Church of Scotland.