Hosted by our RISK Members Advisory Committee, this month’s Super Wednesday features three informative presentations led by industry experts Dean Logan, Cecila Farrow and Steve De Jong. Stay ahead of the curve and learn how to boost your efficiency and streamline workflows with the latest technology, understand how to optimise insurable income for self-employed clients, and clever automated underwriting solutions for pre-existing health conditions.

• Part 1: Sm8artHealth – led by Steve De Jong, founder and director Sm8rtHealth
• Part 2: Optimising insurance income for self employed clients – led by Ceclia Farrow
• Part 3: Boost your efficiency and compliance with technology – led by Dean Logan, Chair of Risk MAC

Part 1:  “Sm8rtHealth” led by Steve De Jong, founder and director of Intelligent Life and Sm8rtHealth

How often do you uncover pre-existing health conditions in your client conversations and wonder what the impact will be on the insurance products you can offer them or the terms they will get? How much time do you spend before giving advice on getting pre-assessments done? How do you know if the terms that are offered are the best you can get for your client? Imagine how powerful it would be if you had an app which could give you instant underwriting predictions based on the disclosed conditions and other relevant factors you have for a client.

Introducing Steve De Jong,  founder and director of the Sm8rtHealth app. Sm8rtHealth specializes in automated underwriting solutions for insurers and the financial services industry, and Steve will demonstrate how this app can give you robust and efficient underwriting risk assessments in an instant.

About Steve De Jong

In 2007 Steve co-founded Intelligent Life, a business specialising in the design and deployment of automated life and health underwriting systems for the insurance industry. Fast forward to 2021 and Steve continues his journey with Sm8rtHealth LLP, a business focused on creating the next generation underwriting tool to enable low touch risk assessment through using multiple data sources and elastic search of a comprehensive knowledge base of conditions and ailments. Sm8rtHealth provides solutions to insurers and financial advisers to facilitate automated underwriting and expedient processing and the sales cycle.

Part 2: “Optimising Insurable Income for Self Employed Clients,” led by Cecilia Farrow

This informative session will cover the importance and process for optimising the gross insurable income of a self-employed person.

For self-employed clients, their personal taxable earnings are unlikely to reflect the income received to them or their household from their business. A business gives owners the opportunities to include what would otherwise be personal expenses into deductible business expenses e.g. home office, motor vehicle, phones. They can also pay shareholder salaries to spouses even though the spouses disablement may have little impact on the revenue the business generates.

It’s therefore important to put the client in the best financial position possible and to maximise their insurable income by including all the allowable add-backs based on that client’s situation.

In this session, you’ll discover:

• Why optimising the gross insurable income of a self-employed person is in the clients best interests
• What add backs are allowed
• What information you need from a client to calculate the total income you can use for Income Protection
• How to do the calculations
• How to present the information to an underwriter

About Cecilia

Cecilia has committed the past 25 years of her working life to become an expert in advice in the Life Insurance sector and which has led to her to develop market-leading customer-centric advice processes in Personal and Business Risk advice.

Beginning her career in the Life Risk sector in 1995 as an adviser within her own Financial Advice firm she honed the skills of consultative selling in risk advice and then used this experience to develop holistic sales approaches which have continued to form the basis of customer engagement today.

Cecilia has continued to pioneer innovation over the past 20 years within the sector and during that time she built a franchise adviser channel in 2007, lead the development of the fintech advice platform Triplejump, lead the development of an online learning platform and e-module programme, develop and facilitate adviser training programmes in Business Risk and champion the innovation of Business Risk insurance solutions.

Cecilia’s passion is working alongside advisers to train, coach and mentor them so that they become true market leaders in risk advice and have thriving successful businesses.

Cecilia has been actively involved in leadership positions within the professional associations over her years in the financial services sector and is currently the Practitioner Director-Risk on the board of Financial Advice New Zealand. She was re-elected for a second term in October 2020.

Part 3: “Boost Your Efficiency & Compliance with Technology” led by Dean Logan, Chair of our Risk MAC

In the ever-evolving world of finance risk, staying ahead of the curve has become more critical than ever before. We live in a time where technology is playing an increasingly significant role in almost every aspect of our lives, and the financial services industry is no exception. One of the keys to thriving in this competitive landscape is embracing technology to improve efficiency whilst ensuring compliance obligations are met.

With his extensive experience in leadership, compliance, and insurance product development, Dean is uniquely positioned to share valuable insights on leveraging innovative apps, software, and platforms to streamline your workflow. Transitioning to technology-driven processes saves time, reduces costs, enhances record-keeping compliance and improves client satisfaction in your financial advisory practice.

In this session, you’ll discover:

• How to leverage innovative apps, software, and platforms to boost your efficiency and streamline your workflows.
• Strategies to transition from traditional task completion methods to technology-driven processes.
• Tech solutions to enhance record-keeping compliance and safeguard against potential pitfalls.

This session is designed to equip you with valuable ideas and strategies to help you review your current processes, identify areas for improvement, and integrate technology seamlessly to create greater efficiencies within your financial advisory practice.

About Dean Logan

Dean is an experienced financial professional with over two decades of experience in the insurance industry. His career took off in 1998 and has since seen him assume various leadership roles, including a National Leadership Specialist for ACE Insurance, where he was responsible for coaching, developing the leadership team, and building nationwide leadership systems. His expertise extends to managing sales teams, new insurance product development, and ensuring audit and compliance risk management.

Currently, Dean holds several roles, including Risk MAC Chair for Financial Advice New Zealand’s Member Advisory Committee, Adviser Council at Fidelity Life, and Deputy Chair for the Community Wellbeing North Canterbury Trust. He also serves as the Managing Director of Logan Smythe & Associates, a firm specialising in providing expert personal and business risk advice in the life insurance sector.

Don’t miss out on this 1.5-hour special webinar, featuring three thought-provoking and informative presentations led by industry experts. Register now to secure your spot.

How do I join the webinar series? Zoom Link– simply click on the link to register for the series
Can I ask questions during the webinar? Members will be provided the opportunity to ask questions via the written ‘chat’ function or the Q & A tab.
What is the cost? Free for Financial Advice Members and $50+gst for non-members.