Chubb New Zealand’s Commitment to Treating Customers Fairly

The Fair Conduct Principle

As a licensed financial institution, we're committed to treating customers fairly.

We will:

  • pay due regard to your interests
  • act ethically, transparently and in good faith
  • assist you to make informed decisions
  • make sure our services and products meet the needs of our customers
  • not subject you to unfair pressure, tactics, or undue influence.
     

Our Chubb NZ Fair Conduct Principle reflects how our business puts you, as a customer, at our heart and centre. 

Chubb NZ Fair Conduct Principle
We place customers at the heart of everything we do. We look after our customers by listening to and understanding their needs, communicating honestly and clearly, and striving to make decisions free from personal bias. We take feedback seriously and commit to promptly put things right if we get them wrong.


We have developed a comprehensive fair conduct programme consisting of policies, procedures, systems, and controls that work together to ensure you receive fair treatment.

The summary of our fair conduct programme below is intended to empower you to understand how we treat customers fairly, make informed decisions about consumer products and services, and understand how to make a complaint if our conduct falls short. As we are a general insurer and a financial advice provider, the summary below reflects both roles.

What to expect

We start to consider your needs before your journey with us even begins.

We design new products and implement changes in accordance with our Product Development and Distribution Policy. This policy helps us identify and manage risks associated with product design and launch, ensuring a clear understanding on intended beneficiaries and the appropriate distribution channel.

Throughout the design process, we consider our customers’ requirements and objectives to ensure our products and the services we provide meet their needs. 

When considering what premiums to charge, our Product and Underwriting team look at a range of factors to determine the right price. This is based on information from our Actuarial team and internal criteria. 

There are multiple ways to buy an insurance product that we underwrite. You might:

  • talk to an independent financial adviser (insurance broker);
  • be offered insurance because of your job, credit card insurance or other group products.
  • contact us directly, through our travel insurance website;
  • contact us through our contact centre to purchase travel insurance from our nominated representatives;
  • engage with one of our online partners, like American Express, Cathay Pacific, or Spark;
  • engage with our retail partners like Spark.
     

Regardless of the channel you choose, we’ll always strive to treat you fairly. You can expect:

  • well-trained staff who understand our products;
  • clear and consistent processes;
  • we’ll look after your personal details;
  • information communicated in a way that you can understand; and
  • timely service, in accordance with relevant standards.

When you apply for insurance, we may ask you to disclose all relevant information to the risk being covered. This is important for us to be able to accurately assess your application. We hold this information securely and only the teams who need it can access it.

Our underwriting process enables us to assess your risk in accordance with our internal guidelines and risk appetite.

Sometimes our customers will have specific requirements for us to consider, such as health issues or riskier occupations or hobbies. If so you’ll be referred to our specialist Underwriting team. When the team reviews your application, you can expect:

  • clear and documented processes, aligned to internal system requirements
  • your information to be stored securely in our systems, along with records of our decisions and assessments
  • fair and impartial decisions based on internal underwriting guidelines.
     

Our insurance policies have a "cooling off" period, where you can cancel your policy at no cost. Your policy information is created, updated, and managed securely within our systems. 

When you hold a policy with us, you can expect to receive clear, concise, honest, accurate and timely information. Our aim is that all our communications – from the wording of our policies to our letters, calls, texts, and emails - are written in plain and easy to understand language.

You'll receive communications from us (or our partners) when:

  • your purchase insurance from us;
  • your policy renews at its anniversary date;
  • there are any changes to your cover; and
  • you request your policy to be cancelled. 
     

You can expect: 

  • timely service;
  • accurate information; and
  • clear communication.

When it comes time to make a claim, you can expect to be treated fairly. Our Claims team is trained in clearly explaining claims requirements and decisions. The materials used to communicate our decisions are regularly reviewed to ensure they are clear and easy to understand. We strive to pay all eligible claims we receive, and we understand the importance of paying these claims as quickly as possible. Our claims are subject to quality assurance processes to ensure adherence to our internal standards.

We're committed to supporting vulnerable customers and will approach every interaction with fairness and empathy. We understand that your circumstances may be unique, and we're here to listen, communicate, and work together to find the best way forward. For more information on how we ensure fair treatment of vulnerable customers, please see our website.

We sometimes distribute our products through partners, and we have robust processes in place and perform regular oversight to ensure they're upholding the standards we expect. We appreciate that we have mutual responsibility for treating our customers fairly, so we choose to work with partners and independent financial advisers (insurance brokers) who share our values relating to fair customer treatment and have customers at their heart. 

Complaints

Our complaints process

We take your concerns very seriously and have a detailed complaint handling and dispute resolution procedures that you may access, at no cost to you. Our Complaints and Customer Resolution Service is committed to reviewing complaints objectively, fairly and efficiently and our team members are independent of the original decision maker. We are also a member of an external complaints resolution service operated by Financial Services Complaints Limited (FSCL) and approved by the Minister of Consumer Affairs.

If we can't resolve your complaint, or two months have passed since it was made, we'll issue a letter explaining that either we've reached a deadlock, have closed the complaint or that it remains open and we’ll be continuing to send communications.

To ensure we manage complaints fairly, we’re committed to: 

  • training our teams on how to manage complaints honestly and effectively, including how to support vulnerable customers;
  • recording complaints in a complaints management system to better understand trends; and
  • providing oversight over the complaints process by reporting to the Senior Leadership Team and our Board.
     

For more information on how to make a complaint, please see our Complaints and Dispute Resolution.

You can request for a copy of this document at any time by contacting us via general enquiry.

More information

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