NZ life insurance consulting pioneer, Russell Hutchinson, took out the marquee prize in the Financial Services Council (FSC) annual awards last week.
Hutchinson, founder of the Auckland-based Chatswood Consulting, won the Chairman’s award for service to the industry in the first live FSC annual conference of the COVID era.
He has a long history in the NZ financial services business, launching Chatswood in 2000 offering bespoke consulting and in-depth research across the life and health insurance sectors.
Hutchinson also established life insurance product comparison business, Quotemonster, in 2012.
In the influential Chatswood ‘Moneyblog’ last week, he said:
“The whole [FSC] event provides an incredibly valuable forum for policymakers, regulators, economists, politicians, and more to engage with the wider financial services sector. Innovation and excellence in quite technical areas – like building engagement between insurers and customers; supporting good customer outcomes; and excellence in claims, product development, technology, and workplace savings – these are areas that would simply not be identified and celebrated if this event did not exist.”
The FSC conference had been dogged by bad timing over the previous two years with COVID outbreaks pushing the events into digital-only affairs.
Kernel co-founder, Dean Anderson, was also named as ‘emerging leader’ in the FSC awards with the full list of winners and nominees as below:
Chairman’s Award for Service to the Industry
- David Greenslade, Strategi Group
- Russell Hutchinson, Chatswood Consulting (Winner)
- Steve Wright, Partners Life
- Tracey Cross, Women in Super
- Trisha Edmonds, ANZ
Emerging Leader Award
- Dean Anderson, Kernel Wealth (Winner)
- Josie Crimmins, Whai Rawa Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu
- Leah Keys, Mercer
Team of the Year Award
- Cigna – Product, Marketing and Distribution teams
- It Starts With Action Working Group (Winner)
- Kernel Wealth – Marketing team
- Partners Life – Claims team (Highly commended)
- Summer KiwiSaver scheme
Improving Consumer Outcomes Award
- Compliance Refinery
- Kernel Wealth
- Lifetime Retirement Income
- Mercer
- Partners Life – Customer Outcomes team
- Partners Life – Product team
- Shaun Black, ASB
- Whai Rawa Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu (Winner)
Innovation and Wellbeing Award
- AIA New Zealand – NZ Adviser Wellbeing research
- AIA New Zealand – Products and Investments team (Winner)
- Mercer (Highly commended)
Governance Award
- AIA New Zealand
- New Zealand Automobile Association (Winner)
Workplace Savings Award
- Bruce Kerr
- Chye Heng, Beca (Winner)
- David Young, Maritime Retirement Scheme
- Mercer