Fidelity Newsletter

Hi there,

We are on a mission to grow and that means growing with you. Pivotal to this is ensuring we have the best team to support you, our adviser community. We also do relationships differently, and none are more important to us than the ones we share with you.

This is why we are very excited to announce some changes to our team that will undoubtedly strengthen our service, create better relationships and make doing business with us even easier. This includes the growth and promotion of some of our team, along with some talented new hires, who also bring a wealth of knowledge and skills to help us continue to grow together.

Fresh and familiar new faces.

Craig Wagstaff
Head of Individual Life

Following the promotion of David Winspear to Chief Operating Officer, we are thrilled to announce Craig Wagstaff has been appointed as the new Head of Individual Life, starting on 9-June. In this role, Craig will lead all aspects of our intermediated distribution strategy and channel performance.

Craig brings extensive expertise in life insurance, adviser relationships and bancassurance partnerships. His impressive career includes serving as Head of ASB Partnership and Head of New Business Operations at AIA NZ, National Sales Manager at Southern Cross, and most recently holding the executive position of Group General Manager Franchise, Brand and Marketing at New Zealand Home Loans.

With his wealth of experience, Craig is the perfect fit to provide valuable strategic leadership and continue to drive our growth.

Simon Millward
New role: National Partnerships Manager
- Corporate and Growth

We are excited to welcome back Simon Millward into the newly created role of National Partnerships Manager – Corporate and Growth, starting in April. As our former Head of Service Excellence, Simon was instrumental in adviser onboarding, customer value and retention, customer advocacy and complaint resolution, and quality assurance.

In his new role, he will manage a portfolio of intermediary partnerships at both regional and national levels and support growth through new relationships.

Simon’s diverse leadership experience in life insurance and his enthusiasm for fostering strong partnerships will significantly benefit our adviser groups and your ongoing success.

Recognising growth with team promotions.

As part of our dedication to prioritise the right support for you, we are delighted to announce we are promoting 2 of our dedicated and talented Business Managers to Senior Business Managers for north and south.

The experienced and well-respected Fidelity Life veteran Peter Warfield will be our new Senior Business Manager for the north, with the dedicated and motivated Kirsty Michell taking the position for the south.

Peter Warfield
Senior Business Manager - North

Peter has been a driving force with Fidelity Life for over 14-years and is well respected among the adviser community. He expertly supports and guides his advisers with exceptional commitment and service, while supporting our strategic ambitions.

He will provide invaluable support to the wider distribution team while continuing to do the same for his advisers.

Kirsty Michell
Senior Business Manager - South

Kirsty has provided outstanding support to her lower South Island panel since joining us in 2023, swiftly seizing every opportunity for growth and connection with her advisers with enthusiasm and determination.

Her incredible commitment to supporting our growth ambitions and consistently providing advisers second to none service, we know Kirsty will continue to go from strength to strength for us and her advisers.

Following these well-deserved promotions, our 2 current Senior Business Managers,
Gary Binnie and Michelle O'Connell have had a title change to Regional Manager. This better reflects the exceptional leadership they bring to their respective regions in the north and south. It also recognises the dedication and talent that they bring to their roles, and how confident we are that they will continue to provide exceptional support to you and your teams.

Michelle O'Connell
Regional Manager - North

Michelle has an extensive life insurance background, working at Asteron Life, Sovereign (now AIA) and Cigna (now Chubb). Michelle's extensive knowledge and her passion for the industry are just some of the capabilities she brings to the Regional Manager role.

Gary Binnie
Regional Manager - South

Over the past 12-years Gary has been an integral part of Fidelity Life, consistently demonstrating his commitment to building meaningful relationships and supporting our strategic ambitions.

Southern support is almost here.

Another piece of exciting news for our distribution team is the long-anticipated arrival of our new Canterbury & Marlborough region Business Manager, Sam Paterson.

Sam brings with her a wealth of knowledge coming to us from FMG where she has had 13-years of experience, spanning roles in sales, business development, coaching, from being a consultant, to her current position as Canterbury Area Manager. We are confident Sam will be a fantastic addition to the team and a great support to our advisers down south. She joins us mid-April and will be in touch with her advisers in the coming weeks to get to know them better.

A great talent joining the advice profession.

In some bittersweet news, we will be saying goodbye to Auckland Business Manager
Kenny Kaushish as he transitions into an exciting new role as a financial adviser with his dad’s firm. His last day will be 30-June.

We see this as an exciting next chapter for him and are thrilled that we will continue to be part of his future in his new role as an adviser. We value the contributions he’s made during his
5-years with us, and we look forward to seeing him thrive as an adviser.

We will be actively recruiting for this role and looking forward to more talent joining the team in the coming months.

Growth in Group life.

For another good news growth story, we have an additional contract Group Business Manager joining our Group insurance team, aiming to support engagement and digital innovation initiatives to nurture our growing Group insurance portfolio.

Rhys Knight
New role: Group Business Manager (contract)

Rhys joins us from Suncorp New Zealand where he held various roles including Group Life BDM and Manager of Digital Customer Support and Business Solutions.

This new role enables us to provide greater support to Group advisers and offer more protection to employees across New Zealand.

By enhancing our capabilities in this area, we aim to create an environment where group advisers can thrive and contribute to better financial outcomes for a greater number of New Zealanders.

We hope you are as excited as we are with our newly shaped team, one that is designed with you in mind. We are confident we will continue to go from strength to strength, ensuring our growth together gets even easier with this dedicated and talented team.

If you have any questions about our new team or would like to get in touch, please reach out to your Business Manager.

Let’s keep growing together.

Ngā mihi,

Bronwyn Kirwan

Chief Commercial Officer

Fidelity Life House, Level 4, 136 Fanshawe Street, Auckland, 1010

0800 88 22 88 | [email protected]

Licence Number
803298

Disclaimer.
Fidelity Life has provided this information in good faith with the intention to provide general business information. This information should not be substituted for legal, tax, financial advice, or any other professional advice, may not be comprehensive, and should not be relied upon. Fidelity Life accepts no liability for any loss suffered by any person or organisation relying directly or indirectly on the information published. Information appearing in this publication may only be reproduced with the written consent of Fidelity Life and credit must be given to the source. © Fidelity Life Assurance Company Limited 2023.

Unsubscribe.
You're receiving this email because you signed up to receive updates from Fidelity Life. Click here to update your preferences or unsubscribe.