Pinnacle Life

Best Online Life Insurance Company – New Zealand 2022 –

We aspire to be a leading online life insurer. We’ve been doing online Life Insurance longer than anyone else (in the world!), and we think we’re pretty good at it. Our strategy is centred around making it easier for people to understand and buy the life, income protection, trauma, and disability cover they want for themselves. We aim to make life insurance:

• accessible – you can do it yourself, online, without talking to anyone if you don’t want to
• simple to understand – we write everything in plain English, and try to make sure there are no surprises
• affordable – because we’re an online company it costs less to run our business, we pass that onto you, our customers by way of lower premiums.
• fast and easy – you can get a quote in 30 seconds and cover in 10 minutes with Pinnacle Life.

This strategy has led to a couple of significant innovations:

• In 2020 we launched a bundled product that made it easier for people to buy the cover they need. 

• In 2021 we launched a personalised digital advice tool. The tool is a first-of-its-kind online tool.

Our business has revolved around supporting these innovations and maximising the opportunities available. We are driven by funnel optimisation, with a strong emphasis on personalised sales. This means:

• Being data-driven, taking a robust test-learn-reset cyclic approach. We have a rolling ideation, test, review, and implement cycle for advertising, our website, app, customer emails and SEO.
• Using technology effectively to identify and reach our prime customers. This year we have been focused on selecting which tools and technology can help us most effectively. This includes tools for multivariate testing (CRO), email automation, personalised videos, SEO and work process management. 
• A focus on keeping costs low and therefore reducing our cost per policy. By keeping a strong focus on both acquisition and maintenance expenses, we run a more profitable business, ensuring better long-term security for our customers.
• Two key themes – traffic generation and lead conversion. Traffic generation focuses on the top half of our funnel, driving awareness and consideration. Lead conversion focuses on consideration and acquisition – converting those who have, for example, already been to our website or through digital advice.

Over the last couple of years, the NZ life insurance industry has been significantly affected by regulatory changes. The impact of those changes has been compounded by Covid, causing significant distraction and disruption. Amongst this activity and uncertainty, Pinnacle Life has shown strong performance.

• We have a ~1% share of the existing life insurance market. But over the last year, we have consistently achieved over 6% of new business. This achievement has moved us up from 9th place to 6^th in terms of new business market share ranking.
• We are one of only two life insurers to have new business exceed lapse numbers for the last four quarters.