Tower is a New Zealand-based insurance company that provides car, home, contents, business, boat, pet, travel and other general insurance.
History
In 1869 the New Zealand Government provided the capital for the creation of the New Zealand Government Life Insurance Department (better known simply as Government Life). It became Tower Corporation in 1987 at a time when several New Zealand government departments and organisations were being corporatized or converted into state-owned enterprises. Three years later, ownership of Tower was transferred to policyholders as the business was mutualised.[1]
Being a mutual caused difficulties in raising capital and nine years later, in 1999, Tower demutualised and listed on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges.[2] Seven years later, in November 2006, Tower's Australian and New Zealand operations were separated with the approval of its shareholders and the high court. Today Tower is still shareholder-owned and listed on the NZX and ASX.[1][3]
Diversification from plain life insurance
In 1989, Tower bought the National Insurance Company of New Zealand Limited. Originally founding its Head Office in Dunedin in 1873, the National Insurance Company had now grown its operations throughout the world. National Insurance had bought the failed Standard Insurance Company Limited in 1961.[4] These businesses provided Tower's fire and general insurance divisions.
In 2012, Tower sold both its medical insurance (Tower Medical Insurance Limited) and its investment (Tower Managed Funds Limited) divisions. This was followed in 2013 with the sale of Tower's life insurance business.[5]
In line with many other New Zealand insurance companies, Tower announced on 10 April 2013 that it was moving away from full replacement house policies towards nominated sum insured covers, blaming international reinsurers.
In August 2021, Tower also began offering boat insurance policies online.[6]
In August 2022, Tower launched Contract works – Renovation cover. Where most house insurance policies only provide cover for minor alterations, Tower’s product, which is separate from house or builders’ insurance, covers large renovations.[7]
Digital transformation
Tower’s signature self-service digital platform, My Tower, was first launched in New Zealand in late 2019.[8] In March 2022 Tower launched My Tower in Fiji.[9] My Tower is the first insurance online portal in the Pacific that allows people to pay their insurance premiums, lodge a claim, get a quote, update their personal details, purchase a policy and view their insurance policies. By March 2023, My Tower was available in all Pacific island countries that Tower operates.[10]
In December 2020, Tower released its mobile app, GoCarma. The app rewards motorists for driving safely and is available to all New Zealanders.[11] Within a year of launching, the app recorded more than 10.5 million kilometres of driving. In December 2021, data from GoCarma revealed the towns with the best and worst drivers in New Zealand.[12]
In June 2021, Tower launched Quick Quote, an online quoting tool that automatically pulls publicly available sources and pre-populates information to cut down the number of questions asked of customers when sourcing an insurance quote.[13]
With Quick Quote, customers are asked five questions for car insurance, nine for house insurance and seven for contents insurance policies.
In November 2021, Tower announced it would share flood risk ratings with all New Zealanders by using data to match flood premiums to risk more accurately.[14] Customers’ properties would be categorised into a low, medium, high or very high-risk category and premiums priced accordingly.
In November 2021, Tower announced it is taking complete ownership of its subsidiary National Pacific Insurance Limited (NPI) to streamline its New Zealand and Pacific operations.[17] In August 2022, NPI began re-branding to Tower.[18]
In October 2022, Tower began piloting a parametric insurance product, Cyclone Response Cover in Fiji, in collaboration with the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).[19]
Today
Today, Tower operates across New Zealand and the Pacific Islands,[2] providing personal lines insurance and SME insurance for more than 319k customers,[20] and has ~9.2% market share of the NZ personal lines market.[21]
Tower’s 2022 full-year results reported underlying profit including large events of $27.3 million. Tower’s gross written premiums (GWP) rose 19% from the 2021 full year to $457 million.[22]
Tower’s head office is located in a 6 Green Star building on Fanshawe Street, Auckland.[23]
Tower’s recent awards include 2023 Canstar Home & Contents Insurance Outstanding Value Award, 2023 Canstar Innovation Excellence Award for its flood risk rating tool,[24] 2022 & 2021 Canstar Car Insurer of the Year Award & Canstar Outstanding Value Car Award,[25] 2022 Insurance Asia Insurtech Initiative of the Year - New Zealand[26] and the 2022 Insurance Business New Zealand General Insurer of the year.[27]
Tower released its new brand identity ‘Thinking Ahead’ in March 2022. The new branding matches Towers' growth strategy and customer-centric approach.[28]
In May 2022, Tower announced it will acquire TSB's insurance portfolio for $5.2 million. Tower has been underwriting TSB's portfolio since 2004. This is in addition to Tower’s recent acquisitions of Club Marine, ANZs insurance business and a small Westpac legacy portfolio.[29]
Industry partnerships
Tower's current partnerships include:
Trade Me Group, which offers online, home, contents and car insurance.[30]
The University of Auckland’s not-for-profit arm, UniServices, that analyses data on customer experience to improve insurance buying and claiming processes.[31]
Australia-headquartered insurtech firm, Open, that launched AI powered personalised insurance service Huddle in New Zealand.[32]
Allianz, one of the world’s leading travel insurance specialists, who deliver travel insurance and pet insurance products.[33]
The New Zealand Defence Force in 2021, providing tailored insurance policies, for current and former service men and women, and their families.[34]
Kiwi Advisor Network (KAN), an advisory firm, to streamline insurance referrals to KAN advisors and ensures a Tower adviser handles the insurance quote process from start to finish.[35]
Ray White, as a partner for its Concierge service. The service enables Ray White customers access to Tower’s leading My Tower platform, where they can update, claim and manage insurance quickly.[35]
MTF Finance, to enable MTF Finance customers to seamlessly insure a new asset. For a vehicle, this can be done before they drive it off the lot.[36]
Government Life postage stamps
A unique (in New Zealand) feature of the Government Life office was its use of custom postage stamps, first issued in 1891. This was the result of a dispute between the office and the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department over the correct calculation of postage costs.[37] All issues featured lighthouses, either in abstract designs or specific lighthouses from around New Zealand. New designs were issued in 1905, 1947 (surcharged at the time of decimalisation in 1967), 1969, and 1981. The use of these stamps was finally withdrawn in 1989.
^McLintock, Alexander Hare; James Oakley Wilson, D. S. C.; Taonga, New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu. "Standard Insurance". An encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, 1966. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
