Our Insurer

At the end of 2019, NZI (the iag Group) decided to exit the specialised travel area of insurance. Their long-term backing for more than 15 years has been exceptional, but our move to Zurich is very much a positive step in the inbound travel insurance market.  

Zurich is one of the world’s leading multi-line insurers with about 54,000 employees. The group provides property and casualty, and life insurance products and services in more than 210 countries and territories. Zurich’s customers include individuals, small businesses and mid-sized and large companies, as well as multinational corporations.

How would the insurer change affect you?

  • All insurance policies issued on or before 30th November 2020 will remain insured with NZI.  OrbitProtect will continue to manage claims, cancellations, and adjustments.
  • All policies paid on or before 30th November 2020 will remain insured with NZI, even if the policy is issued on and after 1st December 2020.
  • For all other new policies, the insurer will be Zurich. OrbitProtect will manage claims, cancellations, and adjustments as it does now.
  • Seasonal Worker policies (The RSE programme) remain to be underwritten by NZI until 01 January 2021.

In New Zealand, Zurich’s general insurance products are underwritten by Zurich Australian Insurance Limited (ZAIL), trading as Zurich New Zealand. ZAIL has an insurer financial strength rating of A+ from Standard & Poor’s (Australia) Pty Ltd. This rating shows that the company has strong financial security characteristics. An overseas policyholder preference applies.

Under Australian law, if ZAIL is wound up, its assets in Australia must be applied to its Australian liabilities before they can be applied to overseas liabilities. To this extent, New Zealand policyholders may not be able to rely on ZAIL’s Australian assets to satisfy New Zealand liabilities. For more information: https://www.zurich.co.nz/about-us/financial-strength.html

NZI, a business division of IAG New Zealand Limited which received a Standard & Poor's (Australia) Pty Ltd financial strength rating of AA-. For more information about NZI please visit http://www.nzi.co.nz

The rating scale is:

AAA Extremely Strong

AA Very Strong

A Strong

BBB Good

BB Marginal

B Weak

CCC Very Weak

CC Extremely Weak

SD Selective Default

D Default

R Regulatory Supervision

NR Not Rated

The ratings from ‘AA’ to ‘CCC’ may be modified by the addition of a plus (+) or minus (-) sign to show relative standing within the major rating categories. The rating scale above is in summary form. A full description of this rating scale can be obtained from www.standardandpoors.com.

 

05/10/2023