Business Advice Made Easy

14 April 2016

A new website called www.accalternative.co.nz is aiming to provide an easy way for business owners to find how they can save money on their insurance and get better protection. Set up by Kiwi Advisers, the website will allow people to answer a few simple questions then the online system will show them an estimate of the potential savings they could make, says Dave La Pere, owner of Kiwi Advisers.

He says a lot of business owners or self employed people don’t know how to choose the correct type and level of ACC cover to suit their needs and that getting it wrong is a real financial risk.

“For example statistics tell us that a person is 2.6x more likely to need to claim cover for an illness compared with an accident. And ACC only covers people in the event of an accident preventing them from working. Ill health and lack of health insurance is one of the four main causes of people going bankrupt,” explains Dave.

An ex builder, Dave set up Kiwi Advisers in January 2014, after extensive experience dealing with ACC related matters in the insurance industry and as a self employed builder. He says this has given him a sound understanding of the system from both sides of the equation – business owner and insurance broker. This is why he has chosen to specialise in ACC advice in his business as well as advice and information on a range of other financial products such as risk insurance and Kiwi Saver.
He points out that Kiwi Advisers is an independent brokerage:

“Kiwi Advisers has agencies with most of the major Insurance companies in New Zealand but we are not tied to any. This means we don’t work for the insurance companies, we work for the client as we have no vested interest in matching them with a particular product or service,” he explains.

Kiwi Advisers works similar to a mortgage broker in that the service is free to the client. Dave is a Registered Financial Adviser and Kiwi Advisers is a member of the New Zealand Financial Services Group.

He says many businesses could be paying too much for ACC.

“ACC has new Industry Classifications and plans that could bring a client’s ACC levies down. If they are a tradesman or self-employed, they’re probably paying too much. We help to legally reduce a client’s ACC Levies and also put in place better insurance protection,” he says.

Dave suggests that it is best to minimize risk by balancing ACC and insurance policies.  He says that often the result is that a client doesn’t have to pay any more than they already are but that they get better protection.

“For example a client may be paying too much to ACC. By helping them to reduce their premiums the extra cash they save can be used to purchase income protection insurance to also cover them in the event of illness,” he explains.

Dave says a big part of his role is educating clients. He hopes the new website he has set up will help people about the risks they are currently exposed to and how to mitigate these.

“Income protection is a new concept to a lot of people. But everyone ensures their houses are insured but the ability to earn an income is so much more valuable and this is often left uninsured. My job is to help educate the market to show them how they can increase their levels of cover to suit their requirements and protect their most important asset – themselves.”

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This post was written by Chris Boon