Mutual and cooperative insurers stand apart in today’s financial services landscape because their purpose is to serve people, not shareholders. In this personal reflection, Matt Harvey, Chief Distribution and Marketing Officer, MAS (New Zealand) shares insights from more than 15 years of experience working in New Zealand’s mutual sector, including his current role at MAS. His story highlights how mutuals reinvest profits to benefit members, strengthen communities, and build long-term resilience – while remaining guided by values of trust and service.

Cooperative Business New Zealand lists that there are 302 cooperatives, mutuals, societies and credit unions in New Zealand. This covers a wide range from producer cooperatives like Fonterra, consumer cooperatives like Farmlands out to financial services cooperatives and insurance mutuals like Co-Op Bank, and MAS.

Over the past 15 years, I’ve had the privilege of working in two of New Zealand’s leading mutual insurance and financial services organisations. Currently, I’m the Chief Distribution and Marketing Officer at MAS, which I think is New Zealand’s best kept secret in financial services. We provide general insurance, life insurance and investment advice to our Members, providing them with a one stop shop to help Members grow their wealth and protect it for the future. Prior to this, I spent 12 years at FMG (another ICMIF member), New Zealand’s leading rural insurer, starting as an Advice Analyst and ending up as Chief Marketing Officer.

Originally set up by doctors for doctors, MAS now has around 80% of medical practitioners insured with us. The only difference today, is that we welcome all New Zealand professionals and their families. This includes dentists, veterinarians, lawyers and engineers, to name just a few.

At MAS, we’re a 100% New Zealand-owned mutual. That means if you hold an insurance policy or investment with us, you become a Member and owner. This ownership model is the foundation of everything we do. It shapes our priorities, our culture and our long-term vision.

What’s kept me in the mutual space is simple: it’s the people. More specifically, it’s the way mutuals are designed to serve people, not shareholders.

Being 100% New Zealand owned means not a single dollar goes to offshore shareholders, and I think that is one of the reasons people are attracted to mutuals.

One of the biggest advantages of being a mutual is that we’re profit-making, not profit-maximising like a traditional share driven business. Our focus is on delivering the best possible outcomes for our Members. At MAS, we look to make a profit to:

• reinvest into the business to give better experiences, services and products to our Members
• build financial reserves to protect our Members in the future, and
• invest in philanthropic work through MAS Foundation.

Our MAS Foundation is something I’m particularly proud of. While our business goal is to help grow Members’ wealth and protect what’s important to them, a cornerstone of our identity is our commitment to improving the health and wellbeing outcomes of our communities through MAS Foundation. It was established in 2019 after our Members voted to create it, reflecting a shared desire to improve health and wellbeing equity across Aotearoa New Zealand.

Our unique mutual structure means that our Members have the opportunity to vote on important initiatives such as MAS Foundation and our MAS Board appointments. The mutual structure means our Members have the opportunity to play an important part in shaping our strategic direction.

The mutual company structure was once more common in New Zealand than it is today. Many insurance companies in New Zealand started out as mutuals but demutualised over the past few decades. I can understand why this was an option or path taken by these companies; not least for the fact that it can give easier and faster access to capital by accessing public markets.

MAS has stayed a mutual as we want to stand for something different and remain a different option for professional New Zealanders. It’s not merely about the services we provide; it’s about building life-long relationships that grow stronger over time, founded on trust, respect and a deep understanding of our Members.

Of course, our challenges in general insurance at MAS are similar as those across the industry. New Zealand’s exposure to extreme weather and seismic activity means we have to ensure our risk analysis, coverage limits and pricing, are in line. Thankfully, 2024 was a calm year for us, which helped us avoid significant increases to our base prices.

Across all our business lines the pace of technological change is rapid and MAS, like many businesses, needs to modernise and replace our legacy systems to ensure we can maintain the high service standards our Members expect. In fact, our exceptional service and claims experience has led our Members to vote us Consumer People’s Choice nine years in a row for our House, Contents and Car insurance, so it’s important to us that this service remains. In Canstar’s 2025 insurance awards, MAS has also been awarded Most Satisfied Customers awards for Home and Contents Insurance, Car Insurance and Seniors Insurance. This recognition is based on feedback from over 6,400 New Zealanders and is an outstanding reflection on MAS’s commitment to delivering exceptional service, value and support to our Members

Another area I’m passionate about is the delivery and provision of advice. Our Members and all New Zealanders deserve, and need access to, quality advice across insurance and investments. Ensuring that this need is met is a constant focus. This is particularly important with investments, as quality advice can be the difference between retiring well or struggling in your later years. That advice is needed earlier in life at age 30 or 40, to help shape your financial wellbeing at 60 and beyond. That’s why we’re focused on making expert advice accessible to all our Members through our nationwide direct network of MAS Advisers.

Whether it’s insurance or investments, quality advice can make a huge difference – especially when it comes early.

At MAS, we’re proud to be an insurance and investment mutual that puts our Members at the heart of our decision making. We’re not chasing quarterly earnings targets but reinvesting profits to build a business that is financially strong and contributes to a better New Zealand through the work of MAS Foundation. We’ve been supporting our Members for over 100 years, so when we say we’ll be here for many generations to come, we mean it.