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Old hand hangs up hat After a 63-year insurance career Warren Duff has retired from the business that has been a huge part of his life.
O
n January 15, 1958, Warren Duff joined the National Insurance Company in Dunedin beginning what was to be a 63-year career in the insurance industry. “I had not made up my mind at 18 years of age for any career and insurance had a mild appeal. “After some five years, National promoted me to Rotorua as the company were opening a branch and were desperate for staff. They were long days and not what I enjoyed and after a reassessment of what I was there for, I called on Owen Longhurst, manager at Colonial Mutual Life.” Longhurst said Duff was probably too young at age 25 to sell life insurance but he was prepared to give him go. “Those first few months were desperate as I did not know what I was doing, then CML invited me to a course in Wellington where I met Raymond Benedict Creevey. “Ray was a big writer and he discussed a number of pointers with me which I could understand. One was to call on all the people with ‘provided’ homes such 24 | ASSET 03 | 2021
BY MATTHEW MARTIN
as teachers, farmworkers and railway employees and offer them cover to secure a home for a potential widow.” So, Duff decided to call on workers at Turangi where the dam was being built. “I could not keep up with the business as cover on the person’s life deducted from wages was very popular ... on one trip I completed 17 sales in two days. “This led me to other areas such as the prisons at Rangipo and Hautu where the wardens all had provided homes, it was business galore.” It was at this time that Duff filed his first claim for a death “... and that cemented the popularity of the plan design because prospects could see the plan at work”. However, Colonial needed Duff to move to Hawke’s Bay and so he was transferred as a manager to Hastings where the local branch was "... indeed very sad". After 17 years in management, he decided it was time to return to the road so Duff formed a brokerage business – Hawke’s Bay Insurers – where he applied the techniques he had used years before, but this time on farm managers and the like.
“One day a young man called into the office to insure a boat. “He accepted my quote then I asked him his occupation, he was the farm manager of a large station in the bay. I pointed out his exposure and he agreed to cover on his life and paid the $40 premium deposit. “An hour later he was dead. He had swerved to avoid hitting a person on a pedestrian crossing, hit a lamppost and was killed. I still had the proposal on my desk. “Colonial paid the claim, and it reinforced what I was doing in the business as offering protection where it never existed. The widow was able to purchase a home that she never knew was in her husband’s estate. The policy was in force for say one hour.” Duff then moved into partnership cover and again witnessed how important life insurance was when he arranged cover for two men in the deer processing business. “A month later one was accidentally killed in the bush, mistaken for a deer. The business continued with a large injection of cash, [his] widow was bought out and the business prospered.”
