New Zealand general insurer Tower has started to remove the “duty of disclosure” placed on customers from its sales and claims processing systems for home, contents and car products.

It comes amid a review of insurance laws including changing the disclosure rules for consumers.

Tower will instead ask customers a series of questions, similar to one of the practices the New Zealand Government has proposed in a public consultation.

“We’ve been told one of the things that concerns people the most is not knowing for certain if their claim will be accepted and paid,” CEO Richard Harding said.

“It comes back to the tricky, catch-all question that insurers can ask when you buy insurance, along the lines of, Is there anything else we should know?”

“Which means that if customers unwittingly leave something out, they can be disappointed when it comes time to making a claim.”

Tower expects to complete the transition by the end of the year.