Top short-term insurance team to head up Elite – Old Mutual Insure’s new select customer insurance underwriter

Christelle Colman and Tarina Vlok.

Old Mutual Insure has appointed a solid leadership team to run a new business within the group that will provide bespoke short-term insurance and personal risk management solutions to the high net worth insurance market. Elite Risk Acceptances is a wholly owned subsidiary of Old Mutual Insure and will act as a specialist underwriter for the insurer with specific focus on customised personal insurance solutions.

For a number of years now, the broker market has requested a bespoke insurance solution for the high-net worth segment from Old Mutual Insure. Entry into this challenging market has been facilitated when early in 2018, a team with specialised skills and expertise became available and it was decided to expand the Old Mutual Insure offering into the higher net-worth market. It is with great pleasure we announce that Christelle Colman has taken up the position of Managing Director of Elite Risk Acceptances with effect from 1 June 2018. Colman’s last post was a two-year stint as CEO of Europ Assistance South Africa where she gained invaluable exposure to the global insurance market. She is however, no stranger to the short-term insurance industry, having previously been first in the executive team and later at the helm of MUA Insurance Acceptances for almost 10 years.

Prior to that, she spent time as Head of Personal Lines Underwriting at Santam. Colman has been an innovator and was the Founder and Managing Director of Thatch Risk Acceptances in 1998

Tarina Vlok has been appointed as General Manager at Elite Risk Acceptances. Vlok brings with her 17 years of experience in the short-term insurance industry and joins the company after most recently spending nine years as Product Development Manager at Santam. Like Colman, Vlok also served two terms as President of the Insurance Institute of the Cape of Good Hope. She holds a B. Juris degree from the University of Port Elizabeth, as well as a number of qualifications from the University of Cape Town, the University of South Africa, the Insurance Institute of South Africa (IISA) and the College of Insurance.

Hannes Wilken, Old Mutual Insure’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, says Elite Risk Acceptances will provide customised and bespoke services to some of Old Mutual Insure’s clients. “We have no doubt that this partnership will add to the customer solutions that Old Mutual Insure offers and add real value to our customers and brokers. We welcome Christelle and Tarina into our fold and look forward to achieving new heights together.”

Colman says, “I have had a dream for many years to underwrite for and on behalf Old Mutual Insure. I have a strong sense that the market is ready for a high net worth insurance underwriter backed by a blue-chip insurance licence, offering bespoke solutions to Old Mutual Insure customers. We have intimate knowledge of the client segment that Elite will serve and we are confident that we have designed a product that is unparalleled in the current market space”.

Elite will launch their innovative new offering to market on the 1st of August 2018. Please direct all queries to Christelle.colman@eliterisk.co.za.