Consumers set to emerge ultimate winners of the FIA Awards

Consumers look set to emerge the ultimate winners of this year’s prestigious FIA (Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa) Awards. Last night’s gala ceremony held at the Sandton Convention Centre saw key players rewarded for their significant contribution to the insurance industry.

Santam emerged this year’s overall winner, clinching both the short term personal lines and short term commercial awards. The award for short term corporate insurer of the year went to Zurich, with Discovery Life winning the long term life/risk category and Momentum the “long term investment provider of the year”. Discovery Health was the proud winner of a new category: health care product supplier of 2008.

Previously the SAFSIA (South African Financial Services Intermediaries Association) Awards, the FIA Awards recognise the outstanding service that insurers, assurers and investment product manufacturers provide to the intermediary community. Arnold van der Linde, president of the FIA, explains that the awards thus reflect real service delivery to FIA’s members, “This, in turn, enables intermediaries to provide their clients with efficient and effective professional service.”

Now in their ninth year, the awards have become a highlight on the annual insurance industry calendar. As per standard procedure, a research company is commissioned each year to conduct a survey among FIA members. The survey (click here to read more about the survey) – conducted by Bluestream for the third year in a row – rates financial service product suppliers in several categories based on the experience of FIA members.

Van der Linde says that this year’s awards ceremony was that much more significant for industry players, “Not only was ‘healthcare’ added to the existing categories of ‘short-term’, ‘life’ and ‘investment’, but the survey on which the awards was based was far more representative and comprehensive – by virtue of the FIA comprising both individual and corporate brokers. In researching the aforementioned categories then, there was a far larger pool of 16 000 intermediary brokers to call upon when rating participants.”

Van der Linde congratulated this year’s winners on behalf of the FIA and thanked them for the invaluable contribution they have made to the insurance industry. “By working together – pushing the boundaries of service excellence and professionalism – we will continue to ensure that insurance consumers continue to emerge the ultimate winners of this event!”