Industry gears up for FIA Intermediary Experience Awards

Edward Gibbens

Quinten Matthew

Damian McHugh

Karin Muller

Garth Napier

Khanyi Nzukuma

Marilize Lansdell

Jaco Gouws

Nash Omar

Ricardo Coetzee

Heyn van Rooyen

Jurgen Hellweg

Regard Budler

With just a few hours to go, the insurance industry is gearing up for the Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa (FIA) Intermediary Experience Awards.

The night will celebrate the successes of the past 12 months and honour the product suppliers who have performed best in the FIA Intermediary Experience Awards survey.

The voice of the intermediary

The FIA once again partnered with Ask Afrika, an independent research company to conduct the FIA Intermediary Experience Awards survey.

The survey, which ran from May through to July, gave all FIA members an opportunity to participate in the survey and share experiences of the industry product suppliers they work with. It allows for the voice of the intermediary to be heard.

After months of speculation, much input from members and a robust survey by AskAfrika, the finalists for this year's awards were officially announced and they are: 

1. Short Term Insurer of the Year – Commercial Lines

Auto and General, Hollard, Renasa, Santam Limited and Western National

2. Short Term Insurer of the Year – Personal Lines

Hollard, Renasa and Santam Limited

3. Short Term Insurer of the Year – Corporate

Hollard, Old Mutual Insure and Limited Beperk

4. Long Term Insurer of the Year – Life and Risk

Liberty Group, Sanlam Life and Old Mutual Life

5. Product Supplier of the Year – Investment Product Lump Sum

Allan Gray, PSG and Sanlam Glacier

6. Product Supplier of the Year – Investment Product Savings

Allan Gray and Sanlam Glacier

7. Product Supplier of the Year – Healthcare

Discovery Health Medical Scheme, Medihelp and Momentum Health

8. Product Supplier of the Year – Employee Benefits

Liberty Corporate, Momentum and Old Mutual 

Doing something right

FAnews spoke to some of the finalists, about what they believe they are doing right for intermediaries to choose them as their favorite industry product suppliers’. 

“We are pleased to have been recognised as finalists in the corporate, commercial and personal short term insurance categories, for the 2019 FIA Intermediary Experience awards. Intermediaries are the ‘glue’ that connects us to our clients in a meaningful way, and they are at the heart of Santam’s business model,” said Edward Gibbens, Executive Head of Commercial and Personal Lines, and Quinten Matthew, Executive Head of Specialist Business at Santam. 

“The feedback from our financial advisers is that they are finding it easy to sell Momentum Health’s value proposition. Once a financial adviser has sold Momentum Health to a client, it is easy to add rewards, insurance and investment products, because the enhanced benefits to clients and advisers alike, are unrivalled,” said Damian McHugh, Head of Marketing and Growth at Momentum Health Solutions.

“We are humbled and grateful that our partners have nominated us for this award. For us, the evidence of our success is our client’s peace of mind, and that that they have sufficient and appropriate cover for their individual needs. The success of this approach is undoubtedly the result of our partnership with the people who advise our clients, our intermediaries. Good advice is a cornerstone of our offering. This is indeed a partnership which enables us to deliver in the best interests of our clients. We are therefore grateful for this recognition from our partners,” said Karin Muller, Chief Executive of Sanlam Individual Life. 

“We are absolutely thrilled to be recognised for our efforts by the members of the FIA. At Old Mutual Insure, we are very clear on the fact that achieving success in the corporate insurance sector is only possible if we nurture our relationships with those intermediaries who hold the all-important relationships with our mutual clients. Our experience has taught us that consistency is key and that a levelheaded approach, together with our broking partners, during challenging times will result in sustainable success. Thank you for recognising our efforts by way of this prestigious nomination,” said Garth Napier, Managing Director of Old Mutual Insure. 

Committed to service excellence

“We feel honoured to be nominated once again by the FIA, for the two investment product categories – savings and lump sum. As an intermediated business, the nomination is confirmation of the high regard in which Glacier is held by the members of the FIA,” said Khanyi Nzukuma, Chief Executive of Glacier by Sanlam.

“At PSG Wealth we believe in providing holistic solutions that offer value for money and deliver a positive overall client experience, while enabling our clients and their advisers to plan for, and ultimately reach, their goals. We are constantly striving to improve our offering, and to ensure we remain our clients’ and advisers’ preferred wealth creation partner of choice,” said Marilize Lansdell, CEO of PSG Wealth.

“Great financial advice is at the very heart of what Old Mutual stands for and our intermediary partners play a vital role in achieving that vision. We are therefore absolutely delighted to be nominated by intermediaries themselves. This nomination is a tremendous vote of confidence in the quality of our products and service, and the strength of the relationships we have with our intermediaries,” said Jaco Gouws, Protection Product Head at Old Mutual.

“Our local is lekker philosophy allows us to provide a broad distribution of our products and services through an expanded branch network in SA and also collaborate with our intermediaries at local level.  Day to day contact with and support of intermediaries at all levels speak to our commitment to a win-win-win solution where all parties are winners and trust is a non-negotiable. Intermediaries are part of our DNA and access to executive and senior staff is part of the deal. Our long-standing, broker-facing business model enables us to foster these relationships and we believe these nominations indicate very strongly that intermediaries approve of, and support our approach,” said Nash Omar, Managing Executive of Sales and Distribution at Hollard Insure.

“We believe we provide value to our brokers, by being flexible and providing an easy, reliable and fair customer and broker experience. We are consistently working on increasing our distribution footprint. In order to do this, we need to provide value to our brokers.  If we act and work together, we can become better together,” said Ricardo Coetzee, Head of Auto & General. 

Strong relationships with the advisers

“Medihelp has spent considerable effort in equipping our advisers with both advanced technology and superior training, backed by a dedicated and professional support team. By following this strategy, we have built lasting relationships with our intermediaries which resulted in net growth for the scheme. In this regard, the FIA serves as a most important forum where the exchange of information touching all aspects of health care distribution can be shared and debated,” said Heyn van Rooyen, Principal Officer of Medihelp.

“We pride ourselves on having strong relationships with the advisers we work with, in order to be able to offer the service that we do. Our partnership philosophy with stakeholders, especially with our intermediaries, is an integral part of the success of the company,” said Jurgen Hellweg, CEO of Western National Insurance.

“A recent survey with financial advisers in the industry revealed that our solutions and platforms are highly regarded in terms of the digital member engagement platforms and the innovative value for money solutions we provide, to assist them with managing their clients’ benefits and making sure they provide a ‘best-of-advice’ solution. By managing employees’ retirement savings, insurance benefits and healthcare funding, while facilitating financially-savvy behaviour, Momentum Corporate’s diverse and innovative team of actuarial, investment and retirement industry specialists pioneer the delivery of a world-class client experience,” said Regard Budler, CFO of Momentum Corporate.

Editor’s thoughts:
FAnews wishes all the finalists the best of luck! We will announce the results as soon as they are received. With the competitive landscape to acknowledge the product providers, do you think this contributes to an improved industry standard? Please comment below, interact with us on Twitter at @fanews_online or email me your thoughts myra@fanews.co.za.