Top brands take the honours at FIA 2009 Awards

The FIA Award Winners

The Financial Intermediaries Association (FIA) 2009 Awards gala banquet was held at the Sandton Convention Centre last night. Representatives from various financial services providers, regulators, industry ombudsman (including Charles Pillai of the FAIS Ombud and Brian Martin of the Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance), representative bodies and dozens of dedicated professional financial intermediaries gathered to celebrate excellence in the industry. “Financial services intermediaries cannot do a thing for our clients without good, well-serviced, modern and affordable products. We are here tonight at the second product awards under the new FIA banner – the 2009 FIA Awards – to pay tribute to those product providers who stood out during the past year,” said FIA President, Arnold van der Linde.

Reward for excellent financial services contributions

The FIA 2009 Awards acknowledge the contributions made by South Africa’s top financial services product providers to the industry – with a particular focus on the needs and requirements of financial services intermediaries. The awards reflect the perceptions, views, expectations, awareness levels and opinions of FIA members. They were asked to rate product providers in their different product categories based on product quality, service quality, relationship quality and overall satisfaction. The survey for the FIA 2009 Awards was the largest yet. Independent consulting group, Bluestream Consulting, approached more than 2 000 intermediaries and conducted 4 338 product provider service interviews. Van der Linde extended a word of thanks to the dedicated team that made 11 380 calls to gather the data.

Enough background information – who walked away with the silverware?

Attendees had to wait until after the main course for the awards ceremony to shift to high gear. But we’re not going to keep you waiting any longer. Here’s a brief summary of the finalists, winners and acceptance speeches in each of the seven categories.

1. Employee Benefit Supplier of the Year – Liberty Life

This is a new category in the FIA Awards programme. Liberty Life, Momentum and Old Mutual were named as the top three suppliers in the category. The award went to Liberty Life and was accepted by Liberty Corporate managing director, David Price, who thanked the FIA and intermediaries for the honour.

2. Healthcare Product Supplier of the Year – Discovery Health

The Healthcare Product award is hotly contested, with approximately 40 open medical schemes competing in the space. The top contenders in the FIA 2009 Awards were Fed Health, Discovery Health and Medihelp. Discovery Health remains the firm favourite among financial intermediaries, scooping the accolade for the second year running. Neville Koopowitz, chief executive of Discovery Health, accepted the award. “To win this award is truly an honour,” he said. Koopowitz thanked the FIA and the intermediaries for making the awards such a success: “Discovery would like to reinforce our commitment to intermediaries. This business has been built life by life – no acquisitions – purely getting the business in from day one through the brokers. And today we’re proud that you have introduced over two million lives to Discovery Health.”

3. Investment Product Supplier of the Year - Momentum

There were few surprises in the investment product category. Liberty Life, Momentum and Old Mutual made it to the last three; but it was Momentum that took the prize for the third year running. “It’s our third time on the podium for this award,” said Morris Nthombeni. “At momentum we are very proud of our relentless focus on financial intermediaries – and we’re especially proud of the recognition that this relentless focus has earned us.” His acceptance followed the tone set by fellow recipients. “On behalf of all the employees at Momentum we would like to affirm our continued support for the financial intermediary model in providing investment solutions to the South African client market,” he said.

4. Life and Risk Products Supplier of the Year – Discovery Life

The Life and Risk Products category was contested by Discovery Life, Liberty and Momentum. The award went to Discovery Life in 2008 and the company wasn’t disappointed to learn the FIA 2009 Award was theirs too. Accepting the award for Discovery Life, Hilton Kalner said the intermediaries’ opinion was what really counted. “We’re a company that’s been built by intermediaries, with intermediaries. You’re often our harshest critics, but you are also our greatest partners,” he said.

5. Personal Line Insurer of the Year - Santam

After winning the Personal Line Insurer award in 2008, Santam was up against Hollard and Zurich for the award in 2009. Santam, the market leader in short-term insurance in South Africa got the nod from the judges. Ian Kirk, chief executive of Santam reminded the audience that “there are 2 900 people out there working all the time to bring the product and our services to the intermediary.”

6. Commercial Insurer of the Year - Santam

Finalists in the Commercial Insurer of the Year category included Etana, Santam and Zurich. And once again the previous year winner took the honours. Santam emerged with this award in 2009.

7. Corporate Insurer of the Year.

After winning the Corporate Insurer category in 2008, Zurich must have been confident of back to back victories. The company was up against Mutual & Federal and Santam for the honours. But Santam was having none of it. The insurer took first place to complete a clean sweep of the FIA 2009 Awards Short-term Insurance categories. Kirk made the trip to the podium for the third time and voiced what the entire audience was thinking, “Three out of three is really fantastic.”

FAnews would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to all the FIA 2009 Awards recipients.

Attention turns to 2010

Kirk’s final acceptance speech marked the end of the official proceedings at the FIA 2009 Awards. But we’ll cap this article with a brief extract from FIA President Arnold van der Linde’s address. He reminded the audience of the remarkable achievement of merging three industry representative bodies into a single body over just 17-months. “The overall focus of the three organisations that came together – and the passion that we’ve seen in creating a true professional representation of intermediaries – is what really made it easy for all of us,” said Van der Linde.

What about the future? Van der Linde says that “FIA members are serious about the future and all the challenges that it holds. Brokers have been around for centuries and will keep on embracing the future too.”