Top insurers vie for industry recognition

Gareth Stokes, FAnews Online

Approximately 10 hours from now, stakeholders in the financial services industry will know which insurance brands scooped the coveted FIA 2010 Awards. The Financial Intermediaries Association (FIA) gala banquet takes place at Emperors Palace from 19h30 this evening. Winning an award at the gala function is the ultimate accolade for product providers, because the selection process is based on feedback from financial services professionals at the coal face of the domestic insurance industry. Tonight’s award ceremony is the third under the FIA banner and promises to upstage the 2008 and 2009 events.

Keeping product providers on their toes

The FIA 2010 Awards recognize the contributions made by South Africa’s top product providers in the insurance space, with a particular focus on the needs and requirements of financial services intermediaries. Independent consulting group, Bluestream Research, carefully considered the perceptions, views, expectations, awareness levels and opinions of thousands of FIA members. Interviewees were asked to rate product providers in their different product categories based on product quality, service quality, relationship quality and overall satisfaction.

Opinions were collected by way of questionnaires and telephone interviews – and the statistics provide some insight into the depth of opinion sought before selecting category winners. Bluestream completed 22 000 telephone calls (11 380 in 2009), 2 710 questionnaires (1 810) and rated 6 146 contracts (4338)!

Categories contested in the FIA 2010 Awards:

· Employee Benefit Supplier of the Year

· Healthcare Product Supplier of the Year

· Product Supplier of the Year Investment Products – single premium

· Product Supplier of the Year Investment Products – recurring premium

· Life and Risk Products Supplier of the Year

· Personal Line Insurer of the Year

· Commercial Insurer of the Year

· Corporate Insurer of the Year

· Underwriting manager of the Year

The FIA Research Committee took the decision to expand the Survey/Awards categories for 2010. The previous Product Supplier of the Year Investment Award has been replaced by two new awards, namely: Product Supplier of the Year Investment Products Recurring Premium and Product Supplier of the Year Investment Products Single Premium. And an underwriting manager category was finally added. From now on this category will be known as Underwriting Manager of the Year.

Check the results on FAnews Online tomorrow

The competition measures satisfaction across many sections of South Africa’s short-term insurance industry. As insurers take the competition more seriously the overall competitiveness of the industry improves – creating added value throughout the independent intermediary channel.

FAnews will be joining the hundreds of FIA guests at the awards ceremony this evening to make sure our readers have a first hand account of the event. Be sure to visit FAnews Online on Friday, 4 June 2010. We will update you on the winners in each of the FIA 2010 Awards categories.