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What’s inside… FAnews Magazine February 2021

15 April 2021 Rianet Whitehead

The April edition is packed with articles you want to read. Over and above our focus on retirement and employee benefits issues, we’ve touched on many relevant topics, ranging from ransomware, agriculture insurance issues, risk management, the future of the healthcare broker, fiduciary challenges and the importance of relationships in a world where technology rules the roost. Yes, you can do your CPD hours and this time we are even giving you more with an additional supplement focusing specifically on funeral insurance.

We have highlighted some articles we believe have good value, and we have marked those you can get your CPD hours on (IISA and FPI). The links will take you directly to the digital copy of the FAnews April 2021 edition.

CPD Articles

  • IISA

Prof Vivian: Some issues with the new Insurance Act 18 of 2017. Many pieces of recent South African legislation are problematic. The new Insurance Act 18 of 2017 is no exception.     

Know the difference. Compliance vs ethics. 

POPIA… everyone has a responsibility. The Act is going to affect not only how insurers, but also how their service providers, such as brokers, loss adjusters and binder holders, deal with the personal information of insured parties.
The legal implications of concluding contracts telephonically. There are quite a number of practices from a legal training perspective that should be followed when training call centre agents.

Negotiating with data terrorists.  Robert Mueller once said, “There are only two types of companies, those who got hacked and those who will be hacked.”

Reducing exposure…  Risk management strategies/responses must be sustainable, and should not create an illusion of control, but rather provide certainty in the business’s ability to deal with both the expected and unexpected.  

 

  • FPI

Know the difference. Compliance vs ethics. 

The legal implications of concluding contracts telephonically.  From a legal training perspective, there are quite a number of practices that should be followed when training call centre agents.
Don’t do ‘tick box’ compliance. What you need to do.

Digitisation... disrupting the way insurers operate. We live in a digital world... Cliché yes, but these words have never been truer.

Harmonisation of retirement funds. It’s all about striking the right balance between protect­ing members’ rights and ensuring improved preservation and annuitisation at retirement.

Rights of retirement fund members and nominees. Section 37C (1) specifically states that depen­dants will have priority over other nominees.

 

And more…

  • In the news

The future of holistic financial advice. Transparency, and the ability to transact and invest digitally, has become top of mind.

Is affordability enough for sustained success?  To be successful in the future, brokers need to embrace digitalisation to improve the customer experience.

Relationships still matter. The perception that convenience and cost savings trump relation­ships is, perhaps, a particularly urban one.

Benefits, training and upskilling to best practice. There is a skills gap in the South African insurance industry, one that insurers will have to address.

 

  • Profile

Chubb launches civil engineering offering.

Constantia… meet the experts committed to enabling their partner’s success.

AIE reimagined to reconnect.

Global Choices celebrates 20 years of excellence.

 

  • Regular feature

Clients should conclude and read contracts. In the sphere of public liability – slip and trips, injury or damage to property - often arises from outsourced services or service providers.

  • Compliance

The legal implications of concluding contracts telephonically. Long gone are the days of lengthy hand-completed proposal forms. Instead, call centre agents sell insurance contracts directly to the public over the telephone.

  • Short term

The next 18 to 24 months are going to be tough. The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unique challenges to commercial, specialty, and personal lines insurance. FAnews spoke to a few players in these markets.

Neither the client, not the insurer wins. The world of insurance is evolving quickly as the risks around us are changing.
The human factor in cyber risk management. Human error implies that people are to blame for cyber breaches.

Farmers' risks are growingWhat farmers need to stay in business – and continue doing their bit for our country’s economy and food security – are expert insurance brokers.

  • Investments

Helping high-net-worth clients navigate tough economic times. The financial impact has been just as real for high-net-worth clients than for anyone else, with repercus­sions playing out in different scenarios.

  • Healthcare

Healthcare brokers face an uncertain future amidst NHI uncertainty. Even experienced health­care commentators hesitate to offer a definitive view on the future of the country’s healthcare brokers. 

Change in the medical scheme member mindset. Financial strain is terrible to live with at the best of times, and here we are, in one of the most difficult periods in modern history.

  • Retirement & Employee Benefits

Mental health… delving deeper into the real issues. FAnews spoke to a few industry experts (from the employee benefits, life and health spaces) about the factors at play in the short, medium and long term.

Maybe it’s time to review your clients’ stand-alone funds. It may be helpful to have a quick checklist that can confirm that there’s no good reason to change your clients’ fund status.

A critical illness wave is on the way. Changes in health behaviour during COVID-19 and the lockdowns are expected to translate into a sharp rise in critical illnesses.

The future of workplace disabilities. Perhaps most concerning, is the lack of data available for insurers to truly understand what this health crisis will mean for future disability claims.

Trends in mental health claims.  We will see an increase in mental health issues, particularly amongst those who already had an underlying condition to a certain extent.

Foster a culture of saving in your employees. What does it take to cultivate savings behaviour among employees?

Retirement planning in a pandemic. We have a bit of a ‘retirement crisis’.

Longevity risk… are we addressing this?   

And, something more…

  • The Insurance Apprentice 2021what exactly can we expect?
  • Funeral Insurance. Together with our April edition, Gareth Stokes, our online journalist, put together a supplement on funeral insurance. You can earn CPD hours on this, and everything inside is extremely informative – something you can share with anyone.

Editor’s thoughts:
It is important for us to keep you in the loop of all industry developments and to make your CPD journey an easy one. Feedback from our readers indicates that we are succeeding in our goal. We are super proud of the fact that we have just more than 17 700 registered CPD users… so it’s clear: we make it easy for many, they spread the word and our numbers on this platform increase daily. More people have also started using the WhatsApp platform because it is just so easy to do your CPD articles anywhere, anytime.  Enjoy both publications and let us know if there’s anything specific you want us to tackle. You are welcome to email me your questions.

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