There were few surprises at this year’s Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa (FIA) Intermediary Experience Awards, with all but one winner retaining their titles from the previous year.
Held at the Sandton Convention Centre on 15 August, the awards have been the premier annual recognition event in South Africa’s financial services industry for more than 20 years. They celebrate insurers and product providers for their products, solutions, and services delivered to consumers through FIA member intermediaries or financial advisers.
The awards honour a distinguished group of financial services brands for their impact on empowering financial advisory businesses and, in turn, enhancing advice, service, and financial outcomes for consumers.
Winners are chosen through a rigorous selection process informed by a comprehensive and impartial assessment of thousands of FIA member responses.
The intermediary experience survey establishes a benchmark for how advisory businesses view their ongoing interactions with financial product suppliers. It evaluates the intermediary experience across a number of standards of excellence, including overall satisfaction, service and product quality, regulatory and compliance, trust, complaint resolution, and business enablement. A high score on each of these measures helps FIA members to maintain service standards to their clients, the financial consumer.
The winners of the 2024 FIA Intermediary Experience Awards are:
- Non-Life Insurer of the Year – Commercial: Western National Insurance
- Non-Life Insurer of the Year – Personal Lines: Santam
- Non-Life Insurer of the Year – Corporate: Santam
- Product Supplier of the Year – Investment Product, Lump Sum: Allan Gray
- Product Supplier of the Year – Investment Product, Savings: Allan Gray
- Product Supplier of the Year – Healthcare: Discovery Health
- Long Term Insurer of the Year – Risk: Sanlam
- Underwriting Manager of the Year – iTOO Special Risks
Western National, Santam, Sanlam, Allan Gray, and Discovery Health retained their awards from last year.
Santam, in particular, distinguished itself by securing the Non-Life Insurer of the Year – Corporate Award, a title previously held by Hollard. Santam also won the Non-Life Insurer: Personal Lines award.
Santam said the accolades emphasised the critical importance of robust relationships between intermediaries and product providers, working in partnership to achieve the best financial outcomes for policyholders.
“Our success in these categories is a testament to Santam’s commitment to excellence, innovation, and customer-centric service delivery,” Santam said.
“On behalf of Santam, we extend our heartfelt thanks to every member of the Santam family who made this achievement possible. From those on the frontlines, engaging with our intermediaries and clients daily, to those working tirelessly behind the scenes to support us and fulfil our promises, and to the leadership teams who guide and enable seamless collaboration – this success is a testament to hard work and dedication,” Santam added.
For Western National, this marked their third consecutive year winning the award. Jurgen Hellweg, Western National’s chief executive, said that receiving this recognition for three consecutive years was a testament to the excellence for which Western strives.
“We are very proud of our team. Receiving this accolade at the most prestigious event in the South African financial services industry is no small feat. We are here today because of the team’s dedication and commitment to ensuring that our clients always come first,” he said.
This year marked the return of the Underwriting Manager of the Year award won by iTOO.
The 2023 selection process reviewed more than 5 000 contracts across various disciplines, including employee benefits, healthcare, non-life insurance, and life insurance and investment. However, because of the limited number of contracts rated in the Underwriting Managers (UMA) category, a meaningful assessment could not be completed. It was noted that shifts in the UMA segment led to insufficient sample sizes across many niche markets. Consequently, the decision was made not to issue this award in 2023.
In 2022, iTOO won the Product Supplier of the Year Award, in the Underwriting Management Agencies category.
iTOO chief executive Justin Naylor said the honour reflects the dedication and expertise of their team and the invaluable partnerships they have built with their brokers.
“At iTOO, our vision is to be an EPIC partner in speciality insurance. For us, EPIC stands for Expert, Partnership, Innovation, and Commitment. We believe that partnering with our brokers is not just fundamental – it is the cornerstone of our success. We are committed to delivering quality and expert service, always.”
