Discovery bags FIA award

5 June 2015 – Discovery Life took top honours in the long-term insurance category at the prestigious annual Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa (FIA) Awards held in Johannesburg last night. The awards recognise and honour South Africa’s leading product providers in the financial services industry.

For the third consecutive year Discovery Life bagged first place in the Long Term Insurance Product Supplier of the Year – Risk category. This is Discovery Life’s sixth win. Hylton Kallner, Chief Marketing Officer at Discovery, said: “We are delighted to be recognised for our commitment to product, service and relationship excellence. We have worked on a number of innovations in this competitive space and are pleased that these have been so positively received. Our focus continues to be on providing excellent service to our clients through innovative products that change lives.”

• One of these innovations is Discovery Life’s Dollar Life Plan, a US Dollar-denominated life and disability protection offering, that protects South African policyholders paying out in US dollars. “This is the the first authentic offshore risk cover offering in South Africa. Offshore diversification has become a key part of financial planning,” says Kenny Rabson, Deputy CEO of Discovery Life. This option will assist clients in meeting existing liabilities outside the country, as well as help to protect against significant expenditures which can be all the more costly due to a depreciating rand.

As for corporations, they continue to look for lowest price as well as best-of-breed benefit definitions. In light of this, another innovation is the Corporate Integrator, whereby employees can get significant refunds on the portion of premiums paid by their employer by engaging in the Vitality wellness programme. “In this way, we have managed to now take our Shared Value Model of insurance, using wellness to price risk into the corporate market,” explains Rabson.

Discovery’s Integration model, where clients get much cheaper insurance at inception and over their lifetime by engaging in Vitality, has put their products at the forefront of insurance, and is being rolled out across the world through various partnerships and businesses in the UK, Asia and the US.

“Being voted first place in the category ‘Long-term Insurance Product Supplier of the Year – Risk Products’ bears testament to our singular focus on our clients, with intermediaries recognising us for product innovation and service excellence, amongst other measures,” says Kallner.

“We thank all intermediaries for acknowledging our continuous efforts to assist in providing clients with exceptional advice across the entire financial planning spectrum. The award strengthens our commitment to being the best in terms of both our products and the services we offer, to benefit not only the intermediaries but ultimately, our clients,” says Kallner.

FIA award winners are determined by an extensive survey of FIA members, conducted independently by Bluestream Research. Respondents rate product providers based on product quality, service quality and relationship quality.

“The main objective of the FIA benchmark survey is to determine and recognise South Africa’s top performing product providers, independently rated on intermediary satisfaction,” says Pieter Aucamp, CEO of Bluestream Research.

ENDS

For interview requests or any other media related enquiries, please contact:

Thulganyo Khensani Mthombeni

Reputation Management Consultant

Khensanimth@discovery.co.za

071 886 9188