Introducing. A new company set to make an impact on the South African life insurance industry

Transcription

1 Introducing A new company set to make an impact on the South African life insurance industry

2 Executive summary BrightRock is a new financial services provider offering differentiated life insurance products, under auspices of the Lombard Insurance Group s life insurance licence. Our lead reinsurance partner is one of the largest in the world, with an AA - rating from Standard & Poor s. Our highly differentiated product harnesses the latest pricing techniques and cutting-edge systems capabilities. Our marketing approach is centred on a rigorous reputation management model and stakeholdercentric methodology. Our processing division combines operations and systems into a single area ensuring clear accountability and focused service delivery to all clients. Our distribution model is entrepreneurial and poised to offer independent financial advisers expert support. 2

3 Contents: Executive summary Table of contents Introducing BrightRock BrightRock s business structure Our partners Our partnership with Lombard Life The people behind BrightRock Executive directors The people behind BrightRock Non-executive directors The BrightRock approach BrightRock s risk solution The BrightRock approach BrightRock s marketing and reputation management approach The BrightRock approach BrightRock s administration and servicing approach The BrightRock approach BrightRock s entrepreneurial distribution strategy

4 Introducing BrightRock BrightRock is a new financial services provider established in 2011 that has developed differentiated life insurance products. The company s founders are a team of skilled and experienced individuals who collectively have a strong and longstanding track-record in the industry. BrightRock launched to the South African life insurance market in March BrightRock s business structure BrightRock (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2011/004232/07) is a registered company and licensed financial services provider (licence number 43237). It has nine directors, four of which are executive and five non-executive. BrightRock is an underwriting management agency of Lombard Life BrightRock, as an underwriting management agency (UMA) partner of Lombard Life, will make use of the existing life insurance licence of Lombard Life. BrightRock is owned by its management team and its majority shareholder, the Lombard Insurance Group. Our partnership stems from our mutual values, and a shared passion for entrepreneurial enterprise and the insurance industry. Seeding capital through Lombard and underwriting financing through a leading reinsurer Given the Lombard Insurance Group s well-established position and the strength of its commitment to BrightRock, we have a financially sound business partner providing the capital required to fund our business expenses. Our reinsurance treaty with Munich RE, the world s largest reinsurance company, provides security for the risk insurance policies written. 4

5 Our partners Our partnership with Lombard Life Introducing the Lombard Insurance Group Lombard Insurance was registered on 2 March 1990 as a specialist insurance company operating largely in the construction guarantee market. Lombard s established position in this segment provided it with a strong brand differentiation advantage and a platform for sustained and profitable growth. Since 2008, and in addition to its in-house credit and bonding products, Lombard has grown a comprehensive commercial insurance product offering through partnerships with six specialist UMA businesses. Insurance products include marine, engineering, professional indemnity, heavy commercial vehicles, credit life, and commercial assets. The Lombard Group maintains a strong balance sheet with an asset base in excess of R1bn. Lombard s financial statements support the capital strength that is core to the Lombard brand in the guarantee and bonding markets. The Lombard Life licence is well maintained ensuring the CAR ratio exceeds 1.5 times, currently at 1.98 times. In 2008, Lombard purchased a long-term insurance business from BNP Paribas. This provided Lombard with an entry point to the South African Life Insurance market. In 2008, Lombard purchased a stake in FMI an income protection specialist that focuses on owner-managed businesses and self-employed individuals. Central to Lombard s approach, and particularly attributable to the philosophy of major shareholder Miles Japhet, is a strong affinity for long-term partnerships. Reinsurance Lombard enjoys long-term partnerships with major global reinsurance companies, including Hannover Re, Swiss Re, Munich Re and RGA. Rating The Lombard Insurance Company has received an A+ rating from Global Credit Rating Company and has a BBBEE status level five, with a procurement recognition level of 80%. Our reinsurance partner BrightRock s primary reinsurance treaty is with Munich RE, the world s largest reinsurer, a company with a proud history of over 130 years in reinsurance, Munich Re is an international leader in its field. The group employs around people in its reinsurance businesses around the world. In the 2012 financial year, it boasted gross premium income of 28 billion. 5

6 The people behind BrightRock Executive Directors Sean Hanlon (46), H.Dip Ed, Acc Fin Plan, H Dip Fin Plan (Liberty Life). Sean is BrightRock s Executive Director of Sales and Distribution. He joined the financial services industry in 1991 as a Broker Consultant. Sean joined Discovery in 2000 to help launch Discovery Life and set up the Group s own distribution force. In his 23 years in the industry, he has headed up multiple successful sales divisions in two major South African long-term insurance companies. Leopold Malan, (39), Executive Director: Processing Leopold started his career in 1992 as an IT consultant working for Q-Data and SPL on projects for clients like Nedbank Merchant Bank, Santam and Standard Bank. He went on to start his own IT company, which he sold in 2001 and his most recent post was that Chief Information Officer of Discovery Health, which he held from 2006 until earlier this year. Schalk Malan, (31), BSc (Hons), FASSA, FFA Schalk, a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries, has almost a decade s experience in the development, implementation, maintenance and marketing of insurance products. His last position was as a founding member of new player, Paramount Life, where his role was to ensure a successful product launch and implementation. Paramount Life is now a successful insurance entity, underwritten by Guardrisk. Suzanne Stevens (40), BA (Hons), HDE, CM (SA) Suzanne is BrightRock s Executive Director: Marketing. In her previous position as General Manager: Marketing at Discovery, Suzanne was responsible for a division of 70 people, delivering on all aspects of the marketing and communication continuum. Suzanne is a Chartered Marketer registered with the Marketing Association of South Africa and serves on the National Council of the Vega Brand School. 6

7 The people behind BrightRock Non-executive directors Miles Japhet (BrightRock Chairman), BSc (Hons), ACII Miles Japhet is one of the founders of the Hollard Insurance Group, where he held the position of MD for many years. During his tenure as MD, Miles led the team that founded Hollard Life in He has over 30 years experience in the insurance industry and continues to be involved with various insurance ventures around the world. Dean Hyde, BCom, CA Dean Hyde, a qualified chartered accountant, joined the Lombard Group in 2009 as the financial director. He has been the driving force behind the corporate formation and structuring of the Lombard Group as it is today. After studying overseas, Dean joined the Spur Group where he was financial director. He is still a non-executive member of its Board. He joined Lombard from Xanitha, an eco-friendly board manufacturing company, of which he was a co-founder and financial director. Matthew Marais, BBusSci (Hons) Matthew Marais, who is the Lombard-appointed manager of the BrightRock relationship, previously worked at Accenture in management consulting. Matthew was a UMA portfolio manager in the Lombard Partnerships business for two years before moving to head up the Lombard Life partnerships business. Rob Rusconi, BSc (Hons), FIA (London) Rob Rusconi, a prominent researcher, thinker and Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, London, has nearly 20 years financial services experience. Before joining Lombard Life, he was an independent consultant to Government on social security and pension system design. He also held positions at prestigious financial services and consulting firms locally and internationally including Old Mutual, Sanlam, FT.com (website of the Financial Times) and US asset manager, SEI. Rob is General Manager at Lombard Life and a non-executive director of BrightRock. Johnny Symmonds, BCom (Hons), CA Johnny Symmonds is currently the Managing Director of Lombard Insurance Company Ltd. He started his career in 1991 as a senior manager of Deloitte & Touche, London and, in 1997, Johnny became partner in charge of the Financial Institutions Services Team. Johnny moved into the Hollard Group in 1999 as a Director of Hollard Holdings (Pty) Ltd. He was then appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of Mercantile Lisbon Bank Holdings in Johnny is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a BCom (Hons) from UCT. Johnny is also a nonexecutive director of BrightRock. 7

8 The BrightRock approach BrightRock has developed a comprehensive risk offering. BrightRock focuses on addressing the following risks and shortcomings in the current market: Complexity at point of sale Future affordability concerns An increased risk of the client misunderstanding the intent and expected performance of the insurance cover, which may lead to unmet expectations and consumer complaints. Importantly, BrightRock also focuses on providing on-going tools and support to clients and financial advisers post-sale. The result is that financial advisers are better able to provide their clients with appropriate advice, while clients enjoy better value and greater certainty over the long-term. BrightRock s marketing and reputation management approach The vision of the BrightRock marketing division is to establish a tangibly different, consumer-centric brand that captures the company s new-generation product philosophy and digital-age origins. The BrightRock brand is all about the individual it is category-changing, easily understood and client-need-focused. This approach extends to the marketing methodology. Using an internationally renowned reputation management model as a framework, the BrightRock marketing division has systematically mapped and tailored its marketing and communication strategies to the requirements of each specific stakeholder group across the key drivers of company and brand reputation. BrightRock s administration and servicing approach BrightRock has combined the traditional functions of operations, information technology and systems into a single processing area. This approach ensures alignment between business processes and the systems that support them. The division applies advanced business architecture principles to deliver efficient, client-centric business and administrative capabilities to BrightRock s stakeholders. The processing area employs skilled individuals with extensive experience in operations, systems architecture, business architecture, systems development and project management. Central to our service philosophy is a focus on attracting top-quality people and we have developed a rigorous selection process to identify people who can deliver the required standard of service excellence. Our operations are supported and enabled by modern technologies such as Opentext360 BPM engine, Opentext ECM suite and many other state of the art components. The systems infrastructure strategy We have partnered with Internet Solutions to provide us with secure and reliable hosting services. All the key IT components are hosted in their data centres. Our head office and branches are linked via fully-redundant, dedicated data lines to the central data centre. This architecture enhances data protection and security, as no vital data elements are stored on local machines. As a start-up with no existing systems legacy issues, we have been able to adopt the latest information technologies. Various third-party providers assist us with base capabilities, such as content management and business process management. However, given the unique nature of our product offering and in line with global best practice, we have brought in-house the development and support of proprietary software and systems components. 8

9 BrightRock s entrepreneurial distribution strategy BrightRock has developed an entrepreneurial distribution structure that is focused on offering independent financial advisers expert support and service. At the time of our launch, we will have a national distribution network operating in most towns in South Africa. Flexible remuneration structures to support best advice BrightRock is a strong supporter of the role of the independent financial adviser, given the complexity of life insurance products and the central role life insurance plays in a client s broader financial planning. We want to provide advisers with support to facilitate their role, ease the administrative burden and constraints they face while ensuring appropriate remuneration. Our flexible remuneration structures allow clients and financial advisers to agree the most suitable remuneration approach. Financial advisers are able to choose from a range of different remuneration structures both at practice-level and individual policy-level. Training and support to our representatives and their practices BrightRock is committed to ensuring the technical proficiency of its distribution team and the financial advisers they serve. We have created the necessary structures within our product and distribution teams to provide financial advisers with training and sales support around our product and our processes. 9