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ver the last 10 to 15 years, life assurance premiums have decreased by 30 to 40 per cent and claims payouts across the industry have increased in line with the enhancements in benefits and claims criteria, according to Kenny Rabson, the deputy chief executive of Discovery Life. “In addition, with a greater degree of focus being given to the impending implementation of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF), companies will spend an increasing amount of time ensuring that all their products, processes and marketing material are compliant with the TCF principles and are in line with a consumer-centric approach to business. Transparency and objectivity must be at the forefront of everything life assurers do,” he says. He points out that the entire industry has already come a long way in this respect with the move towards objective medical criteria as a claims assessment mechanism in the disability claims space. To support this view, disabilityrelated complaints at the ombudsman’s office are 60 per cent lower than they were in 2000. Altrisk’s managing director, Michael Blain, expects that the focus on distribution will remain in the spotlight until the industry has more clarity on regulatory proposals for intermediary remuneration. “We will continue to see a battle around distribution as well as a continued drive to enhance and improve products. There are indications that the economy will continue to struggle and consumers will remain under pressure. This means that we can’t expect significant growth in the life risk industry,” he notes.
Intermediaries are invaluable However, Sanlam’s chief executive of personal finance, Lizè Lambrechts is more positive, and of the opinion that financial advice will remain invaluable to clients in the South African retail financial services industry next year and beyond. “The bulk of our business is and will remain intermediated in the short to medium term, and change here will be a matter of evolution not revolution,” she says. Lambrechts notes that people generally underestimate the extent to which the financial advice profession has evolved, and the benefits of financial advice for clients. “Specialisation to provide clients with the most professional and
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