Source: Hollard Insure managing director: broker markets Nash Omar and Property & Energy Centre of Excellence head Dianne White celebrate Hollard's 2018 FIA Award for Short Term Insurer of the Year: Corporate.
The Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa (FIA), the representative body of nearly 15 000 brokers and financial advisers in South Africa, presented Hollard with the 2018 FIA Award for Short Term Insurer of the Year: Corporate at a glittering industry function in Johannesburg.
“Our business model is an intermediated one with brokers playing a critical role between us and our policyholders. We’re delighted to be recognised as brokers’ favourite short-term insurers in the corporate space,” said Willie Lategan, CEO of Hollard Insure.
Hollard partner ITOO, a special risks underwriting management agency, won the award for Underwriting Manager of the Year, underscoring a shared ethos and commitment to the broking community.
The FIA’s membership works closely with a wide range of insurers to meet the needs of clients ranging from individuals to multinational corporates. And they decide which insurers are the best, through an annual in-depth survey conducted by the FIA that rates brokers’ experience of product quality, service quality, relationship quality and overall satisfaction.
Hollard is working hard to better support intermediaries at a time when their profession is more under threat than it has ever been, says Lategan. This is most publicly manifest in Hollard’s #LongLiveTheBroker campaign, which underlines the company’s unwavering commitment to partnering with brokers in the short-term insurance space.
“We believe passionately in the great value that brokers provide their customers through expert advice and superb service, and to Hollard in terms of efficiency and enduring customer relationships. We’re all about achieving the win-win-win – customers, brokers and Hollard itself must benefit from the products and services we provide – and we cannot do this without our broker partners,” said Lategan.
“What this award signifies is that all the hard work we’re putting into better supporting our broker partners has not gone unnoticed by the people who matter and that we’re hitting the mark as far as they are concerned. If nothing else, this latest recognition will spur us on to do even better by them. #LongLiveTheBroker!”
After accepting the award for Hollard, Nash Omar, managing director: of broker markets for Hollard Insure, said: “I must be honest, it’s been a very tough year … Winning the award is an incredible achievement.”
This achievement rests on three pillars, he said: Hollard’s decentralised, “local is lekker” company structure, which means that it is where policyholders are; its open-door policy, which makes it “totally accessible” to its broker partners; and its employees.
“We have wonderful people,” said Omar.
This was echoed by Lategan, who lauded the team at Hollard Insure for the role they played in garnering the award.
“Ultimately, insurance is all about people and relationships. No matter how good our insurance products are – and they are excellent – what really counts is the smart, efficient, friendly service that brokers can expect every time they speak to a Hollardite. To every person in my team, I say, take a bow; it’s because of you that we’re winners,” he says.
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