A SUSTAINED BROKER / INTERMEDIARY BASE
As almost 98% of our business is sourced through and managed by our broker / intermediary base, the business prospects of both Santam and our intermediaries are dependent on a healthy, supportive and mutually beneficial business relationship.
The intermediated nature of our business does not absolve Santam of its obligation to the end-client, though. We are fully committed to providing value to our clients (consumers and businesses) and accept ultimate responsibility for the client relationship. Santam also has responsibilities to a wider range of other stakeholders, including government, regulatory authorities, and industry associations and bodies. In representing the interests of these stakeholders, we work with our intermediaries and, in turn, influence the way these organisations represent our wider set of interests.
Intermediaries require excellent support from the insurer to successfully market relevant and competitively-priced products and services. Santam’s goal is to provide intermediaries with the right tools to enable them to do well, which is vital for our own continued success. To this end, fostering equitable relationships with intermediaries is a priority. This relationship should go beyond pure financial and quantitative measures, with performance also being expressed in terms of client satisfaction and retention, ethical behaviour and the achievement of transformation goals.
Our approach - click to view text
What we did during 2009 - click to view text
Our performance - click to view text
Our aspirations for 2010: - click to view text
Developing our black broker base is an important issue, not only in response to the transformation imperative with benefits in the form of skills transfer, enterprise development and job creation, but also in recognising an emerging market that is under-serviced in insurance terms. Santam views long-term market growth as contingent on having brokers who are culturally and emotionally in tune with the new emerging market.
Our approach - click to view text
Our performance - click to view text
Our aspirations for 2010 - click to view text
We have used the assessment done by the South African Insurance Association (SAIA) on the impact of HIV/Aids on the financial services sector from 2000 to 2015 as a guide to determine the impact of HIV/Aids on our business. The assessment indicated that the short-term insurance sector is not seriously impacted, compared to other financial services sectors. The projected prevalence of HIV/Aids at those skills levels used by Santam and our intermediaries is as follows:
- Senior and professional - below 4%,
- Middle management - below 10%, and
- Supervisory and clerical - below 15%.
Santam’s influence, in respect of HIV/Aids, is further diminished by the fact that many of our national brokers are part of large organisations that have their own HIV/Aids programmes, while many of our smaller, independent intermediaries are family-owned businesses from conservative backgrounds, where the lifestyle risk is substantially lower.
Consequently, Santam has not as yet instituted any formal programme aimed at influencing HIV/Aids prevalence within our intermediary base and we do not have any immediate plans to do so. We will, however, continue to investigate the impact of this issue and the merits of providing a support role to our intermediaries.
The Short-term Insurance Act and the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services (FAIS) Act govern our relationship with our intermediaries. Our approach is that we will only conduct business with intermediaries who are authorised to render financial services in terms of the FAIS Act. To ensure FAIS compliance, we require that all business partners provide their Financial Service Providers licence on appointment as partners. Each licence is checked with Santam’s verification database, which has been matched to the Financial Services Board’s database. For the duration of each intermediary’s business relationship with Santam, we conduct ongoing monitoring to ensure that we only have business dealings with those intermediaries who are in possession of a valid FAIS licence.
Ultimately, the onus is on the intermediaries to ensure that the staff they employ are FAIS compliant. However, to assist intermediaries to comply with the FAIS Act, we offer and facilitate various training programmes to ensure intermediaries’ staff obtain the necessary credits for FAIS purposes.
