Financial Mail - Investors Monthly
Investec Life: a healthy demand for its personalised cover offering
The company’s aim is to cut out much of the complexity typically associated with insurance products, writes Lynette Dicey
Investec’s life insurance offering, Investec Life, has had a rapid uptake since its launch in 2017. Remaining true to the Investec philosophy of offering clients innovative products and the best advice, tailored to the client’s individual needs, the life insurance offering aims to bridge the gap in the market for personalised insurance.
Investec Life’s products offer its private banking clients access to the right level of cover for individuals and families, dependent on their true needs.
It provides clients with a range of products that includes life, income protection, disability, severe illness and mortgage protection — cover that is personalised and customisable.
Michael Goemans, Investec Life CEO, says: “Reduced complexity and increased levels of personalisation, flexibility and transparency, supported by cutting-edge technology, is what sets Investec Life apart. It provides clients with financial solutions, technology and processes that enable them to get what they want, how they want it and when they want it,”
To ensure convenience, clients have the option of selecting and purchasing insurance in the way they prefer and choosing how they interact with Investec Life — by contacting their private banker, through a fully integrated digital platform on Investec Online, or through a team of specialist advisers. The latter includes salaried Investec Life financial advisers who have been trained to provide the most appropriate advice for each client to ensure that product information is easy to understand, simpler to gain access to and customisable to suit individual needs.
“Technology has played a critical role in allowing Investec Life to become a modern, forward-thinking insurance provider that offers both increased choice and convenience,” says Goemans.
“Client-centricity is at the heart of everything we do, and our omnichannel approach allows us to deliver that promise meaningfully.
“Investec remains a hi-tech, high-touch business, delivering great people when you need them and great technology when you don’t. The integration of our own life offering into Investec’s broader One Place™ proposition is a case in point where solution and convenience anchor everything,” Goemans adds.
More than half of Investec Life’s clients have taken advantage of Investec Life’s offering purely online, often logging onto the online application system out of conventional business hours.
One of the biggest uptakes has been in mortgage protection cover, the flagship product in which premiums are automatically adjusted monthly as clients pay off their Investec home loan. It is a first for SA.
The life span of clients has increased and it has become imperative that clients plan for their financial future better, with the cover they need for themselves and their families, for years to come. Clients are busy managing their own lives, which are often complex, and as a result have time pressures and feel stressed by the complexity of products.
Investec Life’s aim has been to remove much of the complexity associated with insurance products without jeopardising comprehensive cover, and while ensuring clients are able to customise their insurance cover to suit their needs.
The result, says Goemans, is the niche, gold-standard product offering that clients have come to expect of Investec.
Goemans highlights that, since launching a year ago, Investec Life has issued cover for more than R2bn, which demonstrates the demand for customisable insurance offerings. Surpassing this milestone at such an early stage underlines the real innovation at the heart of Investec Life, and provides insights into an insurance market looking for a fresh approach, comprehensive products and personalised service. “In a highly competitive market we’re successfully challenging the insurance status quo by highlighting what our private banking clients really need as opposed to simply making a sale. It’s about understanding and meeting the needs of our clients as individuals at various life stages at a reasonable cost and ensuring they always retain direct control,” Goemans says. Investec Life Limited is an authorised financial services provider, number 47702. investec.co.za/life