‘Partnerships key factor’ in Discovery’s first hat-trick

DISCOVERY scooped the pool in three of the award categories at last night’s FIA awards ceremony in Johannesburg, the first time it has scored a hat-trick of wins on the same evening.

Hylton Kallner, chief marketing officer for Discovery, says Discovery’s achievement in winning in three categories this year underlines the success and importance of the partnerships it has in place with financial advisers.

“It also reflects the mutual respect and the strength of relationships that we have built up with them over time.

“While we take a great deal of pride in winning these awards, we don’t rest on our laurels,” Kallner says. “The results give us further impetus and motivation to keep on pushing the limits of what we can achieve for our customers and clients.

“In our experience, financial advisers tend to reward innovation and great service.”

Discovery’s triple triumph this year was in the categories: Product Supplier of the Year: Investment Products — Recurring Premium; Product Supplier of the Year: Healthcare; and Long-Term Insurer of the Year.

Kallner notes that all three categories are relevant to people’s financial planning and protection, and says these awards “are incredibly positive for us”.

In life assurance, the FIA Long- Term Insurer of the Year Award for risk cover typically relates to personal risk aspects such as dread diseases, critical illness and disability cover.

Kallner says Discovery has identified a number of prevalent trends in this sector. The first is an increase in risk aversion, probably as an outcome of the global financial crisis.

“People want greater certainty and this underlines the need for life assurance and the associated protection that goes with it. But even within the product itself, we are seeing clients want certainty that when they do experience a life-changing event, the product will meet their needs and pay out according to expectations.”

The second trend Discovery has observed is the impact of “behavioural economics”, and with that comes an understanding of how people respond to incentives. So with the right incentives and right structures, a more sustainable, more efficient and lower-cost product can be produced, says Kallner

“This is manifesting itself in more innovative products that reward the right behaviour and give clients a meaningful return on the premium that they pay.”

A third trend is the move towards health and wellness.

“People are gaining a better understanding of the effect their lifestyles have on their mortality and morbidity. We now have the tools to help them and to encourage them to be healthier. In the context of life assurance, costs can be brought down significantly by better lifestyle behaviour.”

There is also a trend towards treating customers fairly and greater transparency and, ultimately, relevant products that meet clients’ needs.

In the investment space, Kallner says the trend towards risk aversion and creating real value are also key, as are health and wellness. “The impact of health and wellness is causing people to live longer and, as they do so, the need to save more for retirement becomes more critical.”

Here the focus is on efficiency, delivering the optimum retirement funding for the premium that the individual is paying.

From a health perspective, as people live longer, they require increased certainty that the funds they have available will sustain them through their retirement.

With regard to healthcare product options, Kallner says: “The products we have today are very comprehensive.”

They are part of an egalitarian system that challenges service providers to control costs, he says, to keep pace with evolving medical technology and give customers access to these healthcare advancements in an affordable and sustainable was for the long term.