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Category:
Insurance
News /
Life
Insurance /
Echelon / June 2010
Echelon Private Client Insurance - Life Assurance / Investment
Platform
Following the
successful launch of Echelon Private Client Insurance in October
2009, the Echelon brand is poised to extend its range of solutions
beyond personal lines short term
insurance. With effect from
9
June 2010, Echelon entered the individual life assurance and
investment market in South Africa.
Backed by the Sanlam Group,
Echelon Private Clients is focused on supporting financial planning
practitioners and select intermediaries. The business offers
innovative services and tools designed to differentiate and enhance
the intermediary’s service delivery to clients in this competitive
segment.
Echelon’s target market is the LSM10 segment – a sector of the
market traditionally including professionals and business owners.
Echelon adopts a “private client-style” approach to reaching its
market, enabled by a niche service philosophy for select
intermediaries.
“Echelon has secured quick traction in its short history”, says Ian
Kirk, CE Santam. “Echelon’s initial success is founded on strong
partnerships with intermediaries, superior service delivery and
complemented with product innovation. Our strategy to segment the
upper end of the market has been vindicated, and the fact that 88%
of Echelon’s policyholder base is professionally qualified
individuals supports this approach.”
Lawrence Gilbey, executive director of Echelon, says, “Echelon
has been developed over the past 18 months primarily to take
advantage of opportunities arising from a new financial services
landscape - characterised by greater complexity, new legislation and
more demanding expectations from intermediaries and clients alike.”
Hennie de Villiers, chief executive of Sanlam Individual Life says
Echelon’s
unique value proposition is in line with Sanlam’s strategy of
pursuing initiatives that offer growth and diversification.
“As
a group, we
are constantly looking for
innovative, non-traditional distribution and service methods and
Echelon is therefore an exciting venture for us. We are also
focussed on growing our market share outside of the middle market,
traditionally our strongest foothold, which this venture will do for
us in the upper end of the market.”
Gilbey adds: “Every aspect of the business has been designed around
two communities - the intermediary and the client. Our products are
underwritten by Sanlam, an established and trusted brand. Our
mantra is to offer products which are easy for IFAs to sell and easy
for clients to buy. We have actively limited complexity and rules,
and focused on financial planning, so that assurance products
translate into sustainable needs-based solutions. We believe our
value proposition will also enhance client confidence in their
advisers post the product purchase.”
He said that in terms of the business’ broker-centric approach,
Echelon aims to help select brokers grow their business by
increasing business opportunities and improving operational
efficiencies. Gilbey concluded that, philosophically, Echelon was
striving to de-mystify insurance and promote financial planning,
business development and product solutions that brokers and clients
really need.”
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