FMI Evolves!

By Brad Toerien

At FMI, we are committed to claim certainty. To help us achieve the excellent service delivery consistent with this commitment, we have made some changes to FMI's company structure.

FMI is entering our new financial year with a renewed focus on our relationship with you, the Financial Adviser (FA). To ensure an increasingly efficient and speedy service to our FA chain, we have recently implemented changes in our Sales, Claims, and Underwriting departments:

Sales:

Under Head of Sales, Stuart Cumming, we have decided to regionalise the Sales Teams (into Kwa-Zulu Natal, Gauteng, and Western Cape) to allow our Business Developers to have increased face-to-face interaction with FAs. This interaction will be supported by an increase in Business Developers and the introduction of a dedicated FA administrative support team to support Business Developers and external consultants, replacing FA Consultants. This team will handle all relevant administrative functions, leaving Business Developers free to more fully support FAs. This change will mean an even more extensive centralised administrative support function, allowing FMI to continue offering the excellent service and innovative solutions that have distinguished us as experts in the Income Protection field.

Changes in the Sales Team have been aligned with changes in the Claims and Underwriting Departments. These changes will allow FMI to better understand the needs of our FAs and improve our claims and underwriting resources and processes.

Claims:

Our Claims Department, under the leadership of Sacchin Maharaj, has recently been divided into two teams – a team dedicated to service and administration, headed up by Helen Govender, and a team focused on the technical aspects of the claim, headed up by Michael Shongwe. The Service Team will assume responsibility for lodging claims and managing the service around the claim, including providing the FA and client with regular updates. The Technical Team will focus on assessment of the claim and communication on any technical aspects of the claim. With effect from 18th June, we have appointed Helen Govender, a long-standing member of the FMI team, as our Claims Service Coordinator, a role that provides accountability for overall claims service. For your convenience, please note the following contacts available to you: Helen Govender (heleng@fmiwp) for any query or complaint you may have, and Sacchin Maharaj (sacchinm@fmiwp) to escalate any claim issue that has not been resolved to your satisfaction.

Underwriting:

Our Underwriting Department will now be headed up by Dennis Booysen, with the help of Underwriting Manager, Lee-Anne Ibbetson. Both Dennis and Lee-Anne have worked for FMI for a number of years and are experts in their fields. Dennis prides himself on industry knowledge and his strong relationships with FMI’s FAs. When asked what she likes best about FMI, Lee-Anne says she likes the fact that FMI thinks out the box and continually makes improvements to better serve both FAs and policyholders. Their combined knowledge and passion for the job will ensure quick, cutting-edge decision making, perfect for addressing your client’s income protection needs.

What does this mean for you?

At FMI, we respond to our clients’ claims with empathy and speed to sustain them financially when they need it most. We do this by offering a range of flexible income protection products through independent FAs because we believe that they offer our clients the best advice. Our renewed focus on our relationship with our FAs is designed to help our business improve and expand, yielding the best results for FMI and for you. The implementation of this new structure will enable our technical people to focus on their core functions, while you and your clients receive optimal care from our service teams.

We will be implementing the above changes through the course of July. Over the next few months, we will be sending out further communication with regards to specific department changes, escalations, and process documents. For any queries about these changes, please contact our Head of Sales, Stuart Cumming on 031 538 3521 or stuartc@fmiwp