Many financial products ‘not in touch’ with modern savings habits

Philip Story is the Head of Distribution for the EMEA region for Cayman Islands-based Investors Trust Assurance (ITA). Story tells Hubbis how his company’s flexible, non-contractual savings plans which do not tie investors down to set periods are more in touch with the realities of the modern workplaces, where shorter-term employment contracts and higher-risk jobs have become more commonplace. He discusses ITA’s presence in Africa and the “unbelievably big” Indian and non-resident Indian (NRI) segment, which the company has been serving with considerable success.

Philip Story is the Head of Distribution for the EMEA region, based in the United Arab Emirates, for Investors Trust Assurance (ITA), the Cayman Islands-based international insurance company which specialises in providing medium- to long-term investment-linked insurance products.

“Our clients here Gulf Cooperation Council states are predominantly brokers,” Story says. “Independent financial advisors (IFAs) working for regulated entities here. We have a range of flexible, tax-efficient solutions tailored to meet the needs of investors, and it is down to the IFA or broker to determine which of these products is the best solution for their client and their risk profile, the term and type of contract they are on.”

A supporting role 

He defines his role as a supporting one for the third-party distribution of ITA products by these brokers, bankers and family offices to their clients. These include savings and investment products which range from one-year, non-contractual savings plans to 25-year investment terms, portfolio bonds and fixed income guaranteed products.

Story says his company’s EMEA sales team operates in multiple languages, serving segments that other companies do not in the region. Examples of these include the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets investors working in the oil and gas industries.

Online efficiency

The company’s other unique selling proposition is the efficiency gains which it obtains from doing everything fully online, whether for saving plans, portfolio bonds or other products that ITA offers. 

The ITA website includes interactive features and simplified functions that feature all the tools and capabilities that investors would expect, “Whether it is our terms of business, the application process or the servicing. From a profitability point of view, it is obviously fantastic for us, but we also pass that on to the brokers and their end client, the investor.” “We believe by being online, we have been able to create easy-to-use solutions that are the best value in the marketplace,” he says.

In October 2018, ITA launched two new non-contractual savings plans, Evolution Select and Evolution Plus, “For clients who are looking for simple, short-term, transparent solutions where they know exactly what they are going to get for that money.”

He adds that “since day one”, ITA has offered complete transparency on all of its charges. “Everything is there on our website: brochures, fact sheets, product terms and conditions. So a client can just go and review it, and see everything. We will never try to hide anything.”

Outsourcing the fund management process

The fund management process which sits behind ITA products are outsourced to large global players such as Black Rock, Franklin Templeton and Schroders, among others. “We work with all of the big companies and, through us, they provide their expertise to the brokers, who will then determine what is best for the client,” he adds.

One of the things that ITA does differently, however, is to include things such as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on its savings plans. “We have 41 different BlackRock iShares ETFs that you can choose from. No one else has those on their regular plans. Again, these are the ways we provide that are clean, transparent, simple solutions for our clients.”

A changing population mix

Story observes that the population mix in the EMEA market is changing, with more and more East Asian companies moving into the financial services space in the region. “Just look around the Dubai International Financial Centre,” he points out. “Look at the banks and other fund managers who are moving in: there are far fewer European, British and Americans here; more are coming from China and Japan. So it is a different dynamic.”

He believes that this change presents a winning situation for ITA, and also represents great long-term opportunities for the company. “The population is growing, and in different segments,” he adds.

“Long may that continue, because we are multilingual, and we are already in that space.” 

Building relationships in Africa

In Africa, ITA provides support “across the board” for brokers, working with a number of IFAs for the last several years and building good relationships there. “It takes time to build those relationships. They know the support we can give, and they know we will be able to support them in pretty much all of the countries in Africa.”

“For us, the biggest growth area has probably been outside of South Africa - in eastern, western and southern Africa. A lot of that has been with partners in the expat space, which has been a very big but competitive space, as well as in the local space.”

Where ITA has had considerable success, he adds, is with the non-resident Indian (NRI) segment in Africa. “Through our connections here and elsewhere, we have been able to get into that market, with great success, because there is a huge wealthy NRI population in Africa.” 

According to Story, the products ITA sells to its clients in Africa are “across the board”, with one of their biggest accounts mainly selling short, five-year savings plans. “They do regular premium corporate schemes, corporate pensions and larger short term pensions,” he says. “But then you also have the local market where premiums can go down to USD 100 a month. You can get into that segment, and still be able to help those that are looking to start with smaller amounts as they grow - the “middle class”, shall we say.”

Indian market is 'unbelievably big’

Another market that ITA has been serving has been the Indian one. Story calls the market an “unbelievably big” one. “You just need to look at the top of it. We have been looking at just the higher net worth segment, through events like the Hubbis (wealth management forum), which went down very well. We got some great traction from that.”

“So since then, we have recruited someone who has been tasked to grow that Indian market and the NRI market here in Dubai, because that has always been one of our key markets, and those are the people who initially helped us get into India.”