Sagicor Life Jamaica's Individual Life division wrote J$1.7 billion of new business in 2010

Friday, March 18, 2011

Wednesday night saw Sagicor Life Jamaica hosting its Annual Corporate Awards and celebrating Life of Jamaica's 40th anniversary at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel, New Kingston.

Below is the full text of President and CEO of Sagicor Life Jamaica, Richard Byles' address.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I invite you to look at the people that surround you.They are the people that make things happen at Sagicor.The crème de la crème in sales, in banking in administration.Every day they get up and display the Sagicor spirit, that spirit which says I am going to be my best today.I am a winner!

Sagicor Life Jamaica Ltd proudly applauds you for your tremendous achievements in 2010

* That spirit which has brought us here tonight and has given us so much success over the years, was born 40 years ago in the formation of Life of Jamaica and I am very pleased to have with us tonight, some of the founding members of that great company:

o Mrs Margaret Williams

o Mr. Adrian Foreman

o Mr. Peter Phillips

o Mr. Mike Fraser

o Dr. the Hon. R. Danny Williams - our Chairman and founder

That mighty foundation you laid remains an essential ingredient in our accomplishments today.

Ladies and gentlemen, because 2010 was such a challenging year, I take special delight in celebrating our performance.

I say challenging because the JDX and its companion tax measures, which were absolutely necessary, took J$60 billion of purchasing power out of the economy putting pressure on our conservation and new business targets and removing J$300 million of interest earnings out of the Sagicor Group.

Nonetheless the Group rose to the challenge and performed very well In the Employee Benefits Division we wrote $1.9 billion of new business and $1.4 billion in profits

Amongst that great professional team in EBD that delivers on their targets without fail, I'd like to specially recognize the lady who leads the marketing charge in the highly competitive group health and life business, Mrs. Gloria Goss. Gloria is also the longest serving employee of the company.

In the Individual life division we wrote another record in the books of the Jamaican life insurance industry - $1.7 billion of new business and $1.6 billion of profit. Of course every one of our advisors contributed to this achievement, but a few made exceptional contributions and I wish to recognize them:

*The Chairman of the Production Club and the advisor with the highest FYC and API - Mr. Albert Lyon

* The Manager of the champion Unit, The Legends, which set the record for the highest number of cases settled... 1,735 - Mr. Walter Grant

* The Winner of the President's Trophy for the 2nd consecutive year and the branch to which the champion Unit belongs, Liguanea Branch

Most importantly, we again lived up to the promise we made to thousands of our customers paying out $8.5 billion in benefits Notwithstanding the JDX impact, Investment Division delivered 41 per cent more than their budget

Turning to PCFS, in 2010 they launched the largest Initial Public Offer, Dolphin Cove

o PCFS was also the #1 stockbroker for the year

o Still with PCFS, they delivered the largest 5k event in the Caribbean and Central America with over 16,000 participants, the Sigma Fun Run

o To top off 2010, SLJ and PCFS each delivered their 10th consecutive year of increased profits

* Ladies and gentlemen, although I am up here delivering the good news, that news was created by all the men and women of the Group and in particular the outstanding Management Team I have the honour to lead and whom I would like to recognize tonight:

o Errol McKenzie

o Rohan Miller

o Donovan Perkins

o Mark Chisholm

o Ivan Carter

o Willard Brown

o Philip Armstrong

o Karl Williams

o Tanya Miller

o Janice Grant-Taffe

o Kristine Bolt

* The successes we have had in 2010 and indeed over the past 10 years, should not lure us into complacency. If we want to remain a successful company and if we want to grow, we have to continue to meet and exceed the challenges of the business:

1. We must keep our investment assets safe and ensure the income yield from them is greater than inflation

2. We must continue to grow our capital base, to reinvest in the business to support the new business we are writing

3. We must renew and refresh our product offering to ensure relevance and attractiveness to the customer

4. We must keep our brand Sagicor in top shape, well respected, well known and admired

5. We must bring the customer into the centre of our activity and thinking. Consider this, SLJ has:

* More than 800,000 customers generating each year:

* 3.1 million claims

* 4.7 million premium payments

* 300,000 telephone calls

* 110,000 visits to Head Office and the branches

* With a customer count and activity like that:

* We must make electronic processing of transactions and information all-pervasive in SLJ

* We must have a World-Class contact centre

* We must dramatically improve our claims turn-around time

* We must institute specialized training & empowerment of frontline Team members to immediately resolve most issues, right in front of the customer

* We must establish a Complaints Register where we log every complaint, ensure they are resolved and fix the source of the complaint

I am a strong believer that if we take good care of the customer, the customer will take care of us!

Ladies and gentlemen, as we celebrate 2010 for the last time, let me enthusiastically congratulate every awardee here tonight. Your performances have been outstanding in an outstanding Company; and that's no small feat!

We enter 2011 with much enthusiasm, bigger ambitions and justifiable confidence, all the ingredients to produce another great year.

Do you feel buying into Facebook now is a good investment for the long-run?
	Yes
	No

View Results
Results published weekly in Sunday Finance

Username:
Password:

GCT to go down, white rum prices going up

Sagicor Life Jamaica's Individual Life division wrote J$1.7 billion of new business in 2010