Union Assurance Company plc appears to be doing quite well in balancing the dynamics of a post-acquisition restructuring programme with ongoing business operations as it has executed claims orders in excess of N290 million in the first quarter (Q1) 2015, alone.
According to Douglas Machuki, chief underwriting officer, while there remains a flurry of activities internally aimed at restructuring and repositioning the business, the firm stays committed to upholding service excellence, as “ours is an unwavering commitment to correcting the anomalies of the past in the quest for a brighter future for all our stakeholders. This commitment therefore starts with our customers. We have built a technical team that is a lot more customer centric than before.”
Machuki says further that “one of the things we did was to embark on a data integrity exercise to update our customer database. In the course of this exercise, we discovered that there had been 37 deaths of our customers who had a Life Insurance policy with Union Assurance but which policies were not known to their families.
“We successfully made contact with many of the beneficiaries and settled these claims within two weeks of the discoveries. Needless to say that this step has brought financial relief to all such beneficiaries. We will not stop until we have located all the other beneficiaries.
“In the same vein, we uncovered several claims which had not been settled with the brokers that gave us business. These claims are now being settled to the delight of the brokers and our mutual clients. In the first quarter of this year, we have settled more than N200 million of such claims while the few remaining are also being aggressively processed.
“Furthermore, we paid a single travel insurance claim of N3,293,950 to one of our clients who took ill in America and had to undergo emergency surgeries. This claim was settled in March to the delight of the client upon her return to Nigeria.
“Our company plans to expedite action on our outstanding claims by settling all of them in the coming months.”
Machuki also requests that all Union Assurance policyholders to visit the firm’s website – or call 0809 528 3372 to update their profiles, as this will go a long way in ensuring they benefit from the new customer and claims settlement experience.
Union Assurance Company was acquired from Union Bank of Nigeria by Greenoaks Global Holdings for approximately N7 billion in 2014, and recently got additional fresh capital of $21.8 million. The board of directors is chaired by the co-founder and pioneer managing director of Guaranty Trust Bank plc, Fola Adeola.
