Speaking at today’s International Adviser Fund Links Forum, Nick Griffin, sales director at Generali International, said the Association of International Life Offices had been instrumental in helping the industry deal with challenges presented by regulation over the past 25 years.
Giving the day’s welcome speech, Griffin said the international life industry’s assets under management now total more than €237bn Euro and is responsible for income of €13bn per year.
“However, our industry is not without challenges,” said Griffin. “AILO was started by a small group of pioneering life companies who were partly selling back into the UK, but who also spotted a new customer segment – the expatriate customer segment who were looking for tax efficient offshore investments.
“Since that time the business has evolved and AILO, while still assisting in this area, has found a new role to play with regulators in the EU, with things like the third life directive all the way to more recent regulations such as PRIPS and IMD2 and internationally companies are engaging more with the likes of the MAS in Singapore and the SFC in Hong Kong – spreading the message about our business.
“And it is really important to do that because we do face headwinds, not just regulatory, but in terms of PR as well. Since the financial crisis the issue of consumer trust is still a big problem for all financial services businesses and we must address these issues.”
Griffin added that the future is “very bright” for the industry for a number of reasons, but said it is important to help get the “message out” and that AILO is the “life company’s platform to do this”.
