Can MLC Life pull off a three-peat?
Were it not for the fact that fund manager Schroders was named Money Management Fund Manager of the Year in three successive years, Outsider would have been suspicious about MLC Life being named the Money Management Risk Company of the Year in both 2016 and 2017.
The judging for Risk Company of the Year is conducted by research house Dexx&r as part of its Adviser Choice Risk Awards and Dexx&r chief executive, Mark Kachor, was quick to reassure Outsider that everything was on the up-and-up and nothing
untoward was going on when MLC Life was named the winner in all but a handful of categories.
Still, Outsider reckons it was just as well that MLC Life chief executive, David Hackett actually managed to make it to the awards presentation in circumstances where he was forced to sit on the tarmac at Canberra Airport due to some “technical issues” with his Virgin Australia flight.
While a good-humoured TAL chief executive, Brett Clark was calling for a steward’s inquiry into the performance of MLC Life, Kachor was explaining that it was all down to products, relative pricing and how that was viewed by the advisers he surveyed.
Given recent changes in the life/risk sector, not least the AIA acquisition of CommInsure and the fact that ANZ’s insurance business is still on the market, Outsider can hardly wait to see who wins next year’s awards and how Kachor explains it.
AUTHOR
The Outsider
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