BRIDGETOWN, Barbados--The new company set up to control the Barbados-based life insurance portfolio previously held by Clico International Life Insurance (CIL) has been launched, and promises to begin outstanding pay-outs to former policyholders from next month.
The court-approved, Barbadian-owned Resolution Life Assurance Company Limited ResLife says it will speedily address the BB $91 million (US $45.5 million) in outstanding settlements.
Chairman of ResLife and its parent company New Life Investment Inc., Clenell Goodman, told a press conference Thursday that the legal aspects surrounding ResLife’s takeover of the policies had been completed to pave the way for pay-outs to commence.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Cheryl Senhouse added that a systematic and fair approach would be used to manage the process of settling the outstanding claims.
“In compliance with the terms and conditions of the transfer, we will commence current payments to annuitants at the end of February 2018. Monthly payments to annuitants will be kept current thereafter. Outstanding amounts due to annuitants and beneficiaries and claimants under life policies will be settled over a six-month period starting March 2018,” she said.
The CEO explained that the insured values, sums assured or fund values have been reduced under ResLife’s management of the former CIL policies.
However, she explained that due to changes to the contracts, life insurance policyholders will not be permitted to surrender their policies for a four-year period, while there will be restrictions to access to cash surrender values through policy loans.
Despite that, Senhouse said, all claims and maturities arising from life policies from January 1, will be processed and paid as soon as they are approved.
ResLife also made amendments to annuity policies. For those with a stated retirement age of 50, that age has been increased to 55; the minimum guaranteed interest rates have been reduced; and the period for the application of surrender charges has been extended.
Investors in the Executive Flexible Premium Annuity (EFPA) will be treated separately, Senhouse further explained, with the principal amounts of each of these policies converted to a ten-year annuity at a fixed interest rate and repayments made according to a set schedule over the same period.
The CEO also offered some hope for those who may have allowed their policies to lapse.
“Provision has been made for Resolution Life to evaluate the quantum of their investment and once we have undertaken the necessary financial analysis, we will make a determination on how best we can move forward with those policyholders in terms of making the potential offer for the reinstatement of those policies,” she said.
President of the Barbados Investors and Policyholders Alliance (BIPA) June Fowler, who was present at Thursday’s press conference, said that her body was happy that nine years after the CIL collapse, ResLife was a reality.
“I am looking forward to the next step where the policyholders and pensioners would start to get payments and where claims would be paid for those persons who have death claims and other outstanding claims,” she said after the launch.
Fowler said she was also pleased with the company’s management team.
Dr. Kennedy Swaratsingh, a former Minister of Public Administration in Trinidad and Tobago, is Goodman’s deputy, and the other board members are: Ashley Bignall, former Chief Accountant with the Management Accounting Unit of the Ministry of Finance; Attorney-at-Law Stephen Alleyne; retired insurance executive William Tomlin; former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Barbados Harold Codrington; and Attorney-at-Law Ella Hoyos, who will serve as Corporate Secretary and Adviser on Corporate Matters. ~ Caribbean360 ~
