A major restructure has taken place within Zurich’s Australian business with the announcement the company will be aligning the structure of its Australian operations with that of its global parent.
According to Zurich, there will be ‘… a clear focus on two operating businesses’, which will be:
- Life Insurance & Investments
- General Insurance
Current GM Life Australia, Colin Morgan, has been appointed Chief Executive Officer Life Australia, which now incorporates the Zurich Investment Management business. Shane Doyle has been appointed Chief Executive Officer, General Insurance Australia.
Matthew Drennan has been appointed Zurich’s Executive General Manager Investment Management and will report to Mr Morgan.
Zurich’s current Australian Chief Executive, David Smith, will leave the company on 31 March, just before the formal implementation of the new structure in early April 2011.
A communication to advisers from Mr Morgan and Mr Drennan says the new structure will allow the company to bring an improved focus to its core activities, and that at at the platform and dealer group level there are a number of genuine synergies a combined Life and Investments offering can bring to Zurich’s key clients.
But given the differences between the insurance and investment product propositions and the different knowledge bases and servicing models required, Mr Morgan and Mr Drennan have confirmed Zurich will continue to have separate, dedicated sales teams servicing each business line.
Mr Morgan commented: “Zurich is one of the largest global players in Life Insurance and the alignment will enable us in Australia to further accelerate our focus to support independent financial advisers and their customers.
“Zurich remains firmly committed to being the preferred partner to independent financial advisers,” added Mr Morgan.
