Synergy in Life Insurance Acquisition

THE SITUATION:

A large bank acquires manufacturer of Life Insurance. The benefit is to extend overall Wealth offerings and acquire customer base and sales group. The Chief Financial Officer and experienced management team from the acquired Insurance company identify additional synergy opportunities based on the new combination. However, even with Board of Directors support, there are challenges. Management’s Capital, Accounting, and Operational policies are tuned for traditional banking business.

THE INTERVENTION:

An Insurance company has high cash in-flow from its policy holders. Given the banks vast Real Estate holdings and Credit Risk appetite, the approach is to shift holdings from short term (cash) to long term assets. A detailed plan is developed. Actions are intiated to identify, invest, and lease back several hundred million dollars in Real Estate. A key benefit is the actuarial impact of the Asset Liability Matching on top of the bank financial metrics. Stephen and the CFO assemble a team of internal and external experts. The office of the Chief Accountant, Appointed Actuary, Tax and Legal team are joined by outside counsel and appraisal professionals. Explanation of the business case, risk profile, and an active communication to management stakeholders is key to remove blockers and gain internal support.

THE RESULT:

While the first transaction is being worked out, word within the bank grows, and increasingly experienced and expert partners join the team. The first transaction is used as a template to replicate the business case several times over. It is unusual to work on a single project and see financial impact in following year financial results. The success of the initiative is gratifying to all involved.

1. Increased Net Income After Taxes (NIAT) / Reduction in Policy Liabilities;
2. Reduction in Interest Rate Volatility; and,
3. Increased Minimum Continuing Capital and Surplus Requirement (MCCSR) ratio.

Following the success of the first two significant transactions, Stephen transitions the “play book”. The remaining internal team replicate and continue this new initiative as a Business As Usual program.        

Derivatives Trading

Situation

This engagement was based on a referral from a colleague. Stephen held a series of phone meetings with the London based Head, Funds Strategy & Global Fund products. The client described the International joint venture for management of funds on behalf of institutional clients. A $30 Million project to implement a new derivatives trading system was stalled. Unknown to the executive at the time, the project team had hit the wall. The subject matter expertise was highly specialised (Derivatives Trading) and staff were dropping everyone. Sick leave, quitting, and asking to be moved. Morale was at an all time low.  

Intervention

First of all, within a few weeks Stephen’s recommendation to temporarily halt project work was accepted. Job postings were developed, previous team members were asked to return, the vendor was asked to bring additional full-time support, and leadership within the project was tweaked. The leadership team was in Toronto, London, Paris, and Luxembourg. Cultural awareness and communication skills were important for re-building team morale. Effectively taking the reins of the project required a hi degree of sensitivity and careful learning on the job. Stephen coached executives in advance of difficult meetings and eventually the differing norms of accountability, styles of communicating issues, and general leadership across the regions became less and less causes of impediments. The turning point was three months in. A built up team created a productive meeting cadence. Developers, testers, and the Executive identified and agreed on the priority work areas. Derivatives Workflow, Reporting, Trade capture, Pricing, and Accounting all had significant gaps or critical issues. Daily team meetings were held. Co-location was intensified, and team recognition events were held every two months. Accountability was still critical to forward progress – gaining everyone’s trust was a daily effort and this also meant that continuing to weed out poor performers or negative influences enabled the overall team to grow stronger and perform better.

Results

Implementing the new system was critical to adding new products to the offerings and retaining existing customers. Based on the original business case, the objective met included:

1. Improved competitive offering relative to BONY, J.P. Morgan and State Street;
2. Improved reliability of pricing; and,
3. Improved straight through processing.

However, the big win for the client was the re-building and assembly of a working team that would also transition to operational support once in production.