It's time for another Local Perspectives interview, where we sit down with a member of the MAXIS network to find out more about employee benefits in their local market.
This time, we heard from Ellis Rimoldi from our network partner AXA Italy. Ellis discussed all things EB in Italy and shared what he thinks the biggest opportunities and challenges are in the region, as well as predicting some future trends…
Listen to the podcast below, or keep scrolling to read the interview!
Firstly, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role within AXA Italy?
First of all, thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure! So, let’s speak about AXA Italy… in Italy, AXA is one of the leading companies in the market and we insure about 4 million people (not just in employee benefits, but generally speaking). I work in the EB Underwriting team for accident and health, and my team specifically manages brokers – we develop EB solutions for domestic companies, as well as working with MAXIS to service multinationals.
I started at AXA just two years ago, so I’m still pretty new! But I would say that health in Italy is one of the pillars of AXA Italy’s strategic plan – we are investing a lot in this area, and we’re growing a lot. To give an example of our growth, even just within my team, when I first joined two years ago, there were four Underwriters handling our relationships with brokers, and now there are eight, so we’ve doubled the size of our team as well as more than doubling premium.
And what about the partnership between AXA Italy and MAXIS? How does AXA Italy help MAXIS’ multinational clients?
I first started working with MAXIS two years ago when I joined AXA, and I have to say that it’s a really positive partnership.
Recently, Aaron Brown and David Schupak visited us in Milan, and we set up meetings with the top three brokers in Italy, which gave us the opportunity to discuss new business opportunities. For us, this is really positive as it makes the brokers feel that both AXA Italy and MAXIS are present and that we’re there to solve problems and find solutions when needed.
For us, it’s very important to work with MAXIS as they have such strong relationships with our shared multinational clients – this can help give the push we need to get new business in Italy and can also help when solving issues that can be complicated locally. We also help MAXIS with translating global opportunities into local business, so overall, I think we work really well together.
Can you give us some insight into the MAXIS Global Forum that took place in Lisbon at the end of September?
It was a wonderful experience! First of all, I won the MVP of the football tournament which is the main thing!
Jokes aside, it was a pleasure. Often you just see names and emails going back and forth on a day-to-day basis but getting to see each other in person and building relationships with the people you work with is really important. I knew a lot of people there and we got to discuss trends and best practices with network members from all over the world. It was a really fantastic experience.
What are the biggest opportunities for multinationals in the market? And what challenges do they face?
The Italian market isn’t mature yet, so there aren’t many Italian multinationals with international EB programmes, and they aren’t necessarily aware of the advantages of having a pooling programme or a captive programme. Recently there was an event here in Italy about captive solutions and about 40 Italian companies joined the event to understand more about captives and what the benefits of using one for EB are. I think we need to keep sharing information about the benefits of these solutions so that Italian companies can understand what the advantages are. I expect there to be lots of opportunities in this space over the next few years.
On the challenges, I would say the same: the main challenge is the culture which is perhaps not ready at the moment to think about certain solutions that we can provide.
Thinking of the multinationals in Italy that you work with on a local basis, what are you seeing in terms of their coverage needs at this moment in time?
The main area of development here in Italy is definitely within medical. In Italy we had a national tax system that was really strong, but throughout the year we’ve seen a reduction in services and accessibility… we’re seeing waiting lists getting longer and it’s difficult to have the same level of service within public medical services as we do in private. Employees are starting to ask their employers to provide private medical insurance – I’d say this is the main trend we’re seeing at the moment.
Looking forward… over the next five years, do you think this focus on private healthcare will still be the main focus in Italy from an EB perspective?
I definitely think that health will remain a key focus, but I’d also say that EB in general will get a lot of attention from both companies and employees. I think employees are more and more interested in their benefits – they want an EB plan that really meets their needs. This is a really good opportunity for us as multinationals will be looking to develop their EB programmes. On the other hand, it’s a challenge as there needs to be balance between benefits and personalisation of benefits, and profit. For me, there are great opportunities for growth in the future, but it has to be done with the right balance.