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Jean Elia (Sogelife):

Digital innovation at the centre of the managerial mindset


CEO Jean Elia says SOGELIFE, already a leading player on the Luxembourg market, is demonstrating its agility to thrive in a fast-changing environment, including its embrace of digital technology.

 

What is SOGELIFE’s background in Luxembourg?

 

Established in the grand duchy in 1996 in the Grand Duchy, SOGELIFE is a life insurance company, subsidiary of Societe Generale Group that offers products and solutions to international high net worth clients. SOGELIFE has experienced a strong growth, particularly over the past six years, and now is among the biggest players on the Luxembourg market. In addition to Luxembourg, we mainly operate under the Freedom to Provide Services principle within the European Union, with a focus on France, Belgium and Italy as well as the UK and the Czech Republic. We work on an open architecture basis with a large network of partners including major European private banks, asset managers, custodian banks, family offices and insurance brokers. Our wide range of life insurance products enable clients to invest in external funds, internal collective funds, internal dedicated funds and specialised insurance funds. In a nutshell, SOGELIFE provides a comprehensive life insurance framework that incorporates clients’ entire wealth management value chain.

 

What is SOGELIFE’s competitive edge? 

 

I can cite a few! Nevertheless, our main competitive advantage remains our agility. The latter enables us not only to adapt rapidly to a continuously changing environment but also to be proactive, anticipate changes and sustain our advantages. In an environment of low interest rates, volatile financial markets, ongoing and costly regulatory changes, plus digital transformation that is disrupting all businesses, we endeavour to exploit the opportunities that lie within. I know this sounds a bit cliché but we can point to many projects realised over the last years are obvious examples of our agility, such as the transformation of a large part of our business and product mix from the Euro Fund to Unit-Linked assets and the launch of the Specialised Insurance Fund or FAS in French. This is a particularity of the Luxembourg insurance regulation allowing clients to manage their investments directly, and it seems that SOGELIFE’s FAS solution is one of the “most elaborate” in the market according to our partners.

What is SOGELIFE’s main focus for developing its business?

 

 

There are many important aspects, but the key focus is on digital technology. Again, far from being a slogan, digital transformation and innovation are becoming an essential part of our managerial mindset. We have already put in place numerous projects and initiatives in this respect. For example, last October we launched a B2B portal that was deemed “a truly satisfactory overall journey” by most of our partners. It is a responsive design tool that enables them to manage their entire policy portfolio, in real time and comfortable navigation. We will be announcing many other projects which we trust will enable the enrichment of our partners’ and customers’ experience.

 

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