CLICO in negotiation for sale
News Five has been following the decline of Colonial Life Insurance Company branches throughout the Caribbean. The branch of the insurance provider in Belize is a subsidiary of CLICO Bahamas Limited, which was placed into liquidation by that country’s Supreme Court on April seventh. Since then CLICO in Belize has been placed under judicial management, with accountant, Mark Hulse, appointed to take charge of its operations. But there is another party being affected by the company’s financial woes: the policyholders. We contacted the Supervisor of Insurance Alma Gomez for an update on the company’s situation and asked her what is in store for policyholders as the liquidation unfolds.
Gomez says that while the CLICO headquarters in the Bahamas is going directly into liquidation, the legislation in Belize has more provisions and allows for government intervention and judicial management before liquidation. The local branch of CLICO has approximately eleven thousand policies in Belize.
Alma Gomez, Supervisor of Insurance
“What this step is, we needed to have somebody take control of the company and run it as a growing concern. We know that the company itself has been placed into liquidation by the court of the Bahamas on the seventh of April so they are ahead of us. We have to follow the instruction that is coming down from the Bahamas because that’s where the company is registered, that’s where the headquarters of the company is. With respect to the judicial management now, the companies right now—I know Mr. Hulse has met with the five licensed life insurers in Belize. They are currently working with two of them as we speak in trying to see which one of them would be a potential buyer for the CLICO portfolio. The companies, while they are working, the selection of the company is going to take a while because we have to do our due diligence, we have to make sure that the portfolio does not put the company—the buyer into any financial trouble and not only the CLICO policyholders will be losing but the current policyholders of that insurance company. So lots of due diligence has to take place for that transfer to occur. Policyholders that have life and health insurance policies or accident and sickness; there are various policies within the portfolio. These policies, we’re gonna be moving from CLICO to whichever company buys it, that’s company A, company B out of the two. The policy terms and conditions remain the same, they will not be changing. It’s just basically the company that will be administering the policy will change but the policy itself remains in tact. There is no variation to the contract.”
Delahnie Bain
“That includes premiums as well?”
Alma Gomez
“That includes the premiums and the benefits afforded to the policyholder under the contract. That’s the reason we’re telling policyholders keep paying your premiums to maintain it active so that when we transfer over the portfolio the policyholder remains with what he had originally or what he purchased originally.”
In related news, the government of Trinidad and Tobago has announced that it will be spending fifty million US dollars to assist struggling branches of CLICO in the Caribbean. This follows an initial billion dollars that was used to pay depositors, pensions and medical plans of CLICO subsidiaries.
