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Amado Marcano, Branch Manager of Guardian Life of the Caribbean.

Guardian prepared

According to Amado Marcano, Branch Manager of Guardian Life of the Caribbean, the insurance company is prepared to bring aid and offer guidance to its clientele.

Speaking to The Barbados Advocate, Marcano explained that while other insurance agencies had closed their doors to clients, the Guardian office remained open and was built for occasions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Everything done can be digital, we have not been affected by manual things. Everything being done like payments via Internet banking and bank to bank payments, we have been built for this. We do not need to see you to sign papers for applications nor make payments,” it was explained.

Responsible for the sales force, the manager urged consumers to make sure they kept in contact with their agents as well as their banks to ensure that policy payments were still being deducted and paid, to avoid any surprises. While some may be able to still pay their premiums, Marcano highlighted that for those unable to pay, they should make it known to the agents so they could be guided accordingly.

“We have an element in the policy where people can draw from their savings. For people who are unable to pay their policy, the policy will continue. While not withdrawing all, what can be done is to take out the cost of the insurance premium to keep it enforced,” explained Marcano.

Many businesses around the island have closed their doors completely, while others are attempting to adapt by working remotely from home, but Marcano contended that Guardian had already been making moves in that direction.

“This has been in the making for a long time, we have a lot of digital systems set up. What has happened in the last couple weeks is we have had to fast forward a couple things in the pipeline for later this year, so this was in place already,” Marcano pointed out.

The Branch Manager then made another plea with clients to contact their agents, not just to enquire about insurance but also about how to deal with the current situation, citing that the agents were equipped and able to help. He made this statement in recognition that while Guardian had been prepared, many of the clients had not.

“Our job now via the agents, is to train some of our clients to operate like that. That is part of their job now, to guide people how to get through this,” said Marcano.

Finally giving advice to those consumers who were not comfortable or up to date with the digital age, Marcano encouraged them to educate themselves to become more digitally aware and prepared. He said that the insurance world had not changed and health insurance still covered sickness and businesses insured against losses. However, the lesson to be learnt is that in this environment of the COVID-19 pandemic, one must see where the life situation fell short and make a change to be better prepared in the future.

Barbados Advocate

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