SAIA and FIA: industry bodies for brokers
What SAIA and the FIA do for South African insurers, brokers and underwriting managers, and how to record an FIA Services subscription with input VAT.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Insurance businesses in South Africa
A new broker setting up on her own soon meets two acronyms in every industry conversation: SAIA and the FIA. Clients assume she belongs to something. Insurers' representatives mention submissions "the industry" has made. Colleagues talk about CPD webinars and compliance updates from their association. It is not obvious which body does what, which one a broker can join, or whether the cost is worth it.
This piece explains what the South African Insurance Association and the Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa each do, what the FIA Services subscription for underwriting managers covers and does not cover, and how to record the cost in the books.
SAIA: the voice of the non-life insurers
The South African Insurance Association describes itself as the official representative body for South Africa's non-life insurance industry, with 55 member companies, working with government bodies and regulators on industry standards.
Its members are companies, and it speaks for the industry as a whole. For a broker, SAIA matters less as something to join and more as a body shaping the environment you work in: the standards the industry agrees and its position in discussions with regulators.
SAIA names three focus areas for the non-life industry:
- insurance risks, building resilience against environmental and infrastructural risks;
- transformation, covering skills, diversity and equity;
- governance risks.
For a broker advising commercial clients, the first area is directly relevant. Where insurers are thinking about weather, flood or infrastructure risk, your clients' premiums, excesses and policy conditions will eventually reflect it.
FIA: the association for intermediaries
The Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa says it represents more than 12 000 licensed financial services advisers in South Africa, working in healthcare, financial planning, non-life insurance, employee benefits and investments. It provides online CPD training for member businesses.
This is the body a broker or financial adviser would join. For a small brokerage, the practical attractions are usually CPD that fits the classes of business you advise in, compliance updates written for intermediaries, and a collective voice when regulation changes. Keep a record of every CPD session each representative completes, alongside their qualifications; keeping representative qualification files explains what belongs in that file.
The FIA Services subscription for SAUMA members
Underwriting managers have their own arrangement. FIA Services charges qualifying SAUMA members a subscription of R260.00 a month for up to seven registered individuals (Key Individuals and Representatives), plus R36.00 per additional registered individual, excluding VAT, at the time of writing. FIA Services adds that its fees are reviewed annually in March, with any change effective from 1 April, so check the current figures on the FIA's site before budgeting.
One point is easy to miss: the subscription does not make the subscriber a member of FIA NPC. An underwriting manager paying for FIA Services should not describe itself as an FIA member on that basis.
A worked example in words. An underwriting manager with more registered individuals than the base allowance pays the monthly base amount, plus the per-person amount for each individual above seven, plus VAT on the total. When a representative joins or leaves, the next month's invoice should change, so check each invoice against your own register of Key Individuals and Representatives.
Recording the subscription with input VAT
A subscription invoice is a supplier bill. In Achekam a business records each supplier bill line by line, with VAT on each line; a bill not backed by a purchase order waits for someone to approve it before it posts, and the bill can then be paid in full or in instalments from whichever bank account the money leaves.
For a South African business, supplier bills take 15% or 0% VAT per line, and bills post input VAT to the ledger. If the subscription invoice charges VAT, enter the VAT-exclusive amount on a line at 15%, so that the input VAT reaches the VAT account and the subscription expense is recorded net. Keep the tax invoice with the bill, since it supports the input VAT claim.
Post membership fees and subscriptions to their own expense account, such as "Subscriptions and professional memberships", rather than to general office costs. That makes the annual cost easy to see when you decide whether to renew.
Is membership worth it?
The answer depends on what you would otherwise pay for, and what you would miss. Questions to ask each year:
- How many CPD hours did our people complete through the association, and what would the same training have cost elsewhere?
- Did we use its compliance updates, templates or helpline?
- Did its representations to regulators affect our business?
- Do clients or insurers ask whether we belong?
- What did the subscription cost us in total, including VAT that we could not reclaim, if any?
If the honest answers are "not much" to the first four, the subscription may be a habit rather than a benefit. If the CPD alone covers the cost, the decision is easy. For an FIA Services subscriber, a natural time to ask is just before the March fee review, so any decision is made before new fees take effect on 1 April. Once you know your costs, they also feed into how you price advice; invoicing broker fees covers that side.
The FIA's website explains its membership, CPD and compliance support for licensed financial and insurance intermediaries, and the FIA Services subscription.
Check which body your brokerage belongs to, confirm the current fees, and set up a subscriptions account so the true cost is visible at renewal.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
