Page 47 - Be Reasonable – Do It My Way , Peter E. Daly AM, My Story

CHAPTER 3 - JOHANNESBURG TO DURBAN TO CAPE TOWN TO PORT ELIZABETH AND BACK TO JOHANNESBURG
documents, budgets and strategies. After some time I managed to get him seconded to me and we were like two peas in a pod.
I also built a very good relationship with Ken Palmer the Managing Director of the Life Company and spent a lot of time in his company. He suggested that I should be seconded to the Life Department for a year to be in charge of the life agents and to fill the gap created by the secondment of the Life Manager, Graham Woolridge to Australia. I managed to perform this role and keep my General Insurance role operating at the same time. This was a most interesting time in my life because I had to make the recommendations for advancement of money to the agents against potential new business.
I never heard such wonderful stories as the agents used to tell me during this period. There was a common saying that “if they told you it was raining, you need not take your umbrella”. In other words, some of the stories were unbelievable.
One of the incidents involving a life agent was notorious. This agent wrote dummy life proposals, taking information from tombstones so all the information was authentic. He would then pay the premium on the basis that he could annualise the commission and receive 105% of the premium up front, even though the premium was only to be paid monthly. He would pay future premiums out of new policy sales/commission. Once he got over the two years he would allow the policy to lapse. He walked away with quite a few million Rand. This was my first experience of a Ponzi scheme. We nicknamed the agent Tombstone Ellis.
Another incident was the setting up of the first black sales team called Goudstad Branch. This produced outstanding sales in the first four or five years. One day the L&G Chief Accountant saw a member of this Life Team riding around in an open Mercedes and he started wondering what’s happening, as the mortality rate amongst the clientele that had been insured by Goudstad Branch was above the company average.
What eventually came to light was that they were insuring real
47