Where did the idea for Cares Assistance come from and what is the vision behind it?

Marnic Vandenbroucke (Cares Assistance): "In my previous life as an insurance broker, I found it frustrating to be able to provide my clients with 'only' money at the most difficult moments in their lives. Money is important, but it's not what's essential when someone in a family falls ill or dies. It is at such times that people need concrete help the most. Cares Assistance arose from that need."

Assistance in the event of death is not new. What is so special about the Cares Assistance value proposition?

Marnic: "We do what others promise. Within two hours after a death, our care manager will make an appointment with the affected family to see exactly what they need. And that's not all. In total, our customers are entitled to no fewer than 19 interventions spread over the first year after a death. Because the issues after a death do not all arise at the same time, but rather, the relatives gradually encounter them. Our services after death are therefore not limited to an hour of instructions on how the customer can basically arrange everything themselves. Just because you've received a manual, it doesn't mean that you can actually put together a self-build cabinet. We provide mental support and hands-on assistance with administrative, financial and legal matters, ranging from completing paperwork to negotiating with the bank. Cares Assistance is a high-performance and extensive service package that offers a lot of added value for the customer."

This service can even start before the death. Could you explain that?

Marnic: "We can indeed start the assistance as soon as someone is told that they are terminally ill. The help that is then offered brings a lot of peace. We will also be expanding our service very soon, so that we can also assist and financially support our customers in other difficult family situations. More on that late 2022-early 2023."

Cares Assistance distributes its products only through insurance brokers. Why is that?

Marnic: "A first-rate product deserves first-rate advisors. Our proposition is not the cheapest, nor the most well-known, but it is the best. The difference with similar products is in the details, in the fine print. And who better than the broker can explain that difference to his clients? It is not without reason that niche players from the legal aid and hospitalisation insurance sector also prefer to work with brokers. We need the broker's impact, and the trust he or she can establish, to sell our products." 

Patrick, AXA Partners quickly supported this project. What did you see in Marnic's idea?

Patrick Reusens (AXA Partners): "Marnic's concept fits perfectly with the 'from payer to partner' vision of AXA Group. We realise that good assistance especially has the greatest impact on the customer experience. That is why, together with our Business Partners, we want to create as much added value as possible for their customers. Innovation is crucial in order to deliver real answers to real social needs that we detect. Thanks to our marketing insights and assistance experience, we immediately saw the relevance of the solution that Marnic wanted to offer and we believed very strongly in his concept from the start." 

Marnic, what has this collaboration with AXA Partners been like?

Marnic: "AXA Partners immediately shared our ambition to make this innovative concept the best of its kind. They are not afraid to innovate out-of-the-box and also believed in us as a partner, in our analysis and market knowledge."

Patrick: "It is a partnership of cross-pollination and co-creation. Cares Assistance tells us what they need, we look at how we can offer it and even take it to a higher level. This means that, in addition to our co-creation process, we also involve specialised external partners from our ecosystem, for example, to make the service provision for the end customer as efficient and relevant as possible."

Marnic: "That is certainly an absolute added value of AXA Partners: they are not afraid to call on external experts if this improves the quality of the offer. For the service to our customers, for example, we work together with the experienced social workers and psychologists from Pobos, with whom we have made clear agreements about response time and quality. Empathy and professionalism are also crucial at those delicate moments when the customer calls on us." 

What is the added value of AXA Partners for Cares Assistance?

Marnic: "I make no secret of the fact that a strong brand like AXA gives an enormous boost in terms of brand awareness and credibility. But I think it is even more important that they enable us to deliver on our customer promise and to provide the best service throughout the entire assistance process." 

Patrick: "We have a solid partnership and are working hard to expand it even further. We are happy with Business Partners such as Marnic who, like us, want to offer relevant services to people through co-creation and innovation. And that is an ongoing process." 

Read more about this great partnership and this valuable service.