Honor Grant-Hennessy, Senior Group Underwriter, OnePath Life/Zurich, has been awarded this year’s prestigious ALUCA Turks Scholarship for her paper on ‘Responding in Times of Emergency’ looking at how life insurers and superannuation trustees can positively change how they interact with their customers during times of social and economic interruption.

Honor wins an overseas conference package valued at up to $8,000 including return travel, accommodation, $1,000 cash and registration to one of the following conferences in the USA of Honor’s choice:

• 2021 Eastern Claims Conference
• 2021 Life Insurance Conference
• 2021 Supplemental Health, DI & LTC Conference

If international travel restrictions are still in place when Honor’s chosen conference is scheduled, the prize may be awarded as cash.

In addition to the major prize, Honor will:

• Be invited to sit on the judging panel for next year’s Scholarship;
• Receive automatic membership to ALUCA and TurksLegal’s scholarship alumni program, Life Insurance Future Thinking (LIFT); and
• Present her winning paper at the December 2020 Turks ‘Life Matters’ webinar.

“We were all impressed this year by the standard of the papers. In fact every single paper resonated to some degree with the judges but ultimately Honor’s heartfelt paper, with its calm pragmatic voice, was impossible to ignore”, said Alph Edwards, Partner and Practice Head of TurksLegal’s Life Insurance, Superannuation & Advice group and member of the scholarship’s judging panel.

The 1st runner-up is, Suzanne Whyte, Senior Claims Consultant, RGA for her paper on ‘Unfair contract terms’. Suzanne wins a $1,000 Visa pre-paid gift card. The 2nd runner-up is Troy Williams, Corporate Counsel, TAL for his paper on the future of IP cover. Troy receives a $250 restaurant voucher.

“ALUCA is proud to have had a long standing relationship with TurksLegal and the scholarship. The depth of talent was clearly evident in the calibre of the papers and choosing a winner was very difficult as there were so many worthy. We look forward to continuing the scholarship in the coming years to support our industry and provide recognition for our members”, said Mark Raberger, Chair of ALUCA and Head of Health, MetLife and member of the scholarship’s judging panel.

The Scholarship winners were announced at the virtual ALUCA Life Insurance Excellence Awards held on Thursday, 22 October 2020.

The 2021 ALUCA Turks Scholarship will open in July 2021.