He believes the industry is significantly underestimating the compliance and legal exposure associated with failing to advise clients correctly. “Brokers are opening themselves up to major lawsuits,” he said bluntly. That concern becomes even more relevant within the framework of Treating Customers Fairly (TCF).

Collins argues that proper advice goes far beyond simply finding the cheapest underlying insurance premium. “Your job as an advisor is not just underwriting the policy,” he said. “Your job is to determine what is the best protection available for what the client can afford.” Importantly, he stressed that once clients fully understand the exposure, many choose at least some form of excess protection.

“They may not take every product, but they usually choose something once the options are properly explained.” One of the core problems, according to Collins, is that many advisors simply do not fully understand the VAPS products themselves. “You cannot sell something you don’t understand,” he said.

That is why XS Sure places significant emphasis on broker training and product education. “We’ve been doing this for 21 years,” Collins explained. “Every broker needs to understand every product properly.” Without that understanding, many advisors avoid the conversation entirely because they fear complicating or delaying the sales process. “They just want to close the deal,” Collins said. “They don’t want extra paperwork or extra explanations.” Ironically, he believes that shortcut creates far bigger risks later.  

The growing complexity of modern insurance structures is also driving rapid expansion in the VAPS market itself. When Collins launched XSure in 2005, he says there were relatively few specialist players operating in the excess waiver and tyre protection space. Today, he estimates there could easily be over a thousand VAPS providers in the South African market. “The underlying insurers are constantly trimming cover to manage premium affordability,” he explained. “That creates opportunities for value-added product providers to fill the gaps.”  

Technology is now becoming the next major battleground. Collins believes traditional insurance systems were never properly designed to handle modern VAPS products, leaving much of the sector operating on awkward add-on integrations rather than purpose-built systems.

That has motivated XS Sure to develop a dedicated technology platform specifically built for the value-added products environment. According to Collins, the platform will eventually allow real-time onboarding, premium processing, claims handling and risk management functionality across the VAPS industry. “We’re not building it just for XS Sure,” he said. “We’re building something the whole industry can use.”  

Looking ahead, Collins believes the future for the VAPS sector remains exceptionally strong. Excesses are increasing, insurers are introducing additional excess structures for events such as hail damage, power surge and storm claims, and clients remain under severe financial pressure.

“The opportunity is only getting bigger,” he said. At the same time, he expects the sector itself to consolidate, with larger specialist players likely partnering, acquiring or forming joint ventures with smaller operators over time.

For XSure, however, the strategy remains simple. “We focus purely on the value-added products industry,” Collins said. “This is what we do, and we do it very well.”

‍