The Leadership In Me

Be Mindful of Mood
20% to 30% of performance is determined by the mood of employees - like joy, interest, pride, awe, gratitude for example -- it helps to broaden our minds so we're thinking more creativity and collaboratively and build our resources so we're more resilient to deal with the ups and downs we all experience at work. But do you have a mood strategy for your team?

As a leader I decided to apply these ideas to the way we held our team meetings. To help us start and finish our meetings in the right frame of mind, I injected a little positivity into proceedings with a simple check in about what was working well, a funny video I could relate to our work or by sharing a story of gratitude. It didn't mean we shied away from the difficult conversations we needed to have, it just meant neurologically we were in a better place to deal with these challenges.

 

Build Strengths - The Corporate Leadership Council have found that when a manager has a conversation that focuses primarily on an employee's weaknesses, afterwards that employee's performance declines on average by 36 percent. But if the manager focuses the review primarily on an employee's strengths, afterwards that person's performance improves on average by 27 percent. That's quite a difference given all you're doing is talking.

As a leader, I decided it was worth taking the time to know my teams' strengths - the things they liked doing and were good at -- by asking them to take the free 10 minute survey at viacharacter.org. Then I made sure once a quarter I sat down with them and gave them feedback on how I saw their strengths being applied and asked what support they needed to develop these strengths further. Not surprisingly when we were doing more of what we each did best at work, our performance improved considerably.

Cultivate Positive Relationships - Studies suggest our relationships with other people are our best guarantee to lowering our levels of stress and improving our concentration and focus at work. This is because each time we genuinely connect with another person, the pleasure-inducing hormone oxytocin is released into the bloodstream, helping to reduce anxiety and improve our concentration and focus.

For an introverted leader like myself, the good news is that scientists have discovered it takes just a micro-moment to connect by: sharing a positive emotion such as kindness, interest or gratitude; making eye contact or matching body language or vocal tones to synchronise your brain activity; and then investing in the feelings of mutual care that rise up between you. By taking a few minutes at the end of each day to genuinely thank someone in person or by phone for how they'd made my work a little easier or more enjoyable I was able to not only significantly improve my relationships, but found a tidal wave of reciprocated gratitude was returned for my efforts.

 

Find Purpose - For decades, Americans have ranked purpose as their top priority in their jobs, yes even above promotions, income, job security, and hours. But can purpose be found in any job? It seems so. You see a comprehensive analysis of data from more than 11,000 employees across different industries: the single strongest predictor of meaningfulness was the belief that their job had a positive impact on others.

 

As a leader in a large accounting firm where finding meaning in our work felt like looking for a needle in a haystack, the idea that purpose can be built by helping people see the impact they have on others transformed the way we thought about our roles. I started focusing my team not just on the 'what' we did each day, but on the 'how' we went about it and the positive impact they could have as we interacted with our clients and our colleagues. As a result what had felt like soulless corporate drudgery, started to bring a whole new sense of satisfaction in our work and our lives.

 

Ignite Hope - While 89 percent of people believe tomorrow will be better than today, only 50 per cent believe they can make it so. Researchers define this gap as the difference between wishing and hoping, and other things being equal, a 14 percent improvement in productivity.

Leadership For SME

Leadership is about inspiring people and that can happen regardless of the size of the team that you have responsibility for.

You can inspire people if you are a CEO of a large organisation of thousands of people just as easily as if you lead a small team of 3-5 people. It’s a different type of leadership.

There’s a different emphasis on skills depending on your position and size of the team and effective leadership requires a different approach.

Awareness
If you are unlucky you could find yourself with a team that doesn’t feel comfortable bringing to your attention areas that you need to develop. In large organisations you may well be part of a chain of Managers where behaviours are often reviewed and observed.

None of us are perfect and it’s easy for poor behaviours to creep in if we are not aware of them. I’ve trained leaders who fall into a trap of thinking the problem is with other people rather than with themselves.

Awareness of how you react to situations and how people perceive your reactions is the key element of leadership.

Communication
When I develop communication skills of leaders who have the responsibility of leading large organisations the time they spent with each member of staff is limited.

This means a lot of communication is directly from emails or via layers of management so a lot of development is focused on structuring emails and emphasising key messages to be fed down.

With small businesses, emails to your team needs to be minimal. Small business leaders’ key development communication areas are face to face communication and body language.

Motivation
People often fall into the trap of believing that motivation is a simple issue of providing financial rewards.

Motivation is far more complex than that, everyone has a lock that keeps their commitment in check and a knowledge of motivation will give you the ability to unlock everyone’s code.

Money will always be important but if you want to be a motivating leader focus more on aligning peoples personal ambition to your businesses vision.

Team Building
When teams get larger, leaders need to be ware of the fundamentals of team building that turn effective individuals into elite teams.

People perceive the world in very different ways and it’s this understanding that governs how they interact with other people.

This is why some people just “connect” while others seem like they are from different planets.

It’s this understanding of how people perceive the world differently that enables leaders to make teams understand each other better and become more effective.

Conflict management
The most commonly requested topic when I’m delivering leadership coaching is conflict management.

A lot of leaders try to avoid conflict when in fact conflict is an essential element of every relationship. Conflict if managed correctly is a catalyst for improvement.

I’ve been involved with teams for twenty five years and the one ingredient that every successful team
I have ever witnessed is the ability to have honest open conversations without the team getting offended.

Conclusion
Business is tough and it’s important to look for every single advantage that will give you the edge over your competitors.

Developing your leadership skills is an area that could make the difference.

The ability to motivate your team to be more innovative and committed will give you the edge that you have been looking for.

Retirement Challenges For Malaysian

Malaysian - are worried about retirement. The HSBC’s Future of Retirement, A Balancing Act survey shows that more than two thirds of working aged people are concerned about running out of money during retirement.

 

Adding to that are troubling statistics released by the Randstad Workmonitor Q1 2015 survey which show that 82% of employees in Malaysia expect to retire between the ages of between 60 and 65 – well above the retirement age. These reports all point towards one undeniable reality, that is, the middle class think that they do not earn or have enough to save for their retirement.

 

To echo this point, the EPF 2014 annual report shows that the majority of savings accumulated in the EPF by the age of 54 are less than RM50,000 – hardly enough to live comfortably for a couple of years. By the age of EPF withdrawal, many Malaysians would find their funds depleted due to the many qualified withdrawals they had made beforehand.

Retirement - Malaysian Worries Most

Some 63% of retirees in Malaysia worry about not being able to support their families, according to a HSBC online survey of more than 16,000 people in 15 countries. It said Malaysia has the highest percentage of financially insecure retirees in the world, followed by Brazil and Mexico at 58% followed by Singapore at 54%.

A total of 54% of Malaysians are also concerned of being reliant on family or friends for financial support, the HSBC’s report entitled “The Future of Retirement Choices for later life” said. It said 86% of Malaysian retirees would continue to provide regular financial support to at least one of their family members and friends, including their grown-up children and grandchildren, while some support their parents. In this category, Malaysia records the highest percentage in Asia, followed by Indonesia (83%), and India (80%), while Singapore is slightly lower at 59%, it said.

The HSBC’s report said wealth is already being passed down the generations with 39% of Malaysian retirees regularly giving to grown-up children, and 21% doing the same for their grandchildren. It said 87% of retirees in Malaysia have been unable to realise one of their hopes and dreams since retiring, higher than Asia’s average of 80% and the global average of 73%.

The report said only 24% of retirees are semi-retired before fully retiring, while over 64% of working age people were planning to semi-retire before stopping work completely. “The attitude towards spending and saving vary across the world.

When considering whether to spend all their money or set aside for the next generation, 67% of working Malaysians take a balanced view, believing it should be better to spend some of their money and pass the rest to their children,” it said. However, 19% think it is better to spend all their money and let their children create their own wealth, while 15% feel it is better to save as much possible to pass to the next generation. Despite an overall preference for spending, 83% of working Malaysians expect to leave an inheritance to their children but only 37% have actually received it, the report said.

On moving abroad upon retirement, Australia becomes the first choice, followed by New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland. HSBC head of retail banking & wealth management Lim Eng Seong said in order to ensure a comfortable later life, retirees should consider wider financial commitments.

“Retirees today may even need to generate additional income to cope with the rising costs of healthcare or to ensure they can still leave some money behind for their children. The report findings was conducted by Ipsos Mori in August and September 2014.

SOCSO

Employers will experience a slight increase in contribution cost with the proposed expansion of the Social Security Organisation (Socso, or Perkeso in Bahasa Malaysia) protection scheme to all  private sector employees.

The proposal to raise the ceiling contribution from RM3,000 to RM4,000 is based on the increase of average wages of  new employees, especially the executives in the private sector. According to the ministry, a review of Socso contributions was last carried out in 2005 when the ceiling was raised from RM2,000 to RM3,000.

Noor Farida Ariffin

Noor Farida Ariffin - speaking at South East Asian Centre of the London School of Economics (LSE), - “Fighting Religious Extremism in Malaysia” in London recently. The G25 is a group of 25 prominent Malaysians, comprising former diplomats and heads of the civil service, who have sought to “reclaim Malaysia from racial and religious extremism”.

BB King RIP

B.B. King spread joy to millions by giving them the blues. The iconic musician, along with his ever-present guitar Lucille, spent nearly 70 years thrilling audiences and spreading the music he learned as a poverty-stricken youth in the Mississippi Delta all over the world

Cold Calling Can Be Effective

POORLY PLANNED SALES PROCESS
This is a common problem that occurs far more often than it should! Whether it’s the manager, director or business owner that hasn’t thought the process out fully, or that the salesperson just hasn’t got their head around it, either way this needs looking at before the sales calls start!

An important point to look at here is what has happened prior to the call you’re about to make? And compare that to what should have happened! Has the prospect responded to an advert? Have they come from a web enquiry? If it’s a pure cold call, where have you sourced the data from and what is it like?

If it was a response to an advert for example, what filtering have you done on the advert? Did you want only the good quality enquiries (useful for a small sales team that can’t handle larger call-volumes, and salespeople with less experience), or did you want all the enquiries you can get, so you can use your sales skills to try and get a positive outcome when you call?

The more filtering you have done, the warmer the enquiry is. I’ve seen far too many companies do too little filtering – usually because they naively think that the more responses they get, the better the advertising worked! It just means you’ve got lots of follow-up calls with people who may be less interested – which becomes a problem if you don’t do a lot of cold calling and aren’t used to the rejection!

POOR HANDLING OF INITIAL ENQUIRY
If your enquiry comes in over the phone, who is the person who takes that call?  Is it someone that has been well trained in sales? Is it someone who’s completely conversant with the campaign that generated the lead and knows everything about it? Is it someone you can rely on to have the best chance of converting that enquiry into business?

Far too often companies spend large amounts of money on websites, advertising, branding and marketing campaigns, yet when those campaigns generate an incoming lead, they fail to deal with it properly! They fail to invest in the most critical part of the process — the part that could win or lose them the business — the training of the person handling the incoming enquiry!

If it’s an enquiry that came in via your website, how quickly do you respond to the enquiry? Within a few hours? Or is it more like days? Hands up all of those who respond to the email or web enquiry with an email. You deserve to be shot! This is the main (or perhaps the ONLY) opportunity to engage the prospect into your sales process and you’re going to do it by sending an email?  Dear oh dear....

If it was a telephone enquiry, what questions do you or your staff ask that person? Questions that just get the facts of what they want? Or do you ask questions that uncover buyer motivation, desire, needs, control the call and win the business (and a new customer) at the end of it?

WRONG (OR NO) FOCUS DURING THE CALL
The third thing you needed to think about is the call itself. A common problem with people making cold calls or follow-up calls is that they fail to consider what outcome they want from the call BEFORE they make it.

Are you trying to make an appointment from the call? A sale? Trying to get the prospect to visit you? A conference call? What specifically are you trying to achieve?

Far too many calls are made without an objective in mind. Those are the sort of calls that tend to drift — with little or no control from the salesperson and that give the recipient the impression that there wasn’t a clear reason for the call. As a result, they want to get out of it as quickly as possible!

Your call structure needs to be designed and delivered with your outcome in mind. Otherwise, the prospect is far more likely to achieve THEIR objective from the call (in some cases theirs is to get rid of you!) than you are to get yours.

LACK OF SALES CONFIDENCE
If this relates to you directly, don’t worry. The majority of people I’ve worked with have some challenges with confidence at some point — and some on a regular basis!

As companies have re-engineered themselves over the past few months, in a number of cases it has meant that non-traditional sales staff are now having to handle parts of the sales process as part of their role. These staff members didn’t sign up for a sales job, but are now having to do sales activities — whether they like it or not!

Whether it’s a marketing person making sales calls and trying to get appointments for field sales representatives, or an administrator handling incoming sales enquiries, if they aren’t confident with the activity they’re undertaking, that means less effective calls, lost opportunities, and therefore lost sales.

Of course, many small business owners have to handle sales themselves as well as many other functions because they don’t have the luxury of being able to employ different specialists to do different tasks.

Any person tasked with taking on any element of sales responsibility within a company needs to be confident handling sales. A lack of confidence in any element of the sales operation can be a source of lost sales — something most businesses can’t afford at the moment. 

It’s vital that action is taken to equip all team members with the mindset, skills and confidence required in order to maximise sales opportunities right now.  Otherwise you could be virtually gifting business to the competition.

Follow-Up to Close Sales

Research suggests only one in 50 deals are struck at a first meeting, yet many sales people give up after just one or two knock-backs. Perseverance will give you a major edge over competitors
For example: People in business often hope and expect to do business the first time they meet a prospect. Yet studies reveal that only 2% of sales occur when two parties meet for the first time.

The 2% who buy at a first meeting tend to be people who have already looked into the subject matter, and already know what they're looking for. If they meet someone who ticks all the right boxes and they get on well, then business may well be transacted. But that is far from the norm. The other 98% will only buy once a certain level of trust has been built up.

Anyone who believes they can go into a sales situation armed with '101 sure fire sales closes' and make sales is seriously misinformed - and about 20 years behind the times. Professional sales people get to know their prospects, understand their issues; solve their prospect's problems; and provide irrefutable proof. They build relationships and trust by engaging in ongoing dialogue (otherwise known as follow-up). They don't just peddle their products and services with an armoury of closing tricks.

There are many reasons why people who could benefit from your product, service or expertise do not buy. At least not without further prodding. Inertia. Lack of time. Too many other things on their mind. Concern about cost. CashflowBudget constraints. More pressing matters. Your failure to do enough marketing to establish your name in your field so they'll buy without question - and more. None of the these, by the way, is a negative. They are just psychological and transactional realities you must become aware of and recognise - which is why follow-ups are SO important.
Yet isn't it amazing how often you express interest in a product or service, but never hear from the person or company again? It happens all the time. Research shows, amazingly, that only 20% of sales leads are ever followed up. In other words, 80% of potential opportunities are lost without trace simply due to lack of follow-up.

People and companies who don't follow-up, who do nothing to build up that trust and relationship, cannot succeed, especially in today's tough economic climate. People need to be sure they're making the right decision before they commit to a purchase.

Different studies carried out at different times, in different places, by different market research companies over a number of years all reveal that 80% of non-routine sales occur only after at least five follow-ups.

Think about that.  It takes at least five continuous follow up efforts after the initial sales contact, before a customer says yes.  FIVE!

There are some fascinating statistics on this:
44% of sales people give up after one "no"
22% give up after two "nos"
14% give up after three "nos"
12% give up after four "nos"

That tells you that 92% of sales people give up after four "no's", and only 8% cent of sales people ask for the order a fifth time.

When you consider that 80% of prospects say "no" four times before they say "yes", the inference is that 8% of sales people are getting 80% of the sales.

Once you're aware of these statistics you should stack the odds in your favour by introducing a 'Five nos' strategy, where you maintain contact with prospects until each one of them has said "no", or "not now", or "not yet" at least five times. Every time you're in contact you have an opportunity to advance and build the relationship.

Businesses with a "five nos" strategy will always enjoy a conversion rate many times higher than their competitors who have no such strategy.  What strategies do you have in your business right now to ensure that you contact your prospects regularly in a gentle and meaningful way so that you win their business and their loyalty?duce a five "nos" follow-up strategy

There's also the fact that 63% of people requesting information on your company today will not purchase for at least three months - and 20% will take more than 12 months to buy.

Contacting your prospective and existing customers every three months or sooner builds trust and professionalism and keeps 'top of mind' awareness.  In this context, your customers do not regard contact for orders, payments and appointments, or the obligatory Christmas card as a meaningful communication.

What meaningful communication strategies do you have in place right now to maintain top of mind awareness once someone has been in contact with you?  How do you nurture your clients so that they learn to trust you and see you as a professional organisation?

This simple strategy could be critical to your survival in the current economic downturn. Implement it and prosper. Ignore it at your peril.

Mother's Love

Meliah Md Diah is 101 years old. Despite her age, she is one tough cookie, going by her mission, so late in life.

She is determined to continue taking care of her youngest son, Abdul Rahman Saud, 63, who is physically challenged.

In fact, according to the centenarian from Kampung Bukit Nambua here, as long as she is alive, she will give her best to Abdul Rahman who has not been able to speak, walk or lead a normal life.

"My son has never been a burden. Since he was a baby, I had bathed, fed and put on his clothes for him.

Deciding On Life Insurance

For many individuals, buying adequate life insurance has always remained a tricky one.  For many years, Life Insurance has remained as a tool to reduce your tax liability.  This situation is slowly changing because of the development in the industry as a whole and the various social media platforms taking efforts to educate common man on the importance of term insurance products.  We still have a long way to go where an individual buys adequate insurance cover and do not treat this as a savings tool.

Whether you own a car or a two wheeler, you are forced to buy an insurance to cover uncertainties.  So you do not really worry whether you are making a return out of the premium paid.  But when it comes to life insurance many are still lured away by the fancy excel calculations shown by the bankers or the agents.

How to take a better decision ?
If you just got employed, the first and foremost thing that you should do is to buy a term insurance.  Get in touch with an investment advisor and find out how much cover is needed.  You are normally allowed to buy a cover up to twenty times your annual income.  If your annual income is five lakhs, then you can buy cover up to a crore in general.  These days most of the insurance companies have online tools that can indicate how much cover you need to buy and the corresponding premium you are supposed to pay.  Term Insurance is cheaper and easy to buy when you are young as you would be medically fit in the early part of your life, in general.  Accidental death benefit, as a rider, is a good one to buy.  Do not go for any critical illness rider as most of the clauses given are confusing for a lay man to understand and I have seen critical illness claims getting rejected citing many reasons.  This still remains an area of concern and may be down the line we will get more transparency here.

How to protect your liabilities ?
Once you are employed and income keeps moving up, you would definitely go for a house and car purchase though not in the same order.  When you go for a housing loan, the banker automatically includes a loan cover term insurance to protect himself.  Fortunately, you are also benefited out of this.  Having said that, do not allow your banker to dictate terms.  Housing loan is coupled with a single premium loan cover term insurance and you would be asked to pay the premium upfront.  This is not advisable.  Instead opt for an online term for a sum assured in proportion to the loan taken, with a regular premium payment.  This gives you flexibility and control over your overall life insurance cover.  Even if you foreclose your loan, you can map it to other needs like a child’s education that need protection.

Step up your risk cover
There you are.  The next obvious step in your ladder is getting married and becoming parent.  Once you get married, your needs would change and increase in number.  If your spouse is not earning, then you have a financial dependent that needs to be taken care of.  Upon becoming a parent you earn further responsibility of educating your child.  This is a vital need in our social setup and at present you cannot shy away from this responsibility.  You need to step up your cover adequately by consulting your investment advisor.  The most important aspect is to continue paying these policies till you build substantial assets.  Then you would be in a position to review your risk cover need.  At that time, depending on your income and liabilities, you would have the luxury of discontinuing some part of the cover.

How to choose a right product ?
These days, there are plenty of online insurance comparison tools available.  This gives you a fair idea of which product is better with rich features.  Once you freeze a list of products, then do a study on the company’s claim repudiation ratios.  Anything above 95% is a good number to rely on. 

Buying online gives you advantages in terms of relatively less premium but if you feel you need the services of an agent, nothing wrong in paying slightly higher. The more details the company asks upfront, the better it is for you. 

Do not hide any material facts about your financial and physical health.  Disclose all relevant information as otherwise, the chances of a claim getting rejected is high.

Once in five years, get an idea of the premium prevailing in the Industry.  Sometimes, you may be paying more for a particular cover for which the premium rates would have gone down substantially.  Then you can buy a fresh policy and discontinue the old one.

Stepping up your risk cover as you go up in life, be it due to income rise or expansion in family, is an area that needs attention and review as and when change occurs.  Then you are in a better position to cover uncertainties in life.  Buy adequate term insurance, increase as and when required, achieve your financial goals and stay peaceful ! Though life is not a Twenty20 fixture, you need to step up at the right time to win !

Etiqa Takaful - Target Indonesia

Maybank Ageas Holdings Bhd will expand to Indonesia and the Philippines as early as 2016 via acquisitions.

Chief Executive Officer Kamaludin Ahmad said the group is looking at acquiring small and inexpensive insurance players in both markets and is in talks with several parties for the expansion exercise.

"We have been talking to a number of parties. The selection exercise is going to take a while," he told reporters after presenting its financial results for the year ended Dec 31, 2014 Wednesday.

He pointed out that obtaining the insurance licence in Indonesia and the Philippines is quite difficult and through the acquisitions, the company could leverage on the existing licences to operate there.

Kamaludin added that Maybank Ageas is targeting companies with lower valuation of between three to five times book value but with strong business operations and distribution channels.  Maybank Ageas is the parent company of Etiqa Insurance Bhd and Etiqa Takaful Bhd in Malaysia. It made its presence in Singapore last year, providing both general and life insurance products.

"Singapore's contribution is going to be between 6.0 per cent and 7.0 per cent this year. It will be closer to 10 per cent next year," he added.  Kamaludin said the company also expects its gross written premium to grow between 10 per cent and 12 per cent in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2015 from RM5.02 billion last year.

Maybank Ageas registered a pre-tax profit of RM767 million in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014, a five per cent increase from RM733 million in the previous financial year with a combined ratio of 85.1 per cent, down from 87.8 per cent a year earlier. It has total assets of RM31.6 billion as at Dec 31, 2014.

Aging Population Health Insurance

Malaysia’s healthcare sector, recognised internationally for providing affordable and high quality services, has been experiencing healthy demand locally due to the country’s ageing population and rising incomes.

According to analyst (research arm of CIMB Investment Bank Bhd) in a healthcare sector report from June 27, 2014, an ageing population, higher prevalence of lifestyle diseases and rising incomes drove the 215 per cent growth in private healthcare spending during 2002-12. That growth could slow down in the next few years as income growth has lagged behind medical inflation.

Currently, the medical inflation rate in Malaysia is estimated to be around 15 per cent, according to Intelligent Money Sdn Bhd (iMoney). The biggest consumer of healthcare services – the elderly – will feel most of the pinch. This is due to their retirement income which may be diminishing or there may even be none at all. The increase in retirement savings has not led to more affordable private healthcare as the growth in savings has lagged behind the rate of medical inflation. Those without adequate savings and insurance coverage will need to continue working or seek financial assistance from others to fund their private healthcare expenses.

According to the research arm of Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd (Kenanga Research), it is estimated at end-2014 that during the 2010-2040 period, Malaysia’s population aged 65 and over is projected to increase more than three-fold of the 2010 population.

Kenanga Research noted that the increase will lead Malaysia to become an aging population in 2021 when the population aged 65 years and above reach 7.1 per cent.

Longer life spans also result in a larger number of people aged 65 and above,” the research arm said, adding that this improvement has been attributed mainly to advances in medical technology, higher personal wealth and growing awareness of the importance of healthcare and disease prevention.

The demand for healthcare services in Malaysia will increase at a more rapid rate than the population growth due to the larger number of old people.

Pacific & MCIS Merged

Pacific Insurance Berhad (known for its competency and expertise in medical insurance with the widest range of medical insurance in the market) has merged with MCIS (Malaysia Cooperative Insurance Society) General Insurance. MCIS Life Insurance is still in business as a separate entity.
    
With the merger, there is one less general insurance company operating in Malaysia at this point in time, and it shows that in the run-up to the 2016 tariff liberalisation of the general insurance market that foreign owned insurance companies are making their presence felt in Malaysia.

The Pacific Insurance Berhad previously the Pacific Bank Group, which was acquired by another banking group under the last Bank Negara sanctioned, merger and acquisition of smaller local banks with bigger banks to prepare Malaysian financial institutions for greater open competition survivability.

In 2013, the Pacific Insurance Berhad was ranked as the largest individual medical insurer company within the Malaysian general insurance industry. The company has its roots going back to the 1950s when it was the Malayan business arm of the Netherlands Insurance Company, then the 12th largest insurance company in the world. The company has been writing non-life business and is known for the expertise in writing general insurance.   

In 2011, it was acquired by Fairfax Asia Ltd and Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited became its parent company, but retained the Pacific Insurance Berhad brand name. Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, based in Toronto, is a Canadian financial services holding company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange with equity of more than USD 9.7 billion and assets in excess of USD 37.3 billion as of end 2014.

Purchase Life Insurance Online

U for Life Sdn Bhd, an online platform provider, launched the country's first internet insurance platform to issue e-policies instantly, on Tuesday.

Hannover Re, with a gross premium of around EUR 14.0 billion, is the third-largest reinsurer in the world, is a principle shareholder in U for Life. Designed with the needs of consumers in mind, U for Life is committed to help more Malaysians be insured by offering a simple, instant and affordable way to buy life insurance online.

The policy offered by U for Life is underwritten by Tokio Marine Life Insurance Malaysia Bhd, a member of the Tokio Marine Holdings, Inc. the oldest and one of the largest insurance group in Japan. With this platform, customers can find out more about life insurance online and purchase a basic protection plan and be issued an e-policy instantly.

The platform is expected to be a game changer in the life insurance industry as it will help to broaden our customer base especially among Gen Y. Our agents can refer this internet insurance to their customers who wants a basic plan and then follow up with their customers who want to buy medical and health insurance products. This move will greatly increase productivity for agents.

U for Life focuses on addressing the pain points of a buyer who currently views buying life insurance as a tedious and costly process. Customers can now review and purchase their e-policy within just 10 minutes. This allows customers to be instantly covered once payment is confirmed, so there is no need to wait for manual approval which typically takes weeks.

Customers pay as little as RM9.85 per month for life insurance protection of RM100,000. In view of the current cost of living and life insurance being a necessity, U for Life is fully committed to providing life insurance policies at an affordable low price in the market.