Jiwasraya Restrucured And Rebranded

State-owned insurance holding firm Indonesia Financial Group’s (IFG) life insurance subsidiary, IFG Life, is expected to focus on protection-oriented insurance in a bid to avoid the mistakes of ailing state-owned insurance company PT Asuransi Jiwasraya, an executive has said. 

IFG business director Pantro Padner Silitonga said on Tuesday that the subsidiary would focus on offering conventional insurance products, including life insurance, health protection and a pension fund, instead of investment-linked products, to minimize future risks. 

“As a state-owned insurer, it’s important for us to restore the original insurance business model of protection,” he said. 

Earlier this month, the government and House of Representatives agreed to disburse a Rp 22 trillion (US$1.49 billion) state capital injection through PT Bahana Pembangunan Usaha Indonesia (BPUI), now known as IFG, to establish IFG Life and save Jiwasraya. Jiwasraya is embroiled in a corruption and money laundering case following its failure to pay out Rp 18 trillion in matured policies due in May to its policyholders. 

The Attorney General’s Office (AGO) accuses Jiwasraya of investment mismanagement when it invested its premium revenue from the JS Saving Plan, one of the company’s unit-linked products, in pump-and-dump stocks. 

Hence, IFG Life’s protection model product contrasts with Jiwasraya’s past products that promised high returns. Jiwasraya’s JS Saving Plan offered a return of between 9 and 13 percent, almost twice the return of 5 percent to 7 percent offered by time deposits. 

The Financial Services Authority (OJK) data from 2018 confirmed that investment-linked products, such as unit-linked or endowment products, accounted for about 90 percent of Indonesia’s life insurance industry’s gross written premiums. 

However, Pantro said he believed IFG Life would was able to compete with other life insurers in the country with the company’s protection-oriented products. “We’ve seen increasing awareness for health protection since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so we believe we can even be a pioneer in providing protection in the country,” he said. 

The new life insurer aimed to attract customers with affordable premiums and planned to partner with the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) to ensure better services, he said. 

Pantro also stated that IFG Life would prioritize investment in low-risk assets, such as money market or fixed income assets, before investing in the equity market, to ensure that the company can manage its assets prudently. “We don’t want to repeat mistakes of the past,” he said. “From now on, our assets will be managed to match our liabilities to prevent default.” 

IFG Life also expects to utilize the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) ecosystem to market its products during its early days of operations. Pantro said the company would use the business-to-business (B2B) scheme with other SOEs by providing group policies for their employees before expanding to the general public. 

However, experts criticized the new life insurance firm’s strategy. Institute of Development on Economics and Finance (Indef) economist Bhima Yudhistira said selling insurance products to other SOEs would only worsen the competition among state-owned insurance firms. “This goes against the spirit of the insurance holding itself, which is to maximize the insurance industry’s potential in Indonesia,” he said. Instead, Bhima suggested that IFG should immediately sell its products to the general public due to the low life insurance penetration in the country. 

The life insurance industry penetration stands at 1.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) as of July 2020, according to OJK data. Insurance expert Irvan Rahardjo echoed that sentiment, saying IFG Life should eye millennials as clients through digitalization, because many state-owned financial firms already had their own life insurance firms. 

Meanwhile, Center on Reform of Economics (Core) Indonesia economist Piter Abdullah said the company should focus on maintaining good governance to avoid repeating Jiwasraya’s mistakes. “Jiwasraya’s main mistake was reckless fund management that wasn’t based on good governance,” he said. 

“IFG Life should not be against investment-linked products. What they should do is put good governance forward and have no tolerance in any sort of procedural violations.”

OJK Latest Circular - Life Insurance

The Indonesian Financial Services Authority ("OJK") has issued a circular letter on marketing of insurance products.

Under this new circular letter, insurance companies in marketing their products online will have to be registered as electronic system operators in Indonesia. Insurance companies that engage corporate agencies should also formalize their distribution partnerships with the corporate agencies since corporate agencies are now regulated by the OJK.

Notable provisions under Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020

The OJK has issued Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 on Marketing of Insurance Product ("Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020"), which is an implementing regulation of OJK Regulation No. 23 of 2015 on Insurance Products and Marketing of Insurance Products ("Regulation No. 23 of 2015"). Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 has come into effect. Insurance companies have one year after 2 October 2020 (i.e., until 2 October 2021) to make their business activities conform with the requirements under this implementing regulation.

Notable provisions under Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 are as follows:

• Insurance companies must obtain prior approval from the OJK if they wish to enter into any insurance distribution agreements with: (a) banks, (b) branchless banks, or (c) non-bank distribution partners, if the insurance company's insurance products will be distributed through the relevant non-bank distribution partners' digital channels.

With respect to item (c), an insurance company is not required to obtain prior approval from the OJK if its insurance products will only be distributed through the relevant non-bank distribution partners' non-digital channels (e.g., physical branch offices or stores). This requirement clarifies an unclear provision under Regulation No. 23 of 2015 on insurance companies being required to obtain approval from the OJK if insurance companies enter into insurance distribution agreements with non-bank distribution partners.

• Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 provides broader means for insurance companies to market and promote their insurance products. For example, social media platforms are now explictly included as one of the permitted marketing channels for insurance companies to promote their insurance products.
• Insurance companies that offer and market insurance products through their own websites and/or applications (e.g., mobile apps) must be registered as electronic system operators with the Ministry of Communication and Informatics.
• Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 explictly mentions telemarketing scripts as one of the available personalized and tailored product offering activities. This is important as, given the social distancing protocols, there are more and more insurance products being offered by way of telemarketing or personalized calls (video calls or audio calls).
• Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 formalizes requirements on anti-churning, anti-pooling and anti-twisting in the context of agency recruitment (direct marketing through insurance agents). Previously, these requirements were regulated by industry associations.
• Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 requires insurance companies to clearly mention any commission rates payable to brokers (or other distribution partners) on an insurance product's product summary provided to customers.
• Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 requires a legal entity that houses or employs insurance agents (i.e., corporate agencies: (a) to be registered with the OJK, (b) to only have a partnership with one insurance company, and (c) not to have another partnership with another insurance company that has the same line of business as the insurance company the corporate agency has a partnership with. These are new requirements. In brief, corporate agencies are now regulated by the OJK.
• On non-bank distribution partners, Circular Letter No. 19 of 2020 now clarifies the parameters of a reference business model (model bisnis referensi), i.e., the non-bank distribution partner: (a) should only provide approved marketing kits to customers, (b) should not provide any information to customers on insurance products' terms and benefits, (c) should not assist in activities relating to premium payment and product underwriting/issuance processes, and (d) should not assist in any insurance claim processes.
• The Indonesian language must be the prevailing language if there is any inconsistency between the Indonesian language and the English language in any insurance distribution agreement (including bancassurance agreements).

Adapt And Change In Covid Pandemic

Covid19 pandemic has created enormous changes in the workplace. Regardless of their jobs, employees needed to adapt rapidly to massive changes ranging from working remotely to changes in operations and fulfillment. But job skills were changing even before the pandemic.

The number of skills required for a single job was increased by 10% per year. One-third of the skills listed in an average 2017 job posting would not be relevant by 2021. Role-based skills planning wasn’t helping organizations develop the right employee skill sets. Grouping unrelated skills doesn’t build the skills that will create competitive advantage.

Several experts have ideas about what those necessary skills of the future will be. As organizations continue to operate in a pandemic and plan for the future, here are some of the essential skills that employees will need:

SELF DIRECTION - In the midst of so much change, employees are going to need to take ownership of their roles and be highly self-directed, much like entrepreneurs within their organizations. Employees, especially at the entry-level, are going to increasingly need “to captain their own careers, [and have] a sort of DIY kind of hacking mentality.”As roles and organizations quickly evolve, the traditional training methods to develop necessary skills don’t exist in the same way. Employees are going to have to be active participants in identifying the skills, resources, and support they need to do their jobs and collaborate with their companies to get them

DIGITAL CAPABILITIES - many companies had accelerated digitization. Employees are going to have to be comfortable with digital technologies. Employees are not only going to need to be comfortable using digital technologies, ranging from collaboration software to videoconferencing, but they’re also going to need to accept its role in evaluating metrics. Analytics was the number 1 area of digital investment for HR executives in a recent PwC survey. This becomes more important as employees work remotely and workforce management can be more challenging. HR leaders and managers will be using tools to measure productivity. But it’s also important to remember that user experience is often a priority in such tools. As they become more ubiquitous, they will also likely be more seamless and easily integrated into workflows.

EMPATHY - The ability to understand the challenges other employees and organizations are facing and help management—in other words, empathy—is also a skill that employers seek and need. That’s helpful for everybody, not just the people who are trying to make their way through the chaos.

COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT - Communication skills have always been critical and in-demand employee skills. These skills now need to extend across platforms. The rise of videoconferencing and collaboration platforms requires new skills. You have to be better with your words, you have to use brevity and levity to be successful getting thoughts and concepts across in an effective and efficient way. And you also have to know when to use which platform and how to use video, audio, and digital communication in ways that don’t create more negative outcomes, such as zoom fatique or lack of engagement. 

ADAPTABILITY - As many workplaces evolve to hybrid models or have other significant changes in how they operate, adaptability is an increasingly necessary skill. Being able to keep functioning, even when you’re a little uncomfortable, is important in a time when so many things may be in flux. Taking on stretch roles or taking on new challenges can help “build the adaptability muscles. You still need to be able to germinate that spark of innovation and produce results and be productive for the organization. But you may need to find new ways to collaborate virtually or achieve results when uncertainty or obstacles lie in your path.

MOTIVATION SKILLS - There is a series of dimensions that are increasingly important for workplace success. In addition to the intellectual ability to do the job, ability to adapt to change, and communication skills, motivation and persuasion also play a big role. An employee might be the greatest risk-taker—a very important one of the capabilities that lives within that dimension of change capabilities—but if he/she part of an organization that is not really ready for being bold in the face of ambiguity, then he/she is going to be a bit on my island by him/herself. Being able to both self-motivate and inspire others to see your vision, could be the antidote to inertia in the face of uncertainty.

Even as the new norms of work emerge, being able to adapt to change, find solutions, communicate, and persuade are skills that aren’t likely to become obsolete.

Toxic Employees

The workplace is a delicate balance. Your employees each have their personalities and behaviors that contribute to your overall company culture. When you have a toxic employee, that toxicity can seep out and impact their co-workers and your business. 

Best-case scenario: A toxic attitude can put a damper on all things business success, including productivity, employee morale and even your employer brand. Worst-case scenario: An employee's bad attitude can lead to drops in customers, a ruined business reputation, high employee turnover and lost money. 

Dealing with a toxic employee is never easy. But for the sake of your business, you need to address it at some point. 

The 7 types of toxic employees - Your employee may fall under one or more than one of the following categories of toxicity. Look for signs that might indicate you have one of these kinds of employees running rampant in your small business.

1. The bulldozer - Bulldozers bulldoze their way through other peoples' opinions and thoughts to get their way. They may interrupt their co-workers or constantly argue against what others say. Sometimes, bulldozers are loud. Sometimes they correct people using humor. Whatever the tactic may be, a bulldozer's toxic traits may seep into your workplace. Keep an eye out for these top bulldozer traits:

1. Aggressive
2. "Strong personality"
3. Always right
4. Disruptive  

2. The passive-aggressive employee - Is someone who doesn't speak their mind when they're upset. Instead, they indirectly show that they're not happy about something. Someone who is a passive person may be more inclined to bottle their feelings and avoid taking action. When there's conflict, they may get frustrated and display passive-aggressive behaviors. This can be very toxic for the workplace. They're unhappy with the task, but instead of telling you directly they make snippy remarks or procrastinate on doing the task. Here are a few quick facts about the passive-aggressive one:

1. Avoids direct conflict
2. Bitter or snarky 
3. Backhanded comments 
4. Puts off doing things they don't agree with 

3. The complainer - The person who thinks there's always something wrong. So, instead, you let it go until the negativity builds and builds. But that building negativity has to go somewhere, and often it's into the rest of your team and your company culture. Here are some signs that you've got a complainer on your hands:

1. Negative
2. "Woe is me"
3. Never happy
4. Nothing can go right  

4. The knowledge hoarder - The desire for job security can be a dangerous thing. Employees who want to secure their jobs may decide to keep processes and business-related knowledge to themselves. But successful businesses thrive on the flow of open communication, shared knowledge and collaboration. A knowledge hoarder isn't just detrimental to your team's morale –they're a liability to your company's success. What happens if they leave? Where does all that hoarded information go? Here are some undeniable indicators of a knowledge hoarder:

1. Anti-team players 
2. Have independent processes 
3. Attention-seeking
4. Insecurities about work 

5. The prideful one - An employee who thinks they know it all? A prideful employee is easy to spot. Like the bulldozer, they are "always right." And if they're wrong, they're slow to admit it. Pride can be a dangerous thing. Here are some prideful employee red flags:

1. Slow to apologize
2. Quick to brag
3. Always right
4. Unresponsive to criticism 

6. The gossip  - Your employees likely enjoy talking with their fellow co-workers. Maybe they talk about work or their personal lives. Or maybe they're dishing about other employees, your business's status or even you. Gossip is often an unfortunate but inevitable part of the workplace. People like to talk. And those talks can often turn personal and pump life into the rumor mill. Gossip can bring resentment, expose personal affairs and cause frustration. Here are some signs of a gossiper: 

1. Always whispering 
2. Seems uncomfortable around certain people 
3. Talks about others to you 
4. Two-faced

7. The underperformer - Employees' performance probably fluctuates depending on their strengths and weaknesses, mood and what else is going on at work. But if you have a perpetual underperformer, you have a toxic employee. And you know what else it means? Your other employees have to pick up the slack. Your employees don't want that. Not to mention, your business can't handle that long term. In a nutshell, these are the traits of an underperformer: 

1. Disengaged with their work
2. Fails to meet goals
3. Constantly needs others to pick up the slack  
4. Makes excuses 

Turmoil In Indonesia Life Insurance Industry

Recent defaults by several prominent life insurers in Indonesia are likely to erode customer trust in the industry and dampen the sector's business growth. The incidents also highlight the need for insurers to maintain sound investment-risk management and good corporate governance to restore consumer confidence and survive the turmoil in the economy and capital markets. Fitch does not rate any of the defaulted companies

State-owned life insurer PT Asuransi Jiwasraya (Persero) failed to pay IDR13.2 trillion to customers whose policies matured in 2018-2019. Private insurer PT Asuransi Jiwa Kresna Life failed to make payments of IDR6 trillion on products that offered fixed investment returns of 7.75%-9.75% for 3 to 24 months, above the time deposit rates of 5%-7%.

Jiwasraya's case has spilled over to other insurers, such as privately owned PT Asuransi Jiwa Adisarana Wanaartha (WanaArtha Life), which had its securities accounts blocked by the Attorney General's Office in connection to its investigation into corruption at Jiwasraya.

In addition, Kresna Life exceeded the limit of 25% of total investment assets invested in affiliated entities, which raised its investment risk. The financial sector regulator has ordered Kresna Life to reduce its investments in affiliates, but it may have difficulty doing so while market conditions are weak during the coronavirus pandemic. The regulator has prohibited Kresna Life from adding new business until its order is carried out.

PT ASABRI (Persero), which handled social insurance and pension funds for the national police, military and Ministry of Defense employees, faces significant losses. The Audit Board of the Republic Indonesia (BPK RI) found that ASABRI's net loss of IDR6.21 trillion in 2019 was mainly due to poor performance of its stock and mutual fund investments.

BPK RI also highlighted issues of investment mismanagement at Jiwasraya and ASBRI, with the board saying that the insurers' equity investments were of low quality. The equity investments plunged in value, to the point that the companies had insufficient liquidity to meet obligations. The corruption investigation into Jiwasraya also shows shortcomings in the insurer's corporate governance.

Most insurers also provide savings-plan products, but the promised returns of 3%-7% are lower than those of Jiwasraya and Kresna Life. In addition, these products accounted for a small portion of the insurers' total premiums. In addition, most life insurers allocate their investments to lower risk instruments. This group of nsurers are not expected to face significant disruption to their securities accounts from the Attorney General's investigation into Jiwasraya.

Most insurers may put more emphasis on mitigation of investment risk, transparency, accountability, ethics and integrity following the recent defaults and investigations. The government plans to establish an agency to ensure insurers are able to make payments on maturing policies and minimise policyholders' losses if an insurer defaults.

Wife Murders Husband For Life Insurance Money

A Chiang Mai woman was arrested on Saturday for allegedly hiring a hitman to murder her ex-husband and for alleged involvements in a few other deaths to appropriate their insurance compensation.

On Oct 5, Anan Thongmarn, 58, was slashed on the face and neck and killed. The investigation led to Pankaew KhanKaew, 48, an alleged hitman, and Bualoi Tala, 63, the victim's ex-wife.

Pankaew reportedly confessed that he had committed the murder and his phone records revealed that Bualoi had hired him, as she had personal conflicts with her ex-husband. She allegedly wanted to claim his life insurance worth hundreds of thousands of baht.

She denied ordering the killing, saying she only wanted him to be maimed and claimed the Bt40,000 (S$1,700) she allegedly offered for the murder as only a joke.

Bualoi previously had reportedly received, after naming herself as nominee, insurance benefits from some other deaths. The victims reportedly were poisoned. Police are investigating six possible cases.

Insurance Distribution-mix & Target Market

Insurers that have embarked upon a digital transformation, a revamped model that supports high-volume sales for simpler individual life products is needed, and traditional channels are often no longer the primary method for engaging with customers. Companies that transform must look at the overall sales strategy of both direct vs indirect marketing and selling. They must make investments that can achieve target returns, whether through distribution/brokerage centers, the captive agency market, or independent agents while offering appropriate incentive programs to inspire the workforce (e.g., partial commissions for doing little work around sales and servicing but being available when a customer needs them). 

Companies must align their product and distribution strategies to achieve optimal business transformation. If departments are implementing their own individual objectives without alignment to enterprise transformation goals, this can lead to critical gaps across the value chain for the customer.

Priorities within the distribution 'house' are constantly shifting, and new spaces are always developing. Carriers need to frequently look across the insurance value chain at their priorities, and as they realign there are several issues and opportunities which companies will need to consider:

• Competitive compensation, retaining top producers while incentivizing the right mix of products
• Growth through affiliate channels and other less traditional channels
• Optimizing brand experience across sales channels
• Empowerment for exclusive/captive agents: developing a wide range of trust and mutual benefit with the customer, utilizing CRM tools and features to build upon customer relationships
• Achieving exclusiveness across the value chain through ease of technology, simplicity, and speed to market, providing the ability for carriers to differentiate themselves within the market, and establish brand uniqueness while delivering quality, reliability, compliance, features, etc. 
• Implementing mechanisms for prospect management
• Lines of communication: engagement between front and back office (within the distribution 'house') for those channels in which agents need to communicate with underwriting, billing, claims, IT, etc., including defined processes and procedures
• Management of agent's book of business through CRM optimization (or other tools, such as a distribution management platform), along with a focus on front-office capabilities and skills training
• Tiering benefits to reward or support valued agents, to help the company achieve overall market growth and objectives
• Up-sell/cross-sell across the value chain to build the sales pipeline

Successful distribution will require striking the right balance: relying solely on a systems transformation or a digital transformation will not be enough. The physical and virtual worlds must feel seamlessly linked for agents and customers/prospects. 

Insurers must consider how a customer and agent (including those in a call center) will need to engage with the insurance carrier and design their agent and customer journeys accordingly. Employing an omnichannel approach is table stakes, providing customers the right mix of traditional and digital channels and providing agents the right mix of support and self-service.