Inspiring Malaysian

PETALING JAYA: When the elderly or abandoned die, and nobody comes forward to claim their bodies, Kathiravan Vadivelu makes it his responsibility to give them their final rites.

“Everyone deserves to be sent off in dignity,” said the 42-year-old undertaker from Sungai Petani, Kedah, who has been doing the service for more than 10 years. His family has become accustomed to receiving phone calls in the wee hours of the morning from hospitals and old folks homes asking for his help to perform the final rites.

When he started as an undertaker 20 years ago, Kathiravan became aware of many people who died alone at old folks homes and hospitals with no family or loved ones to claim their bodies.

Financial Advisors

KUCHING: Over the past few years, financial advisory channels had seen a notable difference in the sector in terms of growth and development. As the Malaysian government became more conscious of the remarkable growth potential for the financial planning industry, it recognised the industry as an important profession.

Alvin Tan, the head of distribution for Standard Financial Planner (SFP), in a recently held seminar in Kuching noted that countries like Australia and Singapore had experienced a significant decrease in their quantity of tied life agents over the past few decades. This was due to a change in clients’ demands for a more comprehensive financial planning strategy over their life span.

According to him, Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) was a new distribution channel for agency businesses and therefore was important as they helped investors to navigate through the variety of financial products and information.

Recognising the growing importance of equipping the nation with quality products and services, Malaysia introduced financial planning regulations through Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and Securities Commission (SC), he highlighted.

BNM came up with the Five Years Renewal Commission on Life Insurance Business that was especially catered to agents who wished to qualify themselves as IFAs. This programme enabled individuals to take back their five years renewal commission after joining the financial planning industry.

Moving forward, as an IFA, the adviser was qualified to join in the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT). An IFA’s qualification to obtain the MDRT was much easier than a tied agent’s qualification as only the insurance product for a tied agent was calculated,” Tan further noted. Meanwhile, for an IFA, his insurance products, investment products as well as financial planning fees were all calculated as part of the adviser’s production.

To date, SFP is the largest independent financial services dealer group in Malaysia, with the most licensed representatives in Malaysia. SFP helped advisers to build the three pillars of business assets that included multiple sources of income (investment, insurance and etcetera), sustainable recurring income stream (business assets) and SFP company equity participation (growth of the industry and company).

PAS For ALL

In 1969, PAS was on the same wave-length or perhaps even more right-wing and fundamentalist than ultra groups Perkasa and Pembela are now. Fast-forward to 2011, PAS leaders have moved on. They have pledged to the non-Malays and non-Muslims that in the event of any attempt to create chaos, PAS members will do their duty as good Muslims. They will form a human shield around their non-Malay fellow citizens. Not more than two months ago, PAS president Hadi Awang issued a stern warning to UMNO not to try and pull another crackdown

Anuradha Koirala

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Buy Life Insurance Online

MUMBAI: Private insurer Aviva Life Insurance today launched its online term plan Aviva i-life, with a minimum cover for Rs 25 lakh with no upper limit and a maximum term of 35 years.

"Our research with IMRB showed us that protection of family income in case of an unfortunate death is among the top three priorities for 52 per cent of Indians today. Hence, keeping in mind the customer need and demand, we have launched Aviva i-Life which can provide a high insurance cover at a low cost," Aviva India Director Marketing Gaurav Rajput said in a release issued here.

This company is a joint venture between Dabur Group and Aviva Group with a paid up capital amounts to Rs 2,004 crore.

Agent : Like A Blind Date

Back in the old days, the dream jobs were doctors and lawyers (and most likely teachers and air stewardesses for women). These days, the best careers are often in investment banking or consulting – insurance sales is always a secondary consideration. Here’s why…

You have to do telemarketing
Cold calling is like going on a blind date, only worse – it’s over the phone. You read a script you have memorised and start speaking at 100 words a minute. What are the chances that the person you are calling is actually thinking about their personal finance and planning for their life? Very remote. This isn't a love match.

You’re under quota pressure
Your boss is pushing you to meet your quota. Your only chance after failing to find new clients is from your personal network. But if your friends give you a clear no and you keep pushing, chances are you might lose some friends. Sometimes you just need to play hard to get because there are so many agents out there doing the same thing as you. As they say, don’t call a girl every single day.

Your colleagues lack talent
The insurance sector is always hiring recent graduates and provides really good training. The downside is that anyone who is vaguely human can potentially get hired as an agent – there is no quality control. Turnover rates are high because people with good sales skills often leave for other industries.

You don’t have a stable salary
Similar to most sales roles, compensation is largely commission based. Successful agents make lots of money and have big houses. To be one of them, you should treat your job as your own business – if you don’t have that mentality, don’t try out this industry.

You don’t keep regular hours
You have to work when other people are resting and chilling at home, unless your client is a housewife. But on the flip side, you have lots of flexibility. And when all your late nights mean you bring in new business, the operations people will love you because technically you are keeping them in a job. Without salespeople and their clients, firms don’t need research analysts, product specialists and administrative staff. So, there are upsides to being an agent after all.

Hong Leong Assurance

KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd (HLFG) expects its takaful unit to register a gross contribution of RM100 million for the financial year ending June 30, 2011 from RM65.45 million last year.

The company’s takaful unit has now adopted a new name, Hong Leong MSIG Takaful Bhd (HLMT). This follows the acquisition of a 35 per cent equity interest by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (MSI) in HLMT for RM33.64 million.

HLFG president and chief executive officer Raymond Choong said with the new partnership, HLFG and MSI are now common strategic partners in the Malaysian insurance business, covering life and general insurance as well as takaful.

“We are optimistic that we can now further accelerate our growth as one of the leading insurance and takaful providers in Malaysia by leveraging on each other’s strengths, expertise and know-how,” he said.

He was speaking at a media conference to announce details of HLFG and MSI’s takaful partnership here yesterday. HLFG has at present a one per cent hold over the Malaysian takaful market.

Hong Leong Assurance Bhd (HLA) chief executive officer Loh Guat Lan said the company was looking to expand its distribution channels and leverage on the partnership with MSI to introduce innovative products as well as a strategic product mix.

“The synergistic activities of training and product development, are well in place, and we are looking forward to the roll-out of a series of compelling products from July,” she added.

Hong Leong obtained the takaful licence from Bank Negara in March 2006. Its takaful unit commenced business in November that year with a paid-up capital of RM100 million and authorised capital of RM1 billion.

In June 2010, MSI acquired a 30 per cent stake in HLA for RM940 million to expand into Malaysia’s life insurance business.