Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Get good value products from an adviser

Friday, July 13, 2007

Get good value products from an adviser

A few visitors commented that insurance agents sell products that give them the highest commission. These products many not meet the needs of their clients.

When I was CEO of NTUC Income, I made sure that all the products are designed to meet the following:

* have modest loadings for commission
* offer good value to the customers

The insurance agents (advisers) from NTUC Income are able to recommend suitable products to their clients, with the knowledge that the products give good value and provide a reasonable level of earnings for their sales effort. They earn more, by increasing their sales productivity.

I am happy to recommend the insurance advisers and products from NTUC Income to the general public. I know that the consumers will get a good deal.

If you visit this website, you can compare the front-end load of the endowment and investment-linked products between NTUC Income and the other insurance companies.

A small number of consumers are savvy and can make their investments without the help of an adviser. They do not need to take my advice anyway. My tips are for the general consumers.

6 comments:

Thomas Phua's Blog said...: Ntuc Income has a new CEO.

He has declared that he inherited a national icon and put on record the contribution by Mr Tan for bringing Ntuc Income to what it is today.

Most of us were happy, thinking our commission is going to be adjusted up.

The new CEO also know the competitiveness in our product is in the low cost.

So he did not increase commission for agent. This is good news that Ntuc Income will maintain her social cause in providing value for money plans for the people.

- Thomas Phua; July 13, 2007 10:52 AM
Anonymous said...: It is not true that NTUC has all the , low cost products. The only competitive products are Incomeshields, i-Term, and the ILP funds.The rest are not at all, especially the whole life and the endowments.Unfortunately, cheap products is one thing if there is no good adviser.The products are not used to their maximum capability. NTUC's tradition has been product selling.NTUC is successful because of its brand name and the agents leverage on its strenght. The marketing effort has been intensive lately and it is making up for the weakness of the agents' advisory ability.The new CEO saw that and he is pumping in money to train the agents. It is trying to get out of the groove the agents hve been stuck for ages.
The world out there is different; July 13, 2007 12:31 PM
Khiat Han Hwee Adrian said...: NTUC Income may not have all the lowest cost plans, but their move to publish their actual Whole Life and Endowment Rates is a daring move.

I thought company A which never cut bonus will publish their rates to challenge them, but never.

I do not believe that NTUC Income agents are all product pushers. There are good adviser and bad sheeps in any company. This applies to NTUC Income too.; July 14, 2007 12:13 AM
Anonymous said...: I think whether the workers, in this case, agents, are good or not depends very much on management. The management must be accountable for the performance of these agents as they decide on the hiring, training, motivation as well as other resource enhancing systems to get the best out of the agents. When I do not get good service from an agent, I regard it as that the environment did not bring out the best in that agent's behaviour due to the policies and structures in place that do not motivate the agent to put the customer first. When the management treat the workers well, they would also treat the customers well. This is a very basic management philosophy that good leaders know and act upon. I must say the new managment of NTUC Income has been more than disappointing! The agents now behave worse and worse. They are only interested in more new sales and not maintaining existing sales. Nobody seems to view that they have a personal stake in Income and behaved as a transient bird of prey.; July 14, 2007 1:48 AM
Anonymous said...: Now is the time to squeeze as much out of the poor and unwary customers who still think NTUC agents are ethical.Hit and run and hit their own target.And if the customers ever wake
up , well........ I suggest they look up the sky; July 14, 2007 1:02 PM
Thomas Phua's Blog said...: Whether agent or the management is good or bad, time will tell.

AIA, GE, PRUDENTIAL, NTUC INCOME has been around for a while.

If they are bad, they will be gone soon, naturally.

We will all be gone sooner that what we think of others.

Be humble and look at ourselves in the mirror than to talk so much about others.

So be it is insurance agents are the worst people around, many are still surviving well.

So what if they make lots of commission, they must be worth their service.

Some of course gone much earlier.; July 20, 2007 9:16 AM