Monday, April 07, 2008

Products that are good for customers

Products that are good for customers have the following features:
* meet the needs of customers
* transparent, easy to understand
* educate the customers
* low marketing expense
* fair profit margin
* easy to compare the price of similar products

Many products in the market have these features. The prices are kept competitive and at a fair level. They represent good value to the customers.
Posted by at

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

#1. How do you know that you have been sold a bad product? or
#2.How do you know that you have been mis-sold and misrepresented a product?

Visit this blog and pose your case here.
Have an independent, qualified financial planner to review for you.
Don't wait until you make a discovery many years down the road. In some cases it may not be too late. It can still be salvaged.What if something were to happen and you found or not you but your family found you left only $20k whole life or endowment for them.

A case in point shared by Ms Lorna Tan of Sunday Times yesterday provides good food for thought.
She recounted a conversation with a taxi driver about insurance. The taxi driver told her he had only $20k coverage in endowment. For taxi driver on the road daily it is definitely grossly under insured.
The premium paid for the endowment can buy at least $500K or $1mill. for coverage and that is what the taxi driver needed.
Let me tell you, the agent was greedy. The agent earned more commission from $20k endowment than from $1mill. term coverage.The taxi driver's need was sacrificed and compromised. Do you not think it is case of conflict of interest? The wickedness and ruthlessness of the agent to think of himself or herself at the expense of taxi driver?
This is happening daily.Customers must wake up and get help if you are not sure what you bought.Have your policies reviewed by another adviser and not salesman. You may have a false sense of peace of mind. The insurance agents already laughed all the way to the bank, leaving you dry and drained becuase they sold you a revosave , a whole life or an endowment or a structured product at the expense of your needs.
This is real and it can happen to you.

April 07, 2008 12:36 PM
Anonymous said...

With reference to anon 12:36pm - I wonder if the taxi driver actually wanted the endowment plan because they wanted to save for retirement?

Chances are, if you tried talking to the taxi driver about dying, they will brush you off.

Furthermore, the taxi companies would have gotten some form of accidental death policy for them. Therefore, someone comes along as say, "Uncle, buy some term policy in case you die/TPD/illness, ho bo?", you think they want? If I driving a taxi and I know the taxi companies already take $10/month to put into group policy, why I need so much insurance?

It would be presumptious just to take that one paragraph from the article and jump into such conclusions.

By the way, I think Ms. Tan's 1 mil coverage is being over-insured. I am personally disappointed that she is giving financial advice in a respectable paper like Straits Times. She could do something like: combine a term insurance and a family income benefit. Example: insures $100,000 plus $3,000 a month for 25 years. I am sure it would cost less than what her current insurances costs.

April 07, 2008 8:17 PM
Anonymous said...

Mr. 8.17, you are presumptious too.
How do you know that Lorna's 1 mil. is over insurance.Aren't you jumping the gun too? She may be under insured.You mustn't judge by the figure.
Coming to the point about difficulty convincing the taxi driver who is already insured to buy more is a big challenge but much depends on the approach. As said ,the number is relative.$1mil may be a lot in isolation but when needs are analysed $1mil. may not be enough. Likewise with the taxi driver , he may feel he has a lot when you propose more insurance for him but when you show him his needs
it may be different altogether.
The problem is not insurance agents never try harder, it is that they only want to sell whole life or products that pay high commission.
This is the problem raised by MAS and LIA was advised to find a better way of remunerating the agents to avoid conflict of interest. Currently agents are driven by commissions and this explains why the taxi driven has only a $20k endowment.

April 07, 2008 11:40 PM
Anonymous said...

To poster 11:40

First, I would like to thank Mr. Tan for the platform to clear my position.

I would like to clarify that by looking at a reporter's job description, being insured for 1 million is over-insured.

There is a difference between need and wants of a person. In a sense, the girl is probably trying to satisfy a "want". Why not 2 million or 10 million?

Insurance is meant as a risk transfer tool to reimburse a person in the case of a loss. It is one thing to tell everyone you know that "Oh, you know I have a million dollar cover!" and gloat over it, it is another thing to sit down and do a proper analysis on who needs this amount after you are gone and for how long.

For the adequate protection against premature death or critical illness, you can buy a Decreasing Term insurance policy with a rider to provide a modest amount cover for critical illness.
You can insure for 5 to 10 years of your income. Can you suggest why would a taxi-driver, whose average income is about $2,500, need a million dollar or 500K coverage?

I am questioning her objectivity, because she did not do a proper interview and analysis with the taxi driver. Are there existing group accident or hospitalisation plans in place, etc. It is could be that the taxi driver really wanted savings for the future and since they may be low-risk people and low-cost funds are not available, the only tools are endowment plans. You see, people can twist a story to fit their agenda.

Most of people are concerned about death, but it is the living expenses and the future costs of living that they are worried about.

April 08, 2008 10:58 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Blog Archive