Sunday, May 25, 2008

Indonesian newspaper writes about life insurance

There was an article in the Kompass newspaper about life insurance. It was written in Indonesian language. My friend translated the key points of the article for me. The journalist wrote these points after interviewing a few consumers:

1. The consumer find the insurance agent to be disturbing their privacy. They keep calling the consumer, when they are no longer welcomed.

2. The consumer finds life insurance products to be complicated and does not understand the explanation by the agent.

3. The agent will keep in close touch with the consumer up to the point of sale. After that, the agent cannot be found.

I was quite surprised at the frankess and independence of the newspaper. They are willing to write a negative report on life insurance, even though it may affect their advertising revenue. My friend said that this paper is highly respected for its journalistic independence.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING!

i believe the kompas article you are refering to is this one: http://www.kompas.com/kompascetak.php/read/xml/2008/05/22/01324289/layanan.purnajual.sangat.penting

however, keep in mind that one article is part of a larger series:
http://www.kompas.com/kompascetak.php/indexsec/read/liputankhusus/245

i believe your indonesian friend forgot to tell you the whole story. once in a while (every one or two months), kompas prints a series of insurance related articles in no less than 4 pages. these are filled with articles written with a tone of an industry insider. clearly, most are written specifically in order to attract more people to be insurance agents. the article translated for you was an exception rather than the norm, probably to give an impression of balanced 'reporting', and to make the whole series less likely to be perceived as 'paid reporting'.

in short, these articles are rubbish. these are advertisement in disguise and written like agent recruiting materials. some of them are even written by industry insider with apparent conflict of interest (does your 3 yrs old daughter need life insurance?).

sorry, but the condition here is no better than over there.

May 27, 2008 4:04 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...

Dear Priyadi

Thank you for pointing that Kompas also takes articles that are "sponsored" by the industry. It seems to be the habit of many newspapers, including some in Singapore.

It looks like the online blogs are more likely to give independent views, that are good for consumers.

However, this is also so certain. Some people think that I have an agenda in writing my blog. So, the reader must make his or ber best judgement or whose views can be trusted.

May 27, 2008 6:06 AM
Anonymous said...

"However, this is also so certain. Some people think that I have an agenda in writing my blog. So, the reader must make his or ber best judgement or whose views can be trusted."

i don't have anything to do with anything remotely related to financial industry, and yet they still think that i had an agenda. when i told them i don't have conflict of interest, they pointed that i don't have necessary background to speak on these matters. you can't please these people no matter what.

i believe you should ignore these people and continue what you did well. regardless of what you are, the numbers speak for themselves. the majority of people are not stupid, they just don't get enough information.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." --Upton Sinclair

May 27, 2008 12:06 PM

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