Tuesday, July 13, 2010

A difficult choice

Hi Mr. Tan,
I am a insurance agent directly representing one of the insurance companies in Singapore. I have been in this line for more than a year now and have done pretty alright for myself. I joined this career as my mother was in this industry and encouraged me to join. Being a direct beneficiary of insurance as both my grandparents and my father tackled medical problems in their lives, I strongly believe in insurance and wish benefit people while making a living for myself.

Increasingly, however, I feel that my company's products are limited and not as competitive. For example, it is difficult for me to implement a BTITR strategy for my clients also as my company's term plans are relatively more expensive. I have explored the option of joining an IFA so that I can have a wider range of products to benefit my client, but due to the recurring nature of my income, it is not beneficial for me to do so.

What do you suggest I do such that I can do good by my clients and still make a living?
Tied Insurance Agent



REPLY
It is a difficult choice for you to make, but you have to find the answer that suit you. Some IFAs found a way to charge a transparent fee for the advice given to the customer.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can join the FA and transfer the cases to your account but without the commission.
Consider you are only one year into the business and if you are really want to practise ethically without conflict of interest then the residual commission is not a big deal.
When commission is banned you will be charging fee you sure can make a good living decently and conscientiously and not like the insurance agents who have no qualms about robbing their clients.These agents always say that if they don't rape their clients other agents will , so rape them first.

Anonymous said...

New broom always sweep clean.
Appreciate your intention to be a honest agent, but hope you would not be polluted by your colleagues in due course. If you would not be able to withstand this Commission base culture, think you would leave for other fields to make a decent living. All the best.

Anonymous said...

Based on the blog and so many comments, whether you are a tied agent or IFA, you are condemned already. No point changing anything. It is the system that should change. If the system changes and all the agents are able to sell good products, then does not matter whether u are a tied one or IFA.

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