Sunday, November 07, 2010

Reply to Jeffrey Tan, President of IFPAS

I am looking for some consumers to come forward and send a reply to the letter from the President of the association representing the life insurance agents. http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_599561.html

Jeffrey Tan said consumers to get the advice of the insurance agent who will help them to select the most suitable products to meet their needs. From the questions sent to me, it seemed that many consumers were confused about the product that has been sold to them, and when they learned at a later date about the poor yield on the life insurance policy, they regretted having made a bad decision.

If you have suffered this unfortunate situation, I ask you to come forward and write a letter in reply to Jeffrey Tan. This will help to clean up the bad practices where many insurance agents continue to take advantage of the ignorance of the consumers.

If you are willing to share your experience, you can write a draft to me at kinlian@gmail.com. I will help you to polish up the letter.

Tan Kin Lian

3 comments:

Unknown said...

thank goodness that i read your blog advice early so i am not in a deep shit position. but then i cant help!

zhummmeng said...

Have you read the LIA report released on the 5th Nov about how well they did in the last 9 months?
17% increase, YOY...wow!!!!! fantastic and 71% of cases sold by the insurance salesmen with full or partial fact find. another WOW!!!!!!
But 2 figure seem to have gone missing, deliberately or otherwise.
Let me ask the President of LIA....what is the sum assured sold and what is the death claim amount by the great sales champions of the industry.
Why aren't they reported? Is it not to disappoint SM Goh Chok Tong, after his appeal to the insurance salesmen and their benefactor at an anniversary dinner to do the right thing?
What about the 71% with full or partial fact find? Is the President familiar with the purpose of fact find or know what is fact find? Does he know that fact find is NOT ONLY to uncover the needs of the consumers but MORE IMPORTANTLY to address the needs of the consumers FULLY? It is just another exercise by MAS to make the salesmen do more work or to impress the consumers so it makes it easier for the salesmen to con the consumers more CONVINCINGLY??
Are both the President of LIA and IFPAS qualified to assess what is right or wrong with fact finding?
Let me give both of them this tip....
Fact find and analysis alone is NOT enough and NOT right if it stops there > It is NOT for the purpose of pushing a high commission product and rationalise the sale with craps reasons.
The right thing to do with fact find.. IT IS TO UNCOVER THE NEEDS AND TO ADDRESS THESE NEEDS, as uncovered FULLY ACCORDING TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CLIENTS...This is then complete.
It is not for insurance companies to justify employing more compliance officers.Or to educate their CEOs many of whom are out of date or unqualified.
On second thought if it is addressed according to the needs of the consumers then there won't 17% increase to report in sale.They won't have high APIs, right?
The 71% is just a distraction , a diversion, a smokescreen to cover up the real goals of the industry...high APIs Translated, high APIs means more money flowed in...
It seems the President of both LIA and IFPAS are fronts to protect the interest of their members against the consumers at large with half truth and suppressed truths.
Having said all that, I am disappointed too that consumers are themselves to blame for being stupid, clueless, dumb, too trusting and become easy prey for these predatory players. The sooner consumers realise that this indsutry exists NOT to serve or to help you realise your financial dreams/goals but to serve the agents, the ceos and senior managers realise theirs so that they can live life to the fullest at your expense.Some agents maybe feel not enough resort to scheme scams to the tune of $5millions.

Tan Kin Lian said...

I have written a reply to the Straits times. I hope that they publish it soon.

A consumer has also written to the Straits Times to express the view that the charges are too high.

I need more consumers to write in, especially if they have not been properly advised about the life insurance policy and now realize that they have been "taken for a ride" by an unethical agent.

More consumers should speak up, so that the predatory and unethical practices can be stopped, for the benefit of consumers in Singapore.

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