Insurance agents need to embrace, not fear, technology and use it to serve customers better. Relationship is key and they must focus on their customers' experience, putting them at the front and centre of everything agents do, said Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) Management Committee Member Mr Gan Leong Hin in his keynote speech at the 16th Asia Pacific Life Insurance Congress (APLIC) 2017 held in Genting Highlands, Malaysia.
Changing landscape
“With advances in digital technology and the rise of millennials, the demands and expectations for life insurance products and services are also changing,” he said. “About 60% of millennials are located in the Asia Pacific region, and they will be the new class of consumers that will influence how life insurance will be marketed.”
He said that as new regulations and policies continue to be introduced to address the spectrum of challenges brought about by dynamic market transformation, the question agents need to ask themselves is whether they are prepared to manage the disruptive forces affecting their business.
As the penetration rate of life insurance in the region is still relatively low, and for those who have life insurance, the large protection gap still exists as they are significantly under insured. So on the regulatory side, governments will work to ensure that their people have adequate insurance protection and for such benefits to extend to the underserved markets.
Changing role of advisers
Given all the talk about the future of insurance agents and whether technology will replace them, Mr Gan said the answer would be a “Yes” if they only focus on the “selling” part of their products.
It would be a “No” if they remembered what agents stand for: which is to care and protect the customer’s future.
“We must be advising and educating, we must be selling based on our customer’s needs,” he said, with using technology as the emphasis.
He added that change is inevitable and constant, and agents will need to constantly change and adapt to stay on top.
“We cannot change the future which will surely come but we can better prepare for it,” he said. Quoting a speaker he had heard from recently, he added: “We must change before we have to,” though he noted that change also brings opportunity.
Asia Insurance Review is a media partner for APLIC 2017.