Adele123 is right.
I would prepare the Sales Illustration, Product Disclosure Sheet, as well as a summary, all three with my signatures and date, and I would ask the client to sign as well.
This is done in order to protect both parties, the client and myself, and I also keep a physical scanned copy of the application form that reflects what is on the proposal that I prepared, and any changes scribbled by the client will also be there.

This post has been edited by JIUHWEI: Aug 26 2014, 12:08 AM

Thank you! I do my best to keep up with what my father has established.
Yes. This is the culture that my father has set and been practicing for over 30 years in the industry. Since I am taking over and this is a tried and tested way, why change it? Furthermore, it does protect the client and myself because if what was presented is different from what is executed, then the agent (yours truly) made a mistake. I would have to submit a request of change form and change it to be in line with the proposal signed by both the client and myself. And since there is a record and both parties signed, a lot of unnecessary argument can be avoided, making the process so much more efficient.

As a guide,
Agents who would think on your behalf would cover these 4 areas:
1. Medical
2. PA
3. Critical Illness
4. Life.

Most important, medical.
Getting personal medical coverage is the most important. Having employee medical benefit is great but you want to have one on your own before contracting a fatal disease or any serious injury so that you remain covered by your personal medical policy even after resigning from the company.

Second is PA.
When we get into a serious accident, and get minor cuts that require stitches but there's no need for hospitalization, the medical reimbursement portion can cover usually between 3-6k of such treatment costs. Or major accidents and we lose a limb hence losing our ability to work, a PA payout can help us sustain our lifestyle for a few years while we adapt back into life.

Then it is Critical Illness.
This is for when critical diseases such as cancer or heart failure diseases strike. When our productivity is over but we are still living and requiring treatment. A Critical Illness payout can really help.

Last would be Life.
Some individuals do not care once they are gone. "Why worry? Die already still worry for what?"
But for those of us with some family liabilities, we feel that if it is the last thing we do, we want to secure their current lifestyle, or at the least keep the promises made during the happier times in the past. What we would call a legacy to leave behind for the people that matter to us.

Agents who would touch on all 4 instead of harping on one particular product or "package" to push to you, are usually agents who you can trust and visit them at the office once in a while. =)

Hope this helps.

Ah, I really didn't read up on the previous posts!
Sorry boss. Guilty as charged.

If anything, I do hope that the unfortunate episode is in the past and done with.
Let's concentrate on moving forward together from this point onward.

Hi I am from AIA.
First I would need to look at your policy booklet and find out exactly what policy it is.

I think that is the first thing to do before jumping the gun and buy for the sake of buying.

You can shoot me a private message if you would like to arrange for a review.

There's no need to hide around say what type of billing he's talking about. You and I know damn well what he's talking about.

There was a systems migration exercise in 2015. Meaning to say old ING and old AIA operations structures and systems were being migrated onto the same platform, with one new system to operate.
While that was happening, a big chunk of customers were affected.
Some are receiving multiple billing letters, some didn't receive any reminder.
And this issue affected billings, statements, and God knows how many redundancy was there.
A small portion of customers were billed multiple times and a manual refund had to be done.

Come 2016, majority of those issues were rectified, and it is business as usual again. However, there are still lingering issues where some customers are overseas and yet to be able to come back.
However, the premium statements were issued only recently to customers.
This is super slow and it has never been AIA's norm.
We have been sounding this issues up at our agents' union and Anusha (current CEO) is assuring us that the issues are being dealt with.

So to the policy holders, there is nothing to worry about. The systems migration is done. If your agent is still blaming system migration, it's time to get a better agent.
As for the AIA agents, pathetically defending the company is pathetic.
Every company had a tough time last year with GST alone.
Yet, AIA came through with not only GST, but systems migration, and on top of that completing an M&A of two giant companies. All this in the same year.

This is what a good organization can do.
It's not perfect, service to the customers were a little bumpy, even our commissions were slightly affected.
But at the end of the day, all is resolved.
If you can take a macro view of AIA in 2015... This is a fucking good company, in my honest opinion.
I am genuinely very impressed.

This post has been edited by JIUHWEI: Mar 24 2016, 07:26 PM

There's an upgrade option that AIA is offering to existing policy holders. Reason being we also know that the old products coverage are not keeping up with the current times already.

Check with your agent. He/she should have the information available to you.
Or, you can engage any AIA agents here and we will be able to facilitate your upgrade options together.

To answer your question: No, that is not true.

Yes, the old products are being discontinued. AIA's rebranding exercise after acquiring ING began in 2013. A completely new line of products were launched and the old ones being discontinued (but if you hold the old policy, it is still in force and you still enjoy all the benefits spelled out in your policy contract. You just can't buy old products anymore).

If your existing plan is an investment-linked plan (beginning with the letter "U" followed by numbers, you can just upgrade on your existing plan. There is even a special calculator to generate the difference in premium for your medical upgrade, or even to add in new riders.

Now that all technical stuff is said, is the agent memang your existing agent or is she an agent that you're dealing with for the first time?
If is an old-timer...quite bad la.
But if is a new agent that you've never dealt with before, by upgrading your old plan she won't get any commissions at all.

Another thing you can do to check on your options available is to go to any AIA branch office. Our CS are more than capable to help you out.

Glad to help.
If you're in a similar situation, perhaps you can talk to your existing agent.

It is always best to go back to your existing agent.

You'll have to answer a health questionnaire (truthfully la ) and it will be submitted to go through a normal medical underwriting.
In that process, your old plan will still be active.
(If I do remember correctly, I think there is a campaign going on in AIA for existing AIA customers, where the company is offering a prorated refund of last premium paid if you upgrade to the new plan. Please privately follow up with me on this.)

In the case where your medical upgrade application is approved, your medical plan will still follow your old plan for the duration of 4 months (all the waiting period). After the 4 months, it will then be fully transferred to the upgraded plan.

Should there be any pre-existing conditions (meaning anything before the time of applying for the upgrade), it will depend on the underwriter's decision. Normally if you have the medical reports, we submit together is better la.

Sure you can.

Since you're making a trip to an AIA branch office, might as well take the time to do your upgrade with the CS rep too.

If you would like, lifebalance and I are both based in Petaling Jaya, Plaza 33.

O... err, actually corporate level customers also usually is handled by agents as well...

I also do corporate employee benefit programs.

Perhaps you want to relate your case to me? I'm happy to assist you as best I can.

Err... Mind giving an example for this?
Yes, it is quite difficult to get through to the hotlines. That's why it is better to go through agents.

From LIAM statistics, over 80% of unpaid claims were due to incomplete documents.
Basically stuff like
-hospital receipts
-itemized billing
-medical report
-death certs
-birth certs
-marriage certs

... You know, stuff like that.

Let’s say you are a merchant, with goods for trading on a large ship.
Let’s say you have a total of rm100 of goods on that ship.

Along your route, you are exposed to several risks:
Extreme weather
Pirates
Goods imploding

With that in mind, right before your ship sets sail Mr JIUHWEI comes along and makes you this offer:
Hey bro, for rm2, I will insure you against your potential losses, to the total amount of your goods.
Should you encounter losses through no fault of your own doing, I will reimburse you the total value of your goods on your ship.

Will you sign my the contract with me?

On your next trip, would you look for me to continue buying into my terms?

You might have a good and fruitful trip though. But the rate in this simple illustration is still 2%.
Do you think this is worth paying?

————————————————

Now take a look back at your policy (I assume you have one despite paying it very reluctantly).
What is your rate? Is it higher or lower than 2%?

Every year, insurance companies pay in the billions in compensations.
Must be some very shitty red tape they have, don’t you think?


This post has been edited by JIUHWEI: Jul 30 2019, 10:46 PM

Frankly, I do not know the ratio of Premiums vs Compensation.
However, what is obvious is that the Premiums collected > Compensation paid out, every year.
You can see this in the share performance of every insurer. It's not that insurance companies are not regulated, it's just that insurance, as pointed out by MUM, is based off of the law of large numbers.

I would like to help you see that there are no "bad" insurance policies. What works for you, may or may not be a good fit for your neighbor despite, presumably, very similar lifestyles.
Why leh?
Well, frankly you have your order or priorities, objectives, and your neighbor has his/hers.
That's really...that.

If the insurance company is not honoring the policy contract terms, you may file a suit against the respective company.
I think that is quite clear to everyone.
I mean... the agent can sell you an orange and call it an apple. Has this happened to you personally?
With the new Balance Score Card system in place, such agents are being flushed out of the system.
I guess this info should help you feel more confident when dealing with your agent.

Yes, the turnover rate for insurance agents is quite high to say the least. It is a tough career as we are solely living off our commissions. Yes, many agents don't get to pass the first 2 years. And in many instances, the first 2 years is when we exhaust our natural market, namely our friends and family.
Now why do you think that is?

On the flip side, there are career agents like myself and many others here who obviously make a living off our commissions.
Quite obviously a stark difference from the above.
Now why do you think that is?

That's a good model, but for the 20th century.

Moving forward, the insurance industry is trying to be as transparent as possible, and to empower the customers by knowledge, accessibility, and more control over their coverage.

So it is a given that we need to give good service, especially to the gen x and those who are less mobile-savvy.
What is the game changer, in part, is this forum for example.
We want people to know exactly what their objectives are, what recommendations we can give, and the "why" has to make sense to both the customer and the agent in order for anything meaningful to be done.

Maybe we need to move past price, and focus on what we actually want, and how we want what we want to work for our specific objective(s).

There is Ombudsman for Financial Services that you can reach out to.

Link here OFS