Zurich aims to double life insurance business in East Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Zurich Insurance Malaysia Bhd (Zurich) aims to aggressively expands its market in Sarawak and Sabah which currently makes up 10 per cent of the group's total life insurance sales in the country.
In an interview with The Borneo Post, Zurich Malaysia general manager of its life insurance division Mukesh Dhawan said the insurance is looking towards aggressive market capture and expansion within the two states.
“Currently, our Sarawak and Sabah markets are 10 per cent of our total life insurance business and we plan to take it up to 20 per cent by 2020.
“It is a rather ambitious goal but to us it is still very achievable,” Dhawan said.
When asked if Zurich would be concerned about current market saturation levels affecting the achievement of this goal, Dhawan said this would not be a concern as the current life insurance market in Sarawak and Sabah are ‘not at all saturated.' “Currently, there is lack of insurance penetration and under insurance within East Malaysia.
“And by under insurance, I mean a lot of families are under the assumption that they have sufficient coverage with a RM200,000 to RM300,000 death benefit policy but really the sum will not do any good to your family as far as protection is concerned.”
He went on to explain that the shocking ‘under-insurance' occurring in Malaysia was the main reason why Zurich's newest product, The Flexi Life Premier was given the slogan ‘For the hero in you.'
The Flexi Life Premier is an affordable investment linked, long-term investment plan that offers up to RM8.0 million in coverage for total physical disability.
“This plan is tailored for young families with children and working women because every working member is a hero to the family, they're the providers and care takers, and as a hero, they need be covered by millions and thousands.
Zurich along with its sister company, Zurich Takaful Malaysia Bhd also participated in this year's Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) 2017 as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partner and sponsor.
Dhawan shared that it was the group's first time in participating the well-established cultural event and explained that they motivated to do so because this year's side theme of ‘Wellness' activities were highlight complimentary to Zurich's CSR programme and corporate objective.
“This time around, the well-established cultural event has taken new steps by incorporating Health and Wellness elements into its line-up of activities.
“As you well know, the aspect of wellness is a very interconnected to Zurich and its fits very well with our corporate objective of serving Malaysians with comprehensive life insurance.
“And having said that, the theme is also highly complementary to our CSR programme called ‘eat right to play right' where we encourage school children to lead an active life while ensuring that they have access to nutritious food.”
Looking at market competition, Dhawan said the group's three main product lines – life insurance, takaful insurance and general insurance – are subjected to market pressures as big brand insurance providers are all vying for more market share with aggressive market tactics.
Rather than fight fire with fire, Dhawan said Zurich instead plans to combat this through differentiation in product versatility.
“In the bigger picture, we have competition from big brands in life and general insurance.
“But when you delve deeper into our offer products, you'll find that we are possibly among the few insurance brands here that can offer you such versatility in our products,” he said, adding that for example, customers can easily get coverage for life, takaful and general insurances under one roof.
This versatility of products, he said, also extends to the different types products present in each of Zurich's line and would continue on in the near foreseeable future as the group has plans to continue rolling out more products as part of their ‘continuous marketing activity.'
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