Life insurance strictly regulated
WE refer to the letter “Be in tune with buyer’s needs” ( The Star, Jan 5). The Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) wishes to highlight that all life insurance companies in Malaysia are governed by strict regulations on the sales process of life insurance policies.
The regulations are put in place by Bank Negara Malaysia to protect the interest of consumers.
As the purchase of a life insurance policy is a long-term commitment, it is important that policy owners make a careful decision of the life insurance policy that will meet their long-term goals.
The sales process required all agents to undertake the following:
1) Agents will conduct a fact-finding analysis of the needs of their clients and recommend suitable products to meet their financial planning goals. It is important that customers share sufficient information on how much finances they need to support their families. This includes their longterm goals on children’s education, medical and health coverage, and retirement planning. This information will enable their agents to recommend a suitable product or range of products to meet their needs.
2) After an insurance product has been recommended, agents will go through with their clients the key features in the Product Disclosure Sheet. Customers are advised to fully understand the benefits of the life insurance product that the agent has recommended, the amount of premiums, investment returns (which may be higher or lower than the figure projected in the sales illustration), disclosure of their health status, exclusions in the policy contracts, etc.
3) Customers are encouraged to seek advice from their agents/insurance companies on other types of policies that are available and make comparisons of the benefits and premium rates before they decide to purchase the plan of their choice.
4) Even after a policy has been purchased, the customer will be given a 15-day grace period to run through thoroughly the policy that he has purchased, and to seek a refund of the premiums paid if the policy is not the plan that he has purchased.
All agents are required to be registered with the LIAM and the industry has instilled a high degree of professionalism and ethical standards in the sale of life insurance.
LIAM will continue to work very closely with regulatory authorities and stakeholders in nurturing an industry that embraces accountability, integrity and competence among its practitioners in line with its vision to develop a progressive industry for the nation.
LIAM also advocates comprehensiveness and transparency in product information when member companies sell insurance products. Life insurance companies use reasonable endeavours to ensure that any disclosure of its products and services offered is fair, accurate and comprehensive. At all times, products and services have to be clear, easily understood and must not mislead to customers.