INTERVIEW

Koffee with Fisher: CEO of a Life Insurance Company

I got worried after hearing the recent news about the intentions of Indian Government following
in the footsteps of China and curtailing our freedom of speech by covering blogging under IT Amendment Act 2008; so before government goes ahead with the proposed online censorship of blogging and restrain bloggers from voicing their opinion, I thought I should not delay publishing this uncensored interview. First, let me tell you that it took many unsuccessful attempts, before I finally got permission to meet and interview a CEO of a leading life insurance company after a lot of persuasion, he agreed for a discussion on Indian life insurance scenario over a cup of coffee. So here goes the interview:

Q-1: What do you think is the best life insurance policy for an individual? Any life insurance policy other than term plans.

Q-2: What is the purpose of a life insurance policy? Obviously, to invest your life savings because insurance is the best investment instrument designed for the benefit of the masses. The major purpose is to take care of your investment and taxes together. It is the most tax efficient instrument...by the way, we also provide some life cover as a bonus. Q-3: Who should go for a life insurance policy? Everybody needs to invest in life insurance irrespective of whether he is a child or an adult, male or female, young or old, working or not working. Q-4: How much life insurance cover does a person require? It depends upon the premium paying capacity of an individual, the more he can pay the more cover he requires, however, in any case the maximum is around 10 times of premium e.g. if a person is ready to fork out Rs 10,000 per annum, he requires a cover of Rs 1 lakh and if he is willing to pay Rs 1 lakh, he requires a coverage of anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh.

Q-5: What is the minimum no of policies a person should invest in? The attempt should be made to buy maximum number of policies and in any case not less than 1015 plans comprising at least 2 Child Ulips, 2 Guaranteed Ulips, 3 plain vanilla Ulips, 2 money back plans, and 2 whole life plans

Q-6: How do you train your agents for selling life insurance policy? Youre talking about those 3 million foot soldiers whom we have hired to do this dirty job. Actually, we dont have to do any hard workits quite easywe employ the technique of parroting somewhat like training a parrot in rote repetition.

Q-7: What is the role of life insurance council? False propaganda and Lobbying. Q-8: And what about IRDA? See, actually both are there to protect the interest of life insurance companies and therefore work in tandem, the only difference being that while one association is created by life insurance companies, the other is appointed by the government. Q-9: Isnt it that IRDA of late has become quite aggressive for reforming the life insurance after the spat with SebiDont you think as a result cosy relationship between Life Insurance Council and IRDA has taken a hit / come under strain? Come on Fisher, you already know, there were only some cosmetic changes which IRDA was forced to do but only after due approval from Life Insurance Council. Q-10: What if in future there comes an intelligent government who would really like to work for the welfare of common people and therefore change the life insurance regulatory environment. What steps have you taken to manage this risk? Please dont ask such a stupid questionthe world is full of stupid people.when the idiots are in majority how can there be any chance of intelligent people getting elected and forming the government? So there is nothing to fear. Our lobbying is more stronger than that of TATAs and Ambanis and we know how to lubricate the government machinery. Moreover, till our big brother LIC is there, weve nothing to fear.

Q-11: How do you succeed in making fool of so many people who are otherwise well educated? Let me quote Will Rogers,There is nothing so stupid as the educated man if you get him off the thing he was educated in. For achieving this we have to create high decibel noisehow do we create this noise? As you already know all those that idiotic stuff about insurance you read in the our product brochures and even that published in the newspapers and magazines is all written by ushow many negative product reviews do you come across? The information broadcasting through electronic and digital media is also vetted by us; in other words, the entire information network is controlled by usthere is no independent mediadont give me the crap that youre not aware of Paid Newsthey have do it because paper is getting costlier ..they are ready to publish anything we wish so long as they keep on earning advertisement revenue through usdont you know customer is kinghow can you take pangaas with your clientdear fisher money is power and we have got plenty of it. Now, why do we do all thisagain to create more confusion in the minds of a confused customerultimately he has no option but to listen to the commentary of the those insurance agents who themselves dont know what they are talking aboutanyway, what is the need to understand a product when they get a hefty sum without understanding it.in other words, there is complete brainwash of everybody including journalists, insurance agents and the customernobody has time to unveil the truthHaamare haath bahut laambe hai fisher.

Q-12: Sir, which insurance policy do you have? Shhhh! I cannot answer thisit is a very tricky question you are asking me and you already know the answer so lets keep it under wraps.

Q-13: Sir, do you mind if I publish this discussion? No, not at all; see intelligent people are a minority on this planet; for example, out of say, 5000 people who will read this post, I bet not more than 10 will understand itand hopefully those ten already know the truthso tell me how does the scenario changeso dear fisher, even if you start shouting from the top of Kutub Minar, nobody is going to hear youyou have already written enough damaging material, but tell me has it in any way dented our saleour policies are still selling like hot cakes e.g. , LICs Unit-Linked Endowment Plus Plan has already sold 1.16 million policies and collected Rs 5,600 crore since its launch in September 2010. Fisher, I feel sorry for youbecause you efforts are all going waste your voice gets drowned in the noise we createI challenge youyou wont get more than one or two comments on this postgo and publish it, Ive nothing to fearbest of luck! Q-14: Sir, one last question pleasewhat youre doing is morally and ethically wrongstill you do it. Doesnt at times your conscience pricks you for doing such a dirty job? Jab Kasai bakara katath hai to wo ye nahin sochta ki yeh ghalat he ki sai hi, wo sirf apna farz nihbhata haimoreover, do you think all other industries are working for the benefit of mankind? For example, Are these colas , bottled water, all other kind of packaged foods really required by the masses? Fisher, there is nothing good or bad in this worldDo you think nature is fair? Yes, at times I do feel bad about it but soon its over Fisher, for your kind information let me inform you that even Warren Buffet is trying to make an entry into distribution of life insurance products in India.

Q-15: Sir, what do you have to say about The Money Quest? Tumahaara Blog kitane log padthe hai fisheryou know we also make sure that no good stuff ever makes it to the google top 10.likhte likhte bude ho ja ho gai fisher, kuch nahi hone wala If you dont mind, let me give you a suggestion start writing only positive reviews of our productsyoull gain in two different waysthose ad sense guys will approve your blog in one shot and also your traffic will increase and you can start making a lot of moneyapne biwi bacho ke bare me sochologo ko samjahoge to kudh pagal ho jao getumne galat kholi me haat dala hai fisher Thank you, Sir. I feel enlightened from your talks!