Chapter 3: Insurance Agent Recruitment

Meaning of Insurance Agent recruitment

Need For Insurance Agent

Functions Of The Insurance Agent

Support And Benefits

Learning From Executive Training

Insurance Agents Profile Involves Knowing

Criteria For Selection Of Insurance Agent

Code Of Conduct For Insurance Agents

INSURANCE AGENT RECRUITMENT 3.1 Meaning of Insurance Agent recruitment Insurance agent recruitment is all about recruiting financial advisor for the company. The financial advisor is the person who can guide the people in making proper investments regarding their life

Now the question comes is that how can he/she be the advisor of the company ???????

Financial Advisor:
Financial advisor is the person who has been issued the government authorized IRDA license which is valid for three years and in those 3 years he/she can tap into an unlimited income and reinvent their life. As a Life Advisor a persons role would go beyond selling policies. His/her role would be to explain life insurance and its benefits to potential customers and help them decide which plan suits them best after analyzing their financial needs. Hence, life insurance offers one with an opportunity for: An exciting / challenging career. Flexible work hours. Unlimited income. Regular income for years till the policies sold by one is in force.

3.2 Need For Insurance Agent: Insurance is sold, not bought, because of its intangibility ( Fig- 3a shows the intangibility of insurance) People do not understand, how insurance works. It is like sand when it is bought and gold when it is realized. Insurance is a concept that has to be explained personally. Buyer has his own special needs and requires specialized solution. It is the AGENT who knows the proposer and he only can act as first line underwriter.

(Fig -3a) 3.3 Functions Of The Insurance Agent: Life insurances agent has the unique role of such a person, who enjoys the trust of two parties - the prospect and the insurer - simultaneously in the same transaction.

To simplify, functions of a life insurance agent could be divided into two parts, viz. 'Pre-sale functions'; 'Post-sale functions'

Function Before Sales:

Contact prospects Study their insurance needs Completion of formalities for proposal of new insurance viz, Filling of form Arranging for Medical Examination Collection proofs of age and income Any other information required by the underwriters

Function After Sales:

Ensure payment of renewal premiums. Assist policyholder for nomination / or change thereof. Assist the policyholder in case he wants to get loan against the policy assignment. Assist the policyholder or the claimant to comply with the requirement for getting timely settlement of claims.

3.4 SupportAnd Benefits: As a Life Advisor with Insurance companyone would enjoy the following benefits:

Enriching Training Program:

An intensive training program before one commences his/her new career. This would equip one with all the information and knowledge about life insurance, its benefits and our products. This would help one to perform his/her job better and meet his/her goals. One would also enjoy the benefits of continuous training and mentoring programs that are designed to update one, apart from enhancing ones selling skills.

 Mentoring:
Training and support from the Company to meet ones goals. Opportunity to learn from industry professionals.

Flexibility:
Decide ones own working hours and earning goals.

Satisfaction:
One will help people manage their assets and plan their financial security, and experience deep satisfaction from making a positive difference in others lives. One acts as a strategist in annuities, business insurance, estate planning and personal investment, providing both short and long term solutions to financial risks.

Freedom:
Continue with your present job occupation if you so desire and treat this as a parallel source of income. This allows you time to decide if you want to take the job of a Life Advisor as a full time activity.

Earnings:
Entitlement to a percentage of the premium as commission till the time the policies sold by you are in force.

Attractive Additional Benefits For High Performers:

Palmtops, Planners, Leather portfolio bags, Offsite conferences, Foreign trips and Sales promotional schemes.

3.5 Learning From Executive Training: Provides an opportunity to apply the concepts learn t in real life situations.

It sensitizes us about nuances of work place by the time-bound projects assigned by the company. It creates awareness about the strengths & weaknesses in the work environment It provides a platform to develop a network while OJT (On-the-job-Training), which would be useful in enhancing career prospectus. Know the day-to-day functions of the company. It provides a unique opportunity to get exposed to corporate culture, professional experience & professional behavior & putting the theoretical concepts learnt in the classroom for developing managerial skills. To gain a deeper understanding of the work culture, deadlines, pressure etc. of an organization. It gives a flavor of teamwork, organization culture, team dynamics, result orientation, organizational pressures, complexities in achieving the desired results etc. It provides direct exposure to the execution & support functions of the departments. It provides a good scope for developing necessary managerial skills &positiveattitude

3.6 Insurance Agents Profile Involves Knowing: Demographic background Educational background Experience background Industry background.

3.7 Criteria For Selection Of Insurance Agent: Criteria for the selection of the Financial Advisor are as follow;

Age: 18 or above for both Male and Female

 Educational Qualification Required:

o Rural Area*: 10th Pass o Urban Area*: 12th Pass [* Areas are bifurcated according to the population.] For getting license to work as an agent of any company a person must complete his/her training and pass exam of IRDA. If a person is already holding license for General Insurance than he/she will have to complete only few hours of training. All the above criteria are common for all the companies, they have to follow it. In practice, because of competitive environment many companies decide their own criteria apart from all above. Different criteria used by companies are shown in the following table: At least Graduat e Person KLI 1 ICICI Prudential2 LIC Birla Sun life Bajaj Allianz 3 ING Vysya4 BhartiAxa Aviva 6 Living in Ahmedaba d for at least 3 yrs Network High Net / Society Income group (HNI)*grou p Married and have dependent s Age group 25-50 yrs

NA -

TABLE 3.1Criteria for Selecting Agents by different Companies.

3.8 Code Of Conduct For Insurance Agents:

No Insurance Agent Shall:

Solicit or procure insurance business without holding a valid license; Induce the prospect to omit any material information in the proposal form; Induce the prospect to submit wrong information in the proposal form or documents submitted to the insurer for acceptance of the proposal; Behave in a discourteous manner with the prospect; Interfere with any proposal introduced by any other insurance agent; Offer different rates, advantages, terms and conditions other than those offered by his insurer; Demand or receive a share of proceeds from the beneficiary under an insurance contract; Force a policyholder to terminate the existing policy and to effect a new proposal from him within three years from the date of such termination; Have, in case of a corporate agent, a portfolio of insurance business under which the premium is in excess of fifty percent of total premium procured, in any year, from one person (who is not an individual) or one organization or one group of organizations; Apply for fresh license to act as an insurance agent, if his license was earlier cancelled by the designated person, and a period of five years has not elapsed from the date of such cancellation; Become or remain a director of any insurance company;

Every Insurance Agent Shall:

Identify himself and the insurance company of whom he is an insurance agent; Disclose his license to the prospect on demand; Disseminate the requisite information in respect of insurance products offered for sale by his insurer and take into account the needs of the prospect while recommending a specific insurance plan; Disclose the scales of commission in respect of the insurance product offered for sale, if asked by the prospect; Indicate the premium to be charged by the insurer for the insurance product offered for sale; Explain to the prospect the nature of information required in the proposal form by the insurer, and also the importance of disclosure of material information in the purchase of an insurance contract; Bring to the notice of the insurer any adverse habits or income inconsistency of the prospect, in the form of a report (called Insurance Agents

Confidential Report) along with every proposal submitted to the insurer, and any material fact that may adversely affect the underwriting decision of the insurer as regards acceptance of the proposal, by making all reasonable enquiries about the prospect; Inform promptly the prospect about the acceptance or rejection of the proposal by the insurer; Obtain the requisite documents at the time of filing the proposal form with the insurer; and other documents subsequently asked for by the insurer for completion of the proposal; Render necessary assistance to the policyholders or claimants or beneficiaries in complying with the requirements for settlement of claims by the insurer; Advise every individual policyholder to effect nomination or assignment or change of address or exercise of options, as the case may be, and offer necessary assistance in this behalf, wherever necessary;