The insurance industry - a business of life and death

The insurance business in the country is growing rapidly with new products being offered thus providing people with more options than ever. As a result, opportunities for work within this industry are increasing as well.

Many people believe erroneously that insurance is all about sales. While sales forms part of the insurance business (because insurance agents would need to approach clients and convince them to take up suitable policies), many work opportunities exist in other areas beyond sales.

Sales and more

Ask any successful insurance agent or sales manager and they will tell you that their job is about helping individuals and businesses. They help clients manage risk in order to protect them from and anticipate potential catastrophic losses. Their job is to help them understand these needs, explain options and help them purchase suitable insurance policies. So, contrary to popular belief, working in this area is personally satisfying and financially rewarding.

Insurance, in its simplest form is cash when needed most usually during medical or other emergencies.

There are various other roles to play in the industry including being an underwriter, a risk manager, a service representative or an actuary. The Registered Financial Planner (RFP) course is also paving the way for insurance agents to move into financial planning.

There is huge potential in this field. Malaysia has an insured population of only 38.7 per cent, compared with Singapore's 70 per cent and Japan's 600 per cent. If we exclude multiple policy holders, Malaysia's insured rate is estimated to drop to around 22 per cent!

Job options in the industry

At the front line are agents. These are the people who advise individuals and companies on the best way to protect themselves from losses by buying appropriate insurance policies. The job is highly interactive and you need to be a people person as well as possess self discipline.

Every insurance company also needs resourceful, tactful employees who are good with people to work as claims adjusters. You handle the prickly situation of negotiating insurance claims with people who have encountered losses. Your responsibility is to reach a settlement that is fair to all parties.

Actuaries analyse the risks and decide on the premium (the amount you pay on a regular basis in order to be insured). Insuring health and cars are highly age-dependent. By analysing figures, data and statistics, actuaries predict the risk of insuring property, business, lives and health. As an actuary, you need to be on top of relevant trends and developments in society which affect risk.

Underwriters, meanwhile, decide if an applicant should be covered or not. Underwriters assess a person's exposure to risk, from everything such as job hazards to health conditions and lifestyle, and then decide if they meet their company's standards.

If you're not keen on working within an insurance company, you can also work as a risk manager employed by non-insurance organisations. You identify risks an organisation faces and make suggestions to deal with them. Your proposals will include advice on the purchase of insurance or adoption of precautionary measures.

Getting in

Professional divisions like actuary, loss assessment, and insurance broking require specific qualifications such as Certificate in Loss Adjusting, Chartered Life Underwriter etc before one is able to enter the respective career. In addition, loss adjusters and insurance brokers require licences from the insurance regulator before they are allowed to practise.

To become an insurance agent, you need to pass the Pre-Contract Examination for Insurance Agents (PCEIA) conducted by the Malaysian Insurance Institute (MII) and be registered with the respective life or general insurance associations (LIAM or PIAM respectively) before becoming wholly qualified as a life or general insurance agent.

Life insurance companies

• Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia Berhad
• AmAssurance Berhad
• American International Assurance (AIA) Company, Limited
• AXA AFFIN Life Insurance Berhad
• Commerce Life Assurance Bhd
• Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Berhad
• Hannover Life Re
• Hong Leong Assurance Berhad
• ING Insurance Berhad
• Malaysia National Insurance Berhad
• Malaysian Assurance Alliance Berhad
• Malaysian Life Reinsurance Group Berhad
• Manulife Insurance (Malaysia) Berhad
• Mayban Life Assurance Berhad
• MCIS ZURICH Insurance Berhad
• Prudential Assurance Malaysia Berhad
• TM Asia Life Malaysia Bhd
• Uni.Asia Life Assurance Berhad

General insurance companies

• ACE Synergy Insurance Bhd
• Allianz General Insurance Malaysia
• AM Assurance Bhd
• American Home Assurance Co.
• American International Assurance Co. Ltd.
• Asia Insurance (Malaysia) Bhd
• AXA Affin Assurance Bhd
• Berjaya Sompo Insurance Bhd
• Commerce Assurance Bhd
• ING Insurance Bhd
• Jerneh Insurance Bhd
• Kurnia Insurans (M) Bhd
• Lonpac Insurance Bhd
• Malaysia National Insurance Bhd
• Malaysian Assurance Alliance Bhd
• Mayban General Assurance Bhd
• MCIS Zurich Insurance Bhd
• Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance (M) Bhd
• MUI Continental Insurance Bhd
• Multi-Purpose Insurans Bhd
• Oriental Capital Assurance Bhd
• Overseas Assurance Corp. (M) Bhd
• Pacific & Orient Insurance
• PanGlobal Insurance Bhd
• Progressive Insurance Bhd
• Prudential Assurance Malaysia Berhad
• QBE Insurance (Malaysia) Bhd
• RHB Insurance Bhd
• Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance (M) Bhd
• Tahan Insurance Malaysia Bhd
• Tokio Marine Insurans (M) Bhd
• The Pacific Insurance Bhd
• Uni.Asia General Insurance Berhad

© GTI Specialist Publishers. Reproduced with permission.