9th Asia Trusted Life Agents & Advisers Awards 2024

A former TV actress, Ho Jie-Yu joined Allianz Taiwan Life, through its High Achiever Agent programme, as a way to earn a more stable income. She quickly found a passion for the insurance business and earned her first MDRT qualification just four months into the job.

Ms Ho embarked on the Fellow Chartered Financial Practitioner (FChFP) programme and used the expertise and knowledge gained to help customers complete their needs analysis and plan for their financial future. She conducts a thorough needs analysis for each client in order to understand their unique needs and offer genuinely valuable solutions.

With her dedication and focus from her clients’ perspective, Ms Ho is committed to providing the right products and services that delivers to their expectations and addresses their needs. This client-centred service philosophy not only increases customer satisfaction but also deepens her understanding of the importance of professional services.

When she first learnt about the MDRT qualification, she was enthusiastic to adopt the ‘whole person’ concept as a comprehensive way of living that integrates balance and success in business, education, philanthropy, service and spirituality. Achieving MDRT qualification has not just become an annual goal for her but is also a driving force that propels her forward.

This has also reinforced her belief in lifelong learning. For Ms Ho, this means enhancing her professional knowledge and learning new life skills. Apart from attaining FChFP qualifications, she utilises her free time to learn new skills, such as German, surfing and snorkelling. These experiences not only enrich her life but also enhance her adaptability and problem-solving capabilities from different perspectives. Continuous learning is her best shield against the challenges of life and work.

In only seven years in the industry, Jaslyn Ng has achieved what most people would take 20 years to do. She has achieved MDRT every single year, and climbed up the management ranks, all while balancing being a single mother of two.

She has also impacted her fellow agents with her thought leadership and her digital influence, built through many years of effort and preparations. She has said that her singular purpose is to impact positively as many lives as possible.

She commits the utmost effort to protect lives, impart her skills and knowledge to her team and is also a good mentor to her mentees (outside of her agency and company). She organises various campaigns – charity chats, speaking engagements or voluntary work – in order to influence more industry practitioners to do good each day.

In 2023, Ms Ng raised more than SG$10,000 in charitable donations for various causes, including the Syria/Turikye earthquake.

She has also been lauded by the industry and the community in 2023, achieving several accolades from within and without the insurance industry.

Ten years ago, Korntinun Damrongwetwanit did not even know the profession existed. Although he had been a life insurance agent for some time – even achieving MDRT for three consecutive years – financial adviser was not a career path he was familiar with.

Upon attending the 2014 MDRT seminar in Vancouver, however, he became very interested in the field of financial advice and spent the next few years achieving one qualification after other.

He began to change working methods to use the financial pyramid to provide information and knowledge to customers, starting with life and health protection, tax planning, investment planning and inheritance planning.

COVID-19 forced further changes to his technique, but he transitioned admirable to digital channels, utilising TikTok to communicate with his almost 28,000 followers.

Besides being a financial adviser and an agent of Muang Thai Life Assurance, he is also a master trainer and special lecturer of the company. He has trained new agents, existing agents and sales managers since 2015, with more than 100 classes across the nation.

Together with his small team of advisers, Mr Damrongwetwanit aims to spread as much knowledge about financial planning to the Thai people, through both online and offline channels.

Mr Thaninnat Anantajariyapol, passionate about promoting financial literacy, became the top new assistant vice president in the company in 2023. In 2023 his agency produced annualised first year premium of THB50,609,076. He is also a frequent guest speaker on these issues.

In 2023 Mr Anantajariyapol also initiated and developed the Plant academy. The academy serves as a career development hub for agency leaders. The academy integrates protection and investment strategy. It also provides intensive training for the advisors and the focus is primarily on family-based plans, education plans and retirement plans.

The academy has set the target to achieve 1m policies by 2030. It has adopted a collaboration culture of working across all levels.

Mr Anantajariyapol has also initiated an empowering ‘Count 1 till 1 million baht’ training programme on money management skills for the individuals burdened with debt. He has also designed and produced tools for financial planning for the financial planners. These tools are much more than basic calculations and liberate the planners and allow them to focus on client interactions and productivity.

He has built a robust and thriving agency structure with 13 agency leaders and a dedicated team of 102 agents. His accomplishments underscore his leadership, expertise and dedication within the financial industry.

The founder and district manager of the HM Group, Hassan bin Muhamad has done remarkable work over the past year in growing the agency.

From increasing its ranks, to strengthening its leadership, to helping it retain its title of AIA Million Dollar Agency for its eighth consecutive year, Mr Hassan has built a strong agency with a line of competent, passionate and talented leaders.

Under his leadership, HM Group achieved remarkable results in production, making the agency rank in the top 20 of AIA Malaysia. In 2023, it produced one Court of Table qualifier, one Supreme MDRT and three MDRTs.

He attributes the outstanding achievements of his agency to its unique and systematic management, which strictly monitors training, events, recruitment and charity activities. His leadership focuses on enhancing his team’s core values, skills and quality, and developing professional advisers with excellent performance, which has been instrumental in the agency’s success.

Mr Hassan is also a firm believer in CSR, especially in the field of education. He has sponsored various religious schools in their field trips, classroom renovations and development initiatives.

The agency also tries give back to the community through charitable donations to orphanages and the less fortunate. His principal aim is to reach out and assist those less fortunate, with the hope that the agency’s support can lighten their burden and strengthen relationships.

Ms Cissy Wong has over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry. She currently manages a young and digital savvy team of over 700 agents under the name of ACE Family with over HK$300m in FYC. Her team embraced the power of technology early on to improve work processes, drive business, enhance its professional image and add value to clients.

Ms Wong has been an early advocate for digitalisation and going paperless at AIA Hong Kong and Macau and was involved in the development of iEngage, a web-based portal with a chatbot function designed for AIA agents to get the latest market news, trends and opportunities, as well as to track their sales performance. She also provided insights and advice in crafting content for the company’s WeChat channels in mainland China to cater to the specific needs of MCV customers.

Ms Wong has set up personal accounts on social media platforms and have been active in sharing workplace stories and sales techniques via Vlog. Her vlog page has more than 1,000 followers and over 10,000 likes on its videos and is included in Baidu.

She engages in various social initiatives for the community and founded a charitable organisation, Future Together Foundation and organised 12 charitable activities in 2023. Among these activities were a mentorship programme with the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong and a beach cleaning event jointly organised with JD.com where some 20 bloggers and KOLs were invited to spread the word on their social platforms to invite public participation. These community activities have made good use of social media and helped enhance the team’s image, which in turn would foster customer confidence and helped in agency recruitment.

Mr Kent Law is an inspirational and altruistic agency leader, who has created positive, widespread impacts on people in the insurance industry and underserved communities over the 38 years of his insurance career.

Through his personal coaching, Mr Law inspires his 228 agents to bring out their best. In 2023, 34 of them achieved MDRTs/COTs/TOT.

Mr Law has been a trailblazer of promoting community stewardship in the industry and has relentlessly engaged himself in social service and has inspired thousands of practitioners and different insurance companies to make charitable work part of their business. Influenced by him, SLHK has become the best performer in the policy donation programme, collecting HK$56m for charities as of 2023.

LUA LifeCare Charity Run, created by Mr Law, has raised over HK$3m for charities since 2016. He has been actively involved in the voluntary service at LUAHK, a non-profit organisation of professional insurance intermediates destined for the sustainable development of insurance industry in Hong Kong.

Mr Law serves as the compliance in-charge at Seiwa Jyuku Hong Kong, responsible for monitoring the code of practice of the successful life formula and has introduced his learnings from the organisation to business owners and his agency members.

He was the vice-president of LUA from 2019 to 2023 and founder of the social service department, leading the public relations department (2021-2022) and membership department (2022-2023). He is one of the expert adviser panel members appointed by the Insurance Authority of Hong Kong to assist the regulator in giving technical advice when necessary, during investigations, providing input on the level of sanction required to deter specific types of misconduct. The panel is also a valuable source of market intelligence and knowledge.

AIA was the first insurer in Malaysia to incorporate AI into its agency recruitment process. The company has launched an AI interview feature on the AIA Recruiter platform, enabling AIA to conduct virtual interviews with candidates interested to join AIA as an agent.

The AI interview has significantly accelerated the agent recruitment process. Available 24/7, candidates can complete their interview at their convenience, anytime and from anywhere. This flexibility has reduced the average turnaround time for interviews, with candidates taking only one day to complete the interview, compared to the previous average of eight days. Moreover, agency leaders can view the interview result within one hour of completion, enabling them to make informed decision about the potential candidate quickly.

The AI Interview also benefits leaders in identifying and selecting quality recruits. The AI technology used in the recruitment process involves an analysis of extensive datasets to provide informed recommendations to AIA's agency leaders on their candidate's likelihood of success in the programme they have applied for. The AI Interview assesses candidates based on a comprehensive set of criteria, including motivation level, adaptability to diverse environments, networking abilities, competencies, body language and other soft skills. This approach moves beyond the conventional CV evaluation of demographic information, education and experience. Furthermore, the AI Interview has been instrumental in removing unconscious human bias present in face-to-face interviews, allowing for a neutral, impartial, and holistic candidate assessment.

To date, the AI Interview has achieved a 100% adoption rate among leaders.

Ms Yueh-Ti was born into a family of doctors which led her to develop deep feelings about the impermanence of life, the insufficient health insurance benefits and the consequences of lack of money for medical treatment. She joined Nan Shan in 2004, as she believed that insurance could solve people's life, old age, illness, death and disability problems.

Ms Yueh-Ti is the youngest director team that Nan Shan life has had in 60 years, and has helped develop three communications offices since 2011, with a team of nearly 300 people. She believes that health should be the first priority in life and so insurance services should move from post-claim settlement to prior prevention.

Ms Yueh-Ti helps young sales partners develop their A&H capabilities and has become the training model for the A&H situational workshop in Nan Shan Taipei District. She has become a role model for young people in Nan Shan who are starting businesses and helping society and is also committed to cultivating young talent. She promotes health awareness among young people, allows the concept of insurance literacy and education to further take root, and uses new thinking to unleash the power of insurance.

With a stellar track record in the insurance industry since 2015, Mr Wesley Ko has also been honoured with MDRT and COT qualifications and has excelled consistently as a member of AIA's Group Achiever Club.

In 2023, he took his business to impressive heights with over HKD72m in premiums and a 100% corporate client retention rate, serving over 8,000 members across diverse sectors. His expertise in customised and innovative solutions has addressed unique industry challenges, enhanced employee wellbeing and supported companies in talent acquisition and cost management.

Committed to social welfare and sustainable development, Mr Ko actively engages in charitable initiatives, fostering a culture of giving back and amplifying community impact.

In 2023 he achieved substantial growth while maintaining a perfect 100% corporate client retention rate and achieving significant growth.

His initiatives have led to the successful transition of over 100 group insurance members to individual plans.

He tailored benefit plans to resonate with each corporate client’s company culture and strategic goals. This includes designing programmes that address mental health support and financial wellness, aligning with the unique demographics of the corporate clients whose employees are navigating the stresses of a rapidly changing work and economic environment.

Mr Koh also advocates for comprehensive wellness programmes that holistically address mental, physical, and financial health. These programmes have contributed to reducing absenteeism and improving productivity, directly benefiting clients' profitability.

He also affirm the company's investment in their overall wellbeing and lives his commitment of giving back to the society, both in letter and spirit.

AIA Hong Kong has provided employee benefits solutions to companies of all sizes in the region for over 60 years. The company’s one-stop solution goes beyond traditional group insurance to combine employee benefits, workforce wellness and a comprehensive range of portable health protection and wealth management solutions to support its corporate clients’ HR strategies while helping Hong Kong workers achieve their financial, protection and retirement goals.

Today, as an industry leader in employee benefits, AIA Hong Kong has over 16,000 financial planners serving over 78,000 corporate clients and 1.8m members. Its comprehensive employee benefits solutions cover group insurance, employee voluntary protection and pension with over $16bn pension assets under management.

The company maintained its number one market position with >25% market share in employee benefits in 2023, with >10% growth in total weighted premium income, although 2023 was a challenging year for group medical business because of the dramatic increase in outpatient claims since the lifting of the mask mandate in March.

Despite experiencing a surge in claims ratio, the company maintained robust investments to deliver superior corporate wellness solutions to its clients. It utilises advanced data analytics to identify the specific wellness needs of its corporate clients to craft targeted solutions that resonate with their unique requirements to achieve meaningful impact.

Amidst the challenges of the 2023 post-pandemic environment, the company’s dynamic, transparent communication ensured client regional offices could manage well. Additionally, its close collaboration with the claims department enabled it to swiftly identify new trends and related issues to handle claims effectively while providing prompt insights to its clients. A team of designated business development executives provides comprehensive support to consultants from benefit review and quotation to underwriting and onboarding communications.

The enduring collaboration between National Development Bank (NDB) and AIA Insurance in Sri Lanka stands as a beacon of success, resilience and strategic vision. This partnership, which is over a decade old, in the year 2023, established new benchmarks for excellence, driving sustainable growth in the industry.

In the year 2023 it played a pivotal role in optimising value for clients and stakeholders alike. The partnership generated an annualised new premium (ANP) of LKR552m, the highest ANP contribution in its history.

With 2,348 life policies issued and a premium persistency rate of 85%, the partnership demonstrated its ability to deliver consistent value and retain customer trust over the long term, further solidifying its position as a market leader in the bancassurance space.

A distinguishing feature of the NDB-AIA partnership in 2023 was its success in producing four Court of the Table members and 23 MDRT members.

In 2023, NDB introduced a reward recognition scheme for bank staff members, aptly named the CEO's Club, to acknowledge the top contributors to the bancassurance business. The year witnessed record-high staff participation, with over 200 staff members qualifying as CEO's Club members.

Another significant achievement in 2023 was the implementation of data propensity models, enhancing its ability to anticipate customer needs and tailor solutions accordingly. These models enabled leveraging data analytics and AI to gain deeper insights into customer behaviour and preferences.

Mr Huang has been involved in Taiwan's insurance industry since graduation, with 11 years of experience in a major life insurance company. With complete rotation experience, he is one of the very few professionals in the industry who has practical sales experience across multiple areas such as market research, channel management strategy, product marketing and digital tool design/development/operation.

He started his career by researching Taiwan's insurance market. He is familiar with the overall industry trends and the dynamics of various insurance companies. He has formulated annual goals and important measures for Cathay Life Insurance's sales agent channel and bancassurance channel for many years and is familiar with channel operations. He served as the coordinator of the business marketing group with respect to Cathay Life Insurance’s acquisition of Kuopao Life Insurance (國寶人壽) and Hsingfu Life Insurance (幸福人壽) in 2015.

Subsequently, he was involved in the areas of product marketing and education, strengthened professional knowledge of products, and volunteered to join the sales agent channel at the end of 2017 as a district supervisor, managing a business team of eight people. Since 2019, he has actively participated in Cathay Life Insurance's digital transformation project, using agile development models to promote the digital transformation of the sales agent channel, and served as a product owner to participate in the construction of multiple large-scale digital functions and platforms. In early 2024, he was promoted to manager of the digital support department of Cathay Life Insurance's digital development division, leading a team of 18 people to focus on the development of digital sales assistance tools for the sales agent channel.

Mr Sara Lamsam believes that everyone has unique desires and aspirations for stability in life. Utilising storytelling to make clients aware of the importance of life insurance enhances sales opportunities and effectively addresses client needs. The emphasis has primarily been on shield life products, offering comprehensive protection. The term shield not only signifies protection but also resonates with the Thai word for ‘chill out’, symbolising ease and comfort.

In the past year, a pioneering health insurance product for the silver age demographic was launched in Thailand. This product offers full-scale nursing home care coverage, aligning with the needs of Thailand's aging society seeking financial security in retirement. This initiative, guided by his vision, has seen tremendous success, supported by partnerships with leading nursing homes nationwide. As a result, the health and CI rider segment witnessed a 12% YoY growth, ranking second in the business sector.

He aspires for Thai life insurance agents to achieve global qualification standards, such as the MDRT, showcasing sales excellence or income, and the GAMA, highlighting team management and team-building skills. This elevates agents to financial consultants and encourages participation in MDRT Thailand and GAMA Thailand, fostering a community of knowledge sharing and sales strategy exchange. In 2023, MTL had 325 MDRTs, marking a 16% YoY growth, and 152 certified GAMA agents. This shows an increasing proportion of qualified agents and a significant improvement in the NPS or customer engagement score, reaching 58 points—a 17-point increase from the previous year, representing a 23% growth. His leadership has significantly improved agent performance overall.

Tata AIA Life Insurance Company

The 156-years old Tata group brand is synonymous with trust. Tata AIA Life Insurance in the 23rd year of its establishment is known to offer the best and simplest life and health insurance solutions, which are coordinated with the customer’s individual needs and life goals.

The company has a protection-focused product strategy, maintaining the industry-leading position in protection mix among top players. It is at the third rank amongst top private players, making it the largest non-bank promoted private life insurer in India.

The company grew faster than the industry, with 13% growth for the year vs 7% growth in overall industry. The organisation has the fastest growing agency channel amongst the top private players at 51%. It contributed 2204 MDRTs for the calendar year 2023 as against 1700 in the year 2022 – a jump of 29%.

Its market share amongst private players grew to 10.4% in financial year 2023-24 from 8.1% in financial year 2022-23.

During 2023 the company won the prestigious Kincentric Best Employer Award, for the 8th consecutive year and maintained its leadership position in retail sum assured with an increase of 32% while now being the largest player in retail sum assured.

The organisation follows a multi-channel distribution model with balanced portfolios. Both proprietary and partnership distribution channels have managed to grow at healthy double-digit growth rate. Tata AIA’s agency channel is amongst the most productive in the private industry.

Tata AIA Life Insurance Company dedicates 2% of the average net profits made during the three preceding financial years for fuelling undertakings that are relevant to the communities of its ecosystem and also works to create impact in the rural communities, particularly in the verticals of health and sanitation.

AIA Singapore

AIA Singapore is a life insurance company that has an agency force that sets the professional standards for other insurers to measure against and continues to invest in and support it to thrive in the changing multi-channel environment.

With the largest network of close to 5,716 and 201 insurance representatives in Singapore and Brunei respectively, it targets to help millions of people live healthier, longer, better lives.

With compulsory Institute of Banking & Finance (IBF) endorsed training, the company has 1,315 (23%) IBF certified representatives as of now and is targeting 3,500 (61%) by 31 December 2024.

AIA holds the highest number of MDRTs in Singapore for the ninth year with 1,380 qualifiers. Through its MDRT ambassadors, the company motivates, trains and grows its MDRT community. With one in four representatives as MDRT qualifiers, AIA leads the industry in high productivity and commitment to excellence.

Recognising the evolving landscape of customer engagement across multiple channels, the company has equipped its representatives with the best-in-class digital tools to provide personalised high-tech and high-touch advice. In 2023, the company upgraded its technological tools. iSMART+ and iPOS+ platforms.

The AIA Health360 brings offerings under four major pillars – plan well, protect well, be well and live well – which together, addresses the facets of holistic wellness and provides individuals with a tangible framework in planning for their well-being.

In 2023, AIA representatives conducted over 800 worksites in companies and organisations promoting healthy living, health screening and AIA Vitality. It also launched think well in 2023, the region’s first insurer-backed digital mental health solution, in collaboration with WhiteCoat.

When Ms Tong started her insurance life in 1976, she was just a 19-year-old girl. Her diminutive look does not speak of her ambition. Instead of confining herself comfortably as a secretary, she took no time to seize the opportunity to become an insurance agent. As history unfolds, she would become a trailblazer in the insurance industry, creating a legacy that would inspire thousands of young women and men.

To her, the sky is the limit. She has been applauded for many firsts she created throughout her decades-long career. No sooner than she celebrated her 21st birthday, she was named supervisor. In 1985, she was promoted district manager, the first female agent at AIA Hong Kong to have reached this highest agency rank at the time.

She went on to become its first female district director, senior district director and executive district director in 2011. On top of her stellar record at AIA, she was highly recognised in the industry as she was the first female insurance practitioner in Hong Kong to receive Master Agency Award (MAA) from GAMA in 1997 – she has since won MAA for 26 years. She was also the first lady to be awarded the Hall of Honor in 2018.

It doesn’t do her justice to say that her achievements are commendable due to her gender. Her achievements are especially impressive despite her gender. In the late 1970s, females were still facing gender inequality in terms of pay and job opportunities in Hong Kong. She was one to deny the barrier, charting a new path for generations of aspiring young women.