Don't get fooled by your insurance agent….Part1

Going over the documents a few days after he had bought a ULIP policy, Dabur employee Mr. Prashant discovered his name had been misspelt. He tried contacting his agent, but had no luck. "There was no clue where he had disappeared," he says.

You could face such a situation anytime. Perhaps, you want your residential address updated or the nominee changed. Or, maybe the policy is nearing maturity. If your insurance agent is missing when you need him, industry jargon calls you an orphan policyholder.

The first step in such a situation is to call the company concerned and report that your agent cannot be traced. Even as their mechanism swings into action, try figuring out why through-thick-and-thin insurance agents are becoming a rarity.

The birth of OPS

"A successful agent has to understand a customer's needs, besides being aware of various policies and how they compare with those of rival companies," says a career agent. "He also has to be patient enough - and interested enough - to make repeated calls to a prospective buyer."

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority makes it mandatory for an insurance agent to complete 100 hours of training from an approved institution before he can sell policies. Couple these requisites with a proliferating insurance sector, and you have a high attrition rate among agents - as high as 25-30 per cent, according to Sanjay Jain, head of marketing at Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance.

For instance, Bajaj Allianz currently employs 165,000 agents, compared to about 29,000 in 2004. HDFC Standard Life has expanded its agency force threefold over the last two years, while ICICI Prudential Life almost doubled its field strength to 133,000 between March and October 2006. But as they switch from one company to another, agents often forget to inform their clients - let alone provide them with a roadmap for the future - thereby creating OPs.

Fresher agents and part-time agents, too, contribute to the situation. Many people are attracted to insurance-selling because of its flexible timings and low capital needs. Once acquainted with the rigour of the business, however, they prove unequal to the task.

And, often, it is their clients who pay the price. "Insurance agents are the most vulnerable to dropping out in the first three to six months. In this period, they exhaust their natural market - friends and relatives - and discover that cold-calling is not easy," says an insurance analyst.

Part-time agents - mostly people in regular employment, who look to sell insurance for extra money - are also a risk from the customer's point of view. While many juggle two jobs efficiently, a large number prove to be unreliable.

Article Source: http://www.contentspool.com

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