Changing needs drive Muang Thai to offer new insurance products
Muang Thai Life Assurance has designed insurance products to emphasise high return in light of the trend of rising interest rates and an ageing population.
Chief executive officer Sara Lamsam said policyholders demanded higher short-term yields because of the hikes in interest rates. Therefore, the company had launched two products.
The first is a two-year life insurance with a guarantee of three years when the policy ends, offering a maximum internal rate of return (IRR) of 3.41 per cent. The second product is a five-year life insurance with a guarantee of five years, offering IRR at 3.34 per cent.
The increasing population of elderly people in Thailand has obliged the company to adjust the age of policyholders from 50-70 years to between 40 and 75 years old. Moreover, the insurance sum has been doubled to Bt400,000 from Bt200,000.
Sara said insurance firms had to think about whether actual situations would have an impact on their products. Ordinary life insurance might not be attractive to policyholders who want higher returns and longer protection periods.
The company also considers that market segmentation is important to drive premiums and get new customers.
"Therefore, we have launched products to cover everyone from children aged one year to older people of 75. Moreover, the company has designed a policy for women to cover breast and cervical cancer," Sara said.
The company is confident of seeing total premiums this year grow by 25 per cent to Bt40 billion, he said. That compares with growth in the overall Thai life-insurance industry of 13-15 per cent a year.
