A-Life to hire more advisors to target high-net worth individuals

“We believe financial advisory is the success model for A-Life,” Maethee Chandavimol, assistant managing director, said last week.
The company has positioned itself as a provider of private banking services. It will not only offer investment products but also help manage the wealth of customers.
That would set A-Life apart from other industry players.
The one-stop service will also help the company beat its rivals.
The company has two portfolios – assets under management worth Bt1.7 billion and life insurance premiums.

A-Life uses two distribution channels for life insurance – 30 financial advisers, who have 2,000 policyholders as customers, and 300 telesales agents with 35,000 policyholders.
“Financial advisers help customers to manage investment portfolios and analyse their financial status in order to suggest the best solution for investment including life insurance.
“Besides selling life insurance, financial advisers can suggest clients to invest in mutual funds by referring the customers to broker partners, and we get fee income from the service,” he said. Financial advisory has an important role in helping manage the investment portfolio and generating premiums, so the firm has to boost its financial adviser team to serve growth.
The company has set the growth target for first-year premiums next year at no less than Bt2 billion, up from the expected Bt800 million this year. Gross premiums are expected to rise from Bt1.3 billion expected this year to Bt2.5 billion next year.
Savings insurance and unit-linked insurance plans are key products to offer to wealthy customers while long-term savings and whole life insurance are products that will be offered by the telesales force. A-Life plans to expand its investment portfolio to Bt2.3 billion by year-end from Bt2 billion currently.
It projects a return on its investment portfolio of 6.5 per cent this year, he said.