AIA Thailand’s CEO promises insurance products catering to 80-plus senior citizens

The move is part of the company's 2024 business strategy to maintain its industry leadership while continuing to grow, following the group's global record-breaking results in 2023 of US$7.7 billion. 

Speaking at his first press conference since being appointed CEO in May 2022, Advani said AIA Thailand's focus on elder groups catered to the country as a super-ageing society, where people are more concerned about living happily in both wealth and health as they age. 

Citing AIA's status as the industry's first insurer to extend premium insurance to seniors over the age of 80, he said customised products tailored to the lifestyles of the elderly would be readily accessible soon.

However, he did not elaborate on what types of products and services would be offered, only claiming that they would meet every demand. 

"With increased life expectancy and the possibility of more people living up to 100 years due to advancements in medical technology, it's crucial to ensure that our health span aligns with our lifespan. Many people may face financial challenges in their later years if they haven't saved enough for healthcare expenses. Therefore, AIA has developed healthcare solutions to provide comprehensive protection for Thais up to the age of 99," he said.

To demonstrate its commitment to senior citizens, AIA recently launched the “Living to 100” campaign, which encourages Thais to plan their health and finances, allowing everyone to live healthier, longer, and better lives.

Advani said the campaign had received a positive response, pointing to potential growth in Thailand's silver economy. 

Meanwhile, in order to sustain the company's industry-leading position, he unveiled the ABCDEF strategy, which aims to improve customer care and service in life and health insurance. It covers:

— Agency transformation by improving and modernising life insurance agency channels using digital technology and quality recruitment to grow the agent force
— Business partner acceleration by strengthening existing sales channels and expanding collaboration with new partners
— Customer centricity
— Digitalisation journey by strengthening AIA's position as Thailand's first digital insurer, with a focus on digital innovation and improving service delivery via an All-in-One Application for customers and agents
— Employee well-being by promoting workplace equality and allowing staff to express their opinions
— Future healthcare by offering solutions that meet customer needs and ensuring that all Thais have access to standardised medical services, as well as comprehensive and appropriate personalised health protection.

He pointed out that by leveraging technology in the Straight-Through Process (STP) of policy applications, AIA Thailand had achieved an 87% automation rate, significantly increasing its ability to approve up to 1,500 individual life insurance policies per day and process up to 9,000 claims per day. 

He mentioned the company's investment in digital services for the AIA+ and AIA One apps as a key factor in the company's ability to keep pace with the digital era. 

AIA Thailand had a record-breaking year in 2023, when it had the highest market share in all dimensions and the value of new business increased by 21% to 24.857 billion baht. 

Advani said AIA Thailand had broken numerous records over the past eight decades.

"The key factors contributing to AIA Thailand's outstanding growth in 2023 were the quality of our personnel that set us apart from our competitors. Our robust sales channels, which include both our agency force and partner channels, are regarded as the best in the market, with over 50,000 agents nationwide, including the highest number of MDRT-qualified agents since the company's IPO," he said.

As the industry leader in life and health insurance, Advani pledged to expand customer base, premiums, and agents in order to provide Thais with comprehensive products and services in all aspects of their health: physical, mental, and financial.

Given the group's blackout period, he said he could not provide exact numbers on targets or growth for this year, but AIA Thailand would maintain double-digit growth, he said.
 
AIA Group Limited, and its subsidiaries, is the largest independent publicly traded pan-Asian life insurance company. It has wholly-owned branches and subsidiaries in 18 markets, including China, Hong Kong SAR, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, and Macau SAR, as well as a 49 per cent joint venture in India.

As of December 31, 2023 its total assets were valued at US$286 billion.