Thai Life to develop new products, streamline claims process
THAI LIFE Insurance will mine all distribution channels, develop products and speed up its claims process to tap the new lifestyles of consumers and achieve its premium-income target of Bt17.30 billion this year.
President Chai Chaiyawan said yesterday that the life-insurance industry was expected to grow by at least 10 per cent this year as targeted customers enjoy higher income from the government’s stimulus packages launched last quarter.
Insurers are also expected to develop new products and services to meet customers’ requirements, making the competition in this industry tough.
However, the uptrend in interest rates in the second half might not support savings-oriented insurance policies.
The company is not disclosing its full-year results for 2015 but in the first 11 months, its first-year premium income grew by 16 per cent year on year to Bt12.82 billion, faster than the 11-per-cent rise in the market.
Its total premium income reached Bt60.08 billion in the period. Agency remained the main channel for acquiring new premiums.
This year, the company aims to increase first-year premium income by 20 per cent to Bt17.30 billion, of which Bt13.10 billion will come from the agency channel and the rest from channels such as bancassurance and telemarketing.
“Thailand is becoming an ageing society. We have to improve products such as annuities and health insurance to deal with this mega-trend. Those insurance policies can help provide security of income for customers when they are retirees and also ease worries about medical expenses,” Chai said. The mega-trend forces insurance companies to become more active in developing all channels to respond to the intense demand of customers in each phase of their lifecycles.
The firm is also preparing to deal with the change of regulations and economic circumstances such as the inheritance tax and the reduction of insured deposits per bank per account.
Unit-linked insurance will be an alternative choice of savings for policyholders, so the company should also have this kind of policy, he said.
The company has adjusted conditions for underwriting in each area based on the actual risk in order to extend protection. It has sped up paying claims to customers.
To tap the Asean Economic Community, the company has opened a representative office in Myanmar and is studying other markets in Asean, as wells as how to boost brand recognition among target customers.
