Insurers demand learned agents

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-09 10:23

Want to be an insurance agent manager? Then show an annual payslip of more than 120,000 yuan (15,171 U.S. dollars) and you may well be.

Shanghai United MetLife Insurance Co is busy wooing recruits to join its agent team by stating as one of its job requirements - an average monthly income of 10,000 yuan (1,265 dollars)  in the previous year - for applicants interested in the insurer's "Top Gun" program for agent managers.

The position attracted 628 applicants, more than 40 percent of whom are master degree holders.

Only 15 applicants are expected to be chosen after making the final interview and join the company where they will undergo training which is claimed to cost the firm 50,000 dollars for each person.

The joint venture between MetLife, the biggest U.S. life insurer, and Shanghai Alliance is going all out to grab a bigger market share as a latecomer in the Shanghai market by building up its talent pool for a career which is shunned by some financial professionals in the country.

"Insurance agents are professionals with ample financial background that win respect in overseas markets," said Hua Qi, who gave up agent jobs when he graduated with a master's degree in finance. "However, it is a different picture where bankers are more considered as elites and insurance is eyed as a job with low market access."

United MetLife's move came in a market where an insurance agent, or policy salesperson, is somehow perceived as a an alternative job avenue for lay-off worker.

Complaints from policy holders that agents haven't explained policies clearly enough and causing them problems when they seek compensation is one main headache for the industry.

United MetLife is not the first insurer to invest money to build up an elite agent team. Firms like Manulife-Sinochem and Citic-Prudential have already started similar schemes to build up professional agent manager pools.

Manulife-Sinochem, the affiliate of Manulife, the world's fourth biggest life insurer, in August 2002 started to build up its elite agents in China and picked 25 among 600-plus applicants that year.

Such market-driven moves also coincide with an attempt from domestic regulators, both central and local, to enhance the qualification of the country's policy agents amid a booming insurance market.


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