Of Insurance Agents And Financial Planners

Most people I know shy away from insurance agents or financial advisors. The financial planning type of job is thankless as people normally do not give these agents a chance. They are pushy mainly because they need to meet their quotas and do well in their jobs.

I do not know about the experiences of the rest, but between financial advisors and multi-level marketers, I much rather spend time talking to a financial planner. You can just talk and share information but you are not obligated to buy anything. Furthermore I am very pleased with the services of my agents and they have never given me any cause for displeasure or complaints.

Whereas for a multi-level marketer, they give you some cock-and-bull story to get you to meet them, then in the end you realize you get conned. So financial advisors are in a way more truthful; as they state down in black and white what exactly they do. For that I give them more respect since they are more honest in their approach.

I have mostly good experiences with insurance agents. In fact, I have two agents of my own. My first agent has been with me ever since I was nineteen. She is the friend of a friend of a friend, so called me up.

At that point in time, I was quite interested in insurance as I did not have any policy of my own. So I met up with her, and seeing that she was starting out, I did her a favour and bought a life policy. I have been very happy with her services so far as she has gone some extra miles for me.

Years later, my friend introduced me to his own financial advisor from another company. She is a nice lady, not too pushy and makes sure you are comfortable. In the end, even when I did not get anything from her, she left with no hard feelings.

My second agent is actually a good friend. When I first met her last year, I found that we are able to click together as she is a very jolly and bubbly person. She is sincere to everyone and really cares for her friends. That was long before I even knew what she works as.

Even after I found out her profession, she has never pushed any sale towards me or any of our friends. For her, a friend is a friend, not a business prospect, and that got me respecting her even more.

Then when I heard from a couple of our common friends on how they approached her to draw up their policies and invest their CPF funds for them, I called her up and asked her how to go about investing my CPF funds.

My first agent did ever ask if I wanted to invest my CPF funds with her, but at that point in time, I was reluctant since I thought I was buying a flat soon, and needed the cash to pay the deposit. Incidentally, my friend also belongs to the same company as my first agent, but different agencies.

The reason I chose my friend was because she seemed more knowledgeable on the different types of policies and investments of the company. When I asked my first agent, she could not give me a satisfactory enough answer on how certain policies would be good for me. But my friend was able to convince me on which policy would be the best for me.

I know it may just be a sales gimmick, but if a customer indicates interest in a product, the person making the sale should at least make it sound convincing enough so the customer would buy it happily. No customer would want to buy from someone who could not even bring across the message clearly.

Anyway when I met up with my friend, she only explained to me how everything works. She still left the choice to me whether to take up the policy. But after seeing how beneficial CPF investment can be, I took up the investment account, plus another savings plan which can generate high interest cash back every year, together with all the critical illnesses and ladies’ illnesses coverage.

So now I have a total of four plans – one life insurance, one savings plan that can generate cash back and high interest every year after a year, one CPF Ordinary Account investment (yearly deductions) and one CPF Special Account investment (one-time deduction of a lump sum). These are more than enough already.

My friend just told me that I have become a Prestige member of the company, and gave me the Prestige card, since my total savings, investment and insurance have reached a certain amount. I should expect so, considering the amount of premium I pay every month, plus the fact that I have blown almost all my CPF funds into investment.

Besides my two agents, I have been called up by other agents before, incidentally all from the same company. I have met up with two so far. They are nice and friendly, and accept it when I turn down their plans.

And whenever I come across a road show put up by the company, they will greet me if they are around. Impressive, able to remember me even after one meeting, and after I wasted their time!

However there is one agent (also from the same company) that I am really angry with. She was doing a survey at a train station and asked if I would like to meet up with her. I just graduated then and not posted out yet, but I agreed to meet her just to see what she had.

The first time I was supposed to meet her, I had to attend an orientation for new teachers, so I cancelled the appointment. She sounded angry, and told me that she has a schedule to follow, so if I cancel, it would be disrupting her entire schedule.

I was irritated, but still agreed to postpone and meet up with her. My friends were bewildered as they said if it were them, they would have been so turned off by the unprofessional attitude and never meet up with her again.

That second time I was supposed to meet her, I was held up in school so I changed the venue to near my school instead of town area. I needed to bring a student home, so would be around that area.

When she arrived, she just started sharing her policies with me and I was not even able to get a word in, When she was done, I told her that I just started working, so I would like to have some job stability first before I think of getting more policies. I only had my life insurance policy then, and was looking around for a financial savings plan that could give me cash returns.

Then she asked if I wanted to buy any of her policies in the first place. I told her not at that point in time, perhaps another year later. With that, her face crumbled, she muttered that she had another appointment and just rushed off.

My colleague who was with me then was so shocked at the attitude of that agent. She kept remarking that the agent was so unprofessional and I could actually lodge a complain. What was the point? I did waste her time in making her come meet me and then in the end did not get anything. But that did not mean I liked her attitude either. Agent or not, one does not throw tantrums at others even as a friend.

I wonder how long that particular agent lasted though. If she wants to be in that line, she must face rejections and last-minute cancellations without complaints. Which is why not everyone can be in that line. One must be really thick-skinned and able to take rejections and doors slamming in your faces in order to even survive.