Strengthen licence requirements for insurance agents

I agree that the legislature should elaborate on the meaning of "acting in clients' best interests".

However, instead of just grumbling about the vagueness of the phrase, Mr Tam and other industry leaders could help by sharing their views about what it means.

For example, does he think it's good practice for agents to recommend investment-linked assurance schemes (ILAS), when buying term life insurance and directly investing in index funds or unit trusts can guarantee higher returns and lower risk, at a fraction of the cost?

Two million ILAS products have been sold in Hong Kong over the past decade. A significant percentage of the policyholders will probably be forced to delay retirement due to paying decades of unnecessary fees and receiving poor investment returns. Those who must retire due to health problems and still haven't accumulated enough savings to support themselves may have to seek public welfare. This could drive up taxes for the younger generation. Insurers will have profited handsomely, but at the expense of policyholders and taxpayers.

Mr Tam claims that insurers "have served millions of customers by providing them with the necessary insurance coverage". In fact, insurers have exploited millions of consumers by hard-selling them costly and unnecessary savings and investment products that have little or nothing to do with insurance.