Insurance industry failing to look after customers' interests
I am an actuary with nearly 30 years' experience working in the insurance industry all over the world. I left the industry two years ago. Lindell Lucy ("Strengthen licence requirements for insurance agents", July 19) has articulated perfectly the reasons why.
I am an actuary with nearly 30 years' experience working in the insurance industry all over the world.
The fact that the Hong Kong Federation of Insurers is waiting to be given guidance on what "clients' best interests" means is telling enough in itself. Why isn't it capable of coming up with its own definition? What other trade, industry or profession waits for someone else to tell it what its customers' best interests are?
The insurance industry worldwide limps from one mis-selling scandal to another because it looks after its own interests first and consumers' second. It preys on customer ignorance and designs policies that are incredibly difficult for most people to understand.
Even if the legislature did come up with a definition, I guarantee that each insurer would look for the grey areas that it can fudge by issuing reams of policyholder documentation, internal guidance notes and hiring additional compliance officers, all designed to get regulators off their backs but that in reality do nothing but obfuscate.
Many policyholders have no idea what they've bought nor when (or if) their policies will pay out. Lindell Lucy is right - most people would get a much better deal elsewhere, and the agency and quasi-agency bancassurance distribution systems are to blame.