A lack of ability to reach scale may be an impediment. In this environment, the ability to leverage footprint across the region theoretically helps regional players to benefit from economies of scale. The company’s scale and impact has remained modest though. These more investment-focused agents have remained relatively small scale though. On the other hand, the increasing competitiveness and smaller scale of these markets renders them less attractive, especially vis-a-vis the long-term growth opportunities in China and India. On the one hand, given the growth trajectory, there should be ample room for more competitors. For potential new players, there is an ongoing debate as to whether there is still room to enter into these markets. For bank players, the natural strategy is to leverage their banking networks, while in Indonesia and Malaysia, takaful products could also provide a future growth engine. Its core products are various forms of one-year, term-life insurance, which allow customers to review their insurance needs according to their life stage by adding riders for various types of cover, such as hospitalization, cancer, and income replacement insurance.

In 2002, Sompo DIY Life started offering one-year, term-life insurance called “Kumitate Kit” (assembly, or DIY, kit in Japanese) on the internet. Despite its geographical proximity, the Australian life insurance industry bears little resemblance to the other markets. For those with the right strategy, these markets can be extremely profitable and added together, can be a meaningful part of an overall Asian portfolio. We predict that among the entrants there will be a mix of MNCs and a few, select Asian players. As in most other Asian countries, the trustworthy reputations of banks and their established branch coverages have made them successful in cross-selling insurance products to their customer base. This has opened up some 20,000 postal branches as channels for private insurers to sell products that Japan Post Insurance does not itself carry. In all, these new developments in distribution channels are creating strains for the traditional tied-agency model. In all, Southeast Asia looks set to remain a market in which multinationals will maintain a heavy presence alongside a few local heavyweights.

Partial deregulation in 2002, allowing banks to sell annuities, a few asset-formation products, and some P&C insurance, proved that large banks have incredible selling power through their branch channels. Although there are few growth prospects remaining in Australia, we are cautiously optimistic about the future of the industry. Especially in the more mature markets, such as Japan, health insurance will emerge as a key growth driver in the mid term. For example, Ito-Yokado, one of the major mega-supermarket chains in Japan, owns an agent business with branches located within its supermarkets, selling the products of more than 10 life insurance companies. For sure, the traditional, housewife-sales approach, based on strong customer relationships, is under pressure but like most things in Japan, will only change gradually. At first this seems like an utterly raw deal, but I have to admit, I was not being totally honest with those numbers. Most states already require contractors to have General Contractors Insurance and most clients will ask if you have one anyway. People often get a life insurance policy to ensure that their loved ones will be taken care of in case of a untimely death.

Assess your needs: Before you begin looking for car insurance companies, you need to determine what you need from the insurance policy. Also, be sure that you do not ignore the exclusion list of the policy to check about certain coverage and benefits that might be excluded from the policy. 2. In the Definitions Type drop-down, select Appointment Check List. To find out more, you can check out Insurance Competitor Analysis. Insurance companies have had hundreds of years of practice and hundreds of thousands of cases to learn from. With research and case studies, this is found how shipping companies can move forward with the modernized world we are living in. What if you could help your employees look forward to their workday instead? There are, of course, always those employees who try to glad-hand their bosses – thinking that they can succeed based upon the old school tie, fraternity network, or some other non-performance indicia. In particular, there are opportunities to more effectively extract value from the risk and savings needs of Australian consumers.

For example, there are many unmet risk management needs that must be addressed, such as longevity and morbidity risk, that have been opaquely transferred from government to individuals over the last 20 years or so. Threatening newcomers will be few, but given the early development stage of these markets, there will be room for some new entrants. Tied agencies are still the largest channel and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, and players with superior sales forces will continue to have a significant advantage in the market. Southeast Asia may not be the largest market in Asia, but for players committed to a pan-Asian footprint, it deserves a close look. That is a far cry from what we, in the insurance business, may consider a senior insurance plan. The large incumbents kept to their historical strengths – traditional whole-life and term-life insurance via housewives channels, while the market had moved towards variable products, the bancassurance channel, and a more professionalized sales force.