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Indian life insurance agents are now among the richest in the world. India now figures among the top 10 countries in terms of membership of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) — an exclusive club for the highest performing life insurance agents.
For production goals achieved in 2006, India ranks sixth with 1,145 members in the elite club. In 2005, there were just around 682 members.
The top five countries on MDRT's list include USA (14,695 members), South Korea (5,687), Japan (3,633), Taiwan (2350) and Hong Kong (1728). India has, however, eclipsed countries such as Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and China to break into the top 10. Globally, MDRT has 36,000 members.
Bagging an MDRT membership is no mean task. An Indian agent has to earn a minimum commission of Rs 5.98 lakh or rake in premium of Rs 23.92 lakh to register as a member of MDRT.
For the title of Court of the Table and Top of the Table, the minimum requirements are higher at Rs 17.94 lakh and Rs 35.88 lakh in terms of commission and premium of Rs 71.77 lakh and Rs 1.43 crore respectively.
In 2006, the private sector seems to have overtaken LIC. HDFC Standard Life and ICICI Prudential have the highest number of MDRT members at 273 and 258 respectively followed by LIC at 239. In 2005, LIC had dominated with 207 members (of a total of 682 members).
Mr R.K. Shetty, three times Top of the Table at MDRT, said that private players are attaching a lot of value to an MDRT membership. Mr Binayak Dutta, Chief-Sales and Distribution, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, said the MDRT membership is valued because its helps insurance advisors build credibility with their customers, learn new skills and also use the MDRT logo.
They can also network with other high performing insurance agents across the world and share experiences.
However, the number of registered members still trails those who have qualified. Mr Shetty estimates that around 4,000 members would have qualified for MDRT while only 1,145 members actually registered.
A high registration fee ($450) and low awareness are key stumbling blocks to membership. Some companies, however, sponsor a few of their top agents by paying the membership fees and sponsoring the trip to the US to attend the MDRT convention.
It could not have been better timed. In the midst of the global financial pandemic, a life insurance agent from India will talk about closing big sales.
Rajesh Satoskar, 43, and an LIC agent based in Mumbai, will be the first Indian agent to deliver a speech at the coveted annual meet of the Top of the Table (ToT), the highest qualifying round of the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) at Austin, Texas next week.
Satoskar will be with sharing his vision along with international speakers like Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, renowned MDRT member Bruce Gendein and a host of corporate and financial honchos.
The MDRT is a premier association of financial professionals, with over than 35,000 members, from 476 companies across 76 countries.
Only the top commission earners qualify for membership of the MDRT, within which, there are three levels of membership. While Court of the Table members must earn three times the MDRT base production in requirement, Top of the Table members must earn six times the base production requirement.
In India, for example a ToT qualifier has to earn Rs 45 lakh as first year commission excluding the bonus commission.
In an informal chat with DNA Money, Satoskar spoke his heart on insurance and his way with customers through what he calls the “theory of disruption”.
Called the Super Salesman, Satoskar, who primarily sells policies to high net worth individuals, said, “Selling insurance is not an easy job. There needs to be an emotional awakening in the clients and that is initiated by the mind disruption. First, the customer has to wipe out any pre-conceived notion on buying a policy from his mind. I do not go into technical stuff like yield analysis, presentations etc. I stress on the client’s need for pure insurance which he or she does not realise.”
“Once that bond is build, convincing is easier. Selling a big policy to an industrialist or an executive is difficult. I do not subscribe to unit-linked plans and think that traditional or term insurance is the need of the hour.
Our role will become all the more important in the present volatile investment climate,” he said.
Satoskar is credited with having sold six policies of Rs 10 crore each and two to three policies of Rs 15 crore. His clients are generally corporate houses or MNCs. By choice, he had left out celebrities.
Looking forward to his speech in the US, Satoskar is not going up the stage alone. He has obtained visas for a cat and a snake, who will accompany him to the podium. He has a drama to enact, which he is keeping under wraps. After all, it is all about disruption of the mind!
Source :- Dna India, The Hindu Businessline
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