The Hindu Business Line : More insurance agents in million-dollar club

IT pays to be a life insurance agent - amply illustrated by the fact that the number of Indian members of the Million Dollar Round Table have doubled since last year.

Significantly, agents from private life insurance companies have now overtaken those from LIC in terms of membership.

The Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) is an exclusive global club of the highest performing life insurance agents.

Mr R.K. Shetty, Zone Chairman, India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, MDRT, said that 2005 has seen 682 life insurance agents register for MDRT as opposed to just 390 in 2004.

An Indian agent has to earn a minimum commission of Rs 5.5 lakh or rake in premium of Rs 22 lakh to qualify as a member of MDRT.

To earn the title of Court of the Table and Top of the Table, the minimum requirements are Rs 16 lakh and Rs 33 lakh in terms of commission or premium of Rs 66 lakh and Rs 1.32 crore respectively.

Globally, MDRT has more than 32,000 members, who account for less than one per cent of the world's life insurance advisors.

In India, while 1,700 agents have qualified for the membership, the number of agents who have actually registered with MDRT is smaller.

This year marks another first: agents of private insurance companies together outnumber those from life insurance behemoth, LIC.

While there are 207 MDRT members from LIC, the rest came from the private companies headed by ICICI Prudential and Max New York with 167 and at 126 members respectively.

Mr Shetty said that denial of visas to agents attending the MDRT summit in the US has been one of the main reasons for the few registrations in the past.

However, this year the problem has been sorted out to a large extent after MDRT took up the issue with the US consulate.

This year, about 80 per cent of the visa applications have been cleared.

Mr Shetty said membership as well exposure to the MDRT summit in the US helps Indian agents to be at par with global standards and certifies their capability as professionals.

While the US has the highest number of MDRT registrations at 14,000, countries like Japan and China are ahead of India with 2400 and 2000 members each, said Mr Shetty.

MDRT day is being held in Mumbai this month and will be inaugurated by Mr Stephen Rothschild, President, MDRT.