The Hindu Business Line : MDRT membership: Many qualify, but few register

OVER 2,000 insurance agents from India qualified for MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table) membership in 2004, but only 390 have registered with this global organisation.

An Indian agent who earns a commission of over Rs 5 lakh, not counting bonus, or a premium income of Rs 21 lakh during a calendar year is pre-qualified for MDRT membership.

The flip side is the agent would have to pay $450 (about Rs 20,000) as registration fee to get this membership. Also, it costs big money to attend the MDRT meetings, usually held in the United States. And the US visas have proven hard to come by for many who have applied.

At another level, MDRT has 33,000 members accounting for less than one per cent of the world's life insurance and financial services professionals.

MDRT celebrated its annual day for the first time in India on February 19 in a bid to build awareness and start a chapter.

Addressing insurance agents, Mr Stephen Rothschild, MDRT Vice- President, said: "I will personally take up the issue of the visas with US consulate in India, as well as in Washington." He also said that even if people do not register with MDRT they should be aware of the best business practices in the insurance business.

Most of the 200 agents who qualified for MDRT last year came from LIC with some 300 from the private companies.

Mr R.N. Bhardwaj, Chairman of LIC India, said: "Today, there is a convergence of technology. One can see it in the complexity of insurance products — there are more unit-linked plans and there are several riders and options. In this light, education and competence-building contributes immensely to productivity. Here, MDRT plays a great role".

Customers base their decisions on the relationship and the service of the agent, who becomes a crucial intermediary, he said. He has to have his own brand. This has been created by MDRT, he said.

Also, to become a member of LIC's corporate club, an agent needs to fulfil for two consecutive years the qualification pre-requisites of MDRT.

Mr R.K. Shetty, Chairman of MDRT's zone covering India, Sri Lanka and Nepal, also an LIC agent, said: "Even today, it is difficult to identify India's existence in the world family of MDRT. Japan, Hong Kong and Korea are the leading countries today in terms of participants from Asian countries."

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