The Hindu Business Line : Globe-trotting policy!

Not too many people from a Rajasthani business family would branch out to become a life insurance agent, but Dinesh Tater chose to do that in August 2004, when he learnt that one of his managers was also working as an agent for Aviva Life Insurance. Three years later this financial planning adviser (as the agents are known in Aviva) has become numero uno among Aviva’s 30,000 agents in India, getting 450 policies with total sum assured of Rs 30 cror e and Rs 4 crore in premium.

“I continue to be in a full-time family finance business, but today life insurance has become a very important part of my life; I’ve become addicted to it.” His family is in venture-based funding which gives short-term loans to the official liquidator of the Madras High Court, Debt Recovery Tribunal, etc.

Clearly, the desire to top the charts drew Tater towards Aviva. “At that time there were only 6,700 advisers in Aviva and organisations like the LIC have agents with 20-30 years of experience. Within a month I realised that I can do very well here and within four months I qualified for the blue ribbon award, which is the highest in this company. For the last three years I’ve managed to win this award,” he says.

But an important reason for his success in a short time is his using the “investment platform more than the life insurance part, and 100 per cent of the 450 policies I have sold are unit linked, with the maximum premium-paying term being 3 and 5 years.”

He is clear on his target, which is high-volume and not long-term policies with low premiums. “My minimum premium size is Rs 25,000, and I’ve collected Rs 61 lakh in premium from a single family which runs an IT company in Chennai.” But it took almost seven months of persistent sales pitch to get this particular business. Tater does not make cold calls and goes only by personal reference, targeting only people who will buy his policies. He has on offer 14 unit-linked insurance plans, “but I don’t sell with brochures or readymade plans. I always try to find out my customer’s requirements and then devise a plan accordingly.”

He says the flexibility that Aviva’s unit-linked plans offer is a strength that is driving up his insurance business, and the premium-paying term can also be decided by the client. He finds that these days most youngsters want to finish paying premium in three to five years and are averse to taking a commitment for 15 or 20 years. “This is also because there are several insurance agents in the market today who simply sell life insurance policies and disappear and don’t care if the policy might lapse for some reason,” he says.

Tater’s USP is that after selling the policies, he closely monitors the returns of each of his customers. By using a client data system software, for which he pays an annual fee of Rs 5,200, he can track each customer’s policy. “If a customer calls me, I can straightaway tell him his fund value as of today by looking at my laptop, and people appreciate this kind of service.” One is sure that the birthday cake he sends each client on the first birthday post signing-in for the policy helps too!

With the equity market on fire, in growth funds he has managed to give his customers a whopping 30-35 per cent annualised return in the last four years. “So my product is as good as a mutual fund and the returns are tax-free too.”

Of his 450 clients, only six have been tempted to cash out and that too on small policies of Rs 1-2 lakh. Once the premium-paying term is over, the policyholder can cash out the proceeds “without having to pay a paisa for surrendering the policy. That’s why this product is just like a mutual fund.”

His clients fall in the 25-40 age group and most are from a business background. “I don’t go to salaried people because they may want policies with sum assured for Rs 25,000 or 50,000 and we have to spend the same time on closing the deal. So I always target people from business families or top professionals.”

His gut feeling about which calls will convert to business is pretty sound judging from the fact that six out of 10 calls he makes end up in firm business!

Seeing the world

But the best perk in being an Aviva agent, says Tater, is that he gets to see the world, as award ceremonies are held in different countries. Last month he was in the US for receiving the Top of the Table award, the highest in the insurance industry worldwide.

“Of the 20-lakh insurance agents in India, only 23 qualified for this award last year because you need to get the stipulated premium amount in a calendar year.” The sum was Rs 1.32 crore in 2006, and for 2007 it is fixed at Rs 1.66 crore; he managed to do Rs 1.88 crore in 2006 and qualified.

Tater says that more than the income earned from his work as an adviser, it is such recognition and rewards that spur him on. The travel of course is a bonus; “I got my passport in 1992, but till 2002 there wasn’t a single entry in it. But after joining Aviva in 2004, I went to Singapore in 2005 for the Blue Ribbon award and till now I’ve visited 13 countries including USA, Greece, Malaysia, Turkey, UK and Dubai, all for getting awards. Sometimes I have to pay for the travel and the accommodation from my pocket, but I don’t mind it, as there is so much to learn from such conferences.”

Optimistic about the future, he predicts the Indian equity market will remain bullish at least for some years. He himself invests most of his savings in equity funds. “For businessmen like me, the tax-free dividend is a blessing.”

Wonder about his own policy? “I can’t take my own policy from Aviva; we’re not allowed to do that. So I have taken a Rs crore term plan from Kotak.”

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