At 22, Ms Mamtha, an insurance agent from Arakonam in Tamil Nadu emerged the youngest professional to bag the LUGI (Life Underwriters' Guild of India) LEAP (LUGI Excellence in Achievement Programme) award, given in recognition of her professional achievement. She was among the 125 LEAP awardees this year.

“There has been a 25 per cent jump in the number of LEAP awardees this year as compared with the last and this is only our second year of the LEAP award,” said LUGI's founder-President, Mr P. Srinivasan.

Stating that such recognition helped boost the morale and motivate the insurance agent/adviser to do better year-on-year, the LUGI President said, “this is a recognition that they do not get even in LIC (Life Insurance Corporation of India). All marketing personnel including agents/advisers, development officers in LIC etc, are eligible to compete and get the award.”

The awards were given at the ninth Annual Convention of LUGI, which took place in Coimbatore at the Codissia Trade Fair Centre this year.

The awards are based on the commission earned by the individual in a financial year. The Member's Club award was given to those who earned not less than Rs 5.25 lakh as commission during the 2010-11 fiscal. Against 64 awardees in the 8{+t}{+h} Convention of LUGI, the number rose to 75 this year.

CEO Club award

Twenty-five agents bagged the CEO Club award (against 20 the previous year), given to those who earned a commission of not less than Rs 9.75 lakh during the period.

And 25 agents walked away with the President's Club award, given to those who earned a commission of Rs 14.75 lakh and above

Later speaking to Business Line , Mr Srinivasan said that the awardees were enthused by this recognition. “This system has actually clicked. And it is not restricted to LIC agents only. Every qualifying member of LUGI is eligible. We had, in fact, recognised the achievement of advisers in private insurance companies as well. There were two from ING Vysya, one each from SBI Life and Kotak Life who qualified for the award this year.”

At least 20 per cent of the awardees were women, he added.

Mr Srinivasan said the recognition had a definite impact on the Corporation. “The officials are starting to understand the need for such performance-linked recognition. LIC and its housing finance arm LIC HFL has sponsored this programme by extending a sum of Rs 2 lakh each.”

Expanding reach

LUGI, which has been providing a platform for professionals in the insurance industry to learn, unlearn and excel is now in the process expanding its reach. “We have established nine chapters – at Chennai, Bangalore, Thanjavur, Salem, Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Mumbai, Thane. We are planning to add two new chapters this year at Rajahmundry and Cannanore,” he said.

Though headquartered in Coimbatore, LUGI does not have a chapter here.

Going forward, the founder-President of LUGI said that the time has come for LUGI to review and re-do its constitution to keep pace with the present environment, promote the FChFP (Fellow Chartered Financial Programme) certification aggressively and expand its network in a phased manner. ‘Our thrust would be on education. We have more than 5,500 members, but not many come forward to enrol and complete the FChFP,” he added.

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