G Naga Sridhar How about dealing with an insurance agent who is trained at premier institutes such as the IIMs?

In a move which could be a trendsetter, Tata AIA Life Insurance Company is getting some of its agents trained at IIMs and other professional institutes for some special programmes.

“Our agency strategy is now focussing on making premier agents, who will be four times more productive than ordinary agents, and are expected to understand customer needs better,” Rishi Srivastava, Chief of Proprietary Channels, Tata AIA Life Insurance, told BusinessLine in an interaction.

From last year to this year, the company has doubled the number of premier agents to over 5,000.

At the same time, Tata AIA is also keen on having a multi-channel agency strategy and is giving equal emphasis to all channels to maximise market opportunity. “There is a huge protection gap in the industry, to the tune of about 92 per cent,” he said.

In bancassurance, the company now has partnerships with Citibank, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank and DBS Bank.

The vision for the company, according to Srivastava, is to be protection driven with proper delivery. “We are working in this direction by generating awareness about insurance, conducting digital campaigns, ease of dealing for customers by electronic KYC (know your customer) norms, biometric authentication and pre-sales video calls,” he said.

Srivastava said the current financial year is good for industry with 20-24 per cent growth. In business there has been more focus towards the protection side. “The future lies in protection business in insurance,” he added.

Tata Sons holds a majority stake (51 per cent) in the company and AIA holds 49 per cent through AIA International Ltd. Till now the company has deployed ₹1,953.5 crore in the business.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW