Takaful Malaysia has rolled out its agency provident fund and three new products to cater to its customers from different life stages

In early March, Takaful Malaysia launched its Agency Provident Fund (APF) and introduced its three- tier agency structure as well as three new Takaful products. The fund is a type of retirement scheme for the company’s agents to contribute into a special retirement account.

The launch of APF is viewed as a timely move, following the recent government announcement of the 1Malaysia Retirement Scheme, for 2 million entrepreneurs.

Says Dato’ Hassan Kamil, Group Managing Director: “APF marks the start of our plans to aggressively enhance our agency force this year to capture the growing market of Takaful. Upon achieving the qualifying criteria by our agents each year, Takaful Malaysia will allocate an additional fringe benefit contribution into the APF account.”

Building Loyalty
The annual contribution to the APF account for agents is 1% of the current year total contribution income, which will be deposited into the APF; consisting of both new and renewal Family Takaful products’ contribution incomes.

As for unit or group managers, the APF is injected with 0.25% of the current year total contribution income from the direct group. At age 55 or after 10 years of services, our agents can choose to receive the APF either in one lump sum payment or retain the APF with Takaful Malaysia for withdrawal at a later date.

Hassan, who is aware of the importance of agents in the Takaful business, adds that the company has noted that there is stiff competition in market agency recruitment particularly in light of rulings issued by the Malaysia Takaful Association, beginning on 1 January 2009.

These rulings required potential recruits to pass the Takaful Basic Examination and each agent can sign up with two General Principals and one Family Principal. Hassan says the APF would be an added benefit for agents to join the Takaful Malaysia family and is one of the steps taken by the company to enhance a “two-way” sense of loyalty between the company and its agents.

As part of the company’s efforts to develop a strong and skilled team, Takaful Malaysia’s latest addition to its team is Wan Azman Wan Mamat, newly appointed Regional Chief Retail Officer (CRO). With more than 10 years experience in business development and marketing, Wan Azman explains that the company has also started its complete three-tier agency system, replacing the obsolete ‘over the counter’ sales model that Takaful Malaysia was practicing years ago.

He adds: “To encourage potential agents, the company will ensure that its agents are equipped with creative sales training and recruitment tools coupled with state of the art technology. One of the many initiatives is the establishment of Takaful Malaysia’s very own Business Training Institution that aims to provide quality and professional training courses to the agency force. Also, with its upcoming agency force web portal, all agents will be able to access their own Agency Portfolio anytime, anywhere.

“With this in place, all agents can conveniently check their customers’ details, insurance coverage, health policy and premium payment status, fund reports and personal production and commission updates. These support system and tools will allow Takaful Malaysia agents to better service their customers.”

With the fresh direction the company has introduced, Wan Azman is convinced that the agency force of Takaful Malaysia will expand by another 1,500 in strength, by the end of 2010.

New products
In addition to the APF, Takaful Malaysia also introduced three new Syariah-compliant products – Takaful myInvest, Takaful myGraduan and Takaful myGemilang.  Each product is intended to cater to the needs of its customers from three life stages namely young adults, parents and retirees.

Says Hassan: “The impact of the recent global financial crisis has alerted many Malaysians to start planning for their personal financial security and children’s higher education funding. Given the revival of the market performance, consumers’ confidence will gradually improve as the market outlook shows sharp signs of recovery, creating more appetite for investment-oriented plans.”

As such, he is optimistic that the three new products will bring in at least RM20 million in terms of first year cash contribution by December 2010.

Hassan notes that the products such as Takaful myInvest is an investment-linked plan suited for young adults, while Takaful myGraduan, is a higher education funding plan with flexible benefit payouts, for customers to meet their children’s education needs.

Takaful myInvest combines both the desired protection and investment needs of customers and enhancing their protection needs with a comprehensive range of Takaful riders.

Takaful myGraduan, a higher education funding plan with flexible benefit payouts, is specially designed for customers to meet their child’s future education needs from as low as RM100 a month. Customers can choose to receive five annual payout amounts starting at age 18 or to receive a lump sum payment of investment value upon maturity.

Takaful Malaysia provides five Syariah-compliant investment-linked funds for Takaful myInvest and Takaful myGraduan. These investment funds are managed by the Investment Division of Takaful Malaysia, comprising of a group of investment specialists with more than 14 years of fund management experience.

Under its Syariah-compliant investment-linked funds, customers are given the flexibility to either switch or top up funds to best suit their risk appetites, as well as perform partial withdrawals in case of temporary financial needs.

Takaful myGemilang, on the other hand, is an affordable traditional retirement solution that offers various coverage terms and is designed to meet the popular demand of customers for shorter contribution payment terms. Take for example, contributing for 7 years for a 10 years protection plan.

In addition, the sum covered against Death and Total & Permanent Disability (TPD) will increase at least 10% every five years up to maximum of 200%, depending on the coverage term chosen. These customers can also opt to receive staggered annual payouts after the contribution term or receive a lump sum payment of investment value upon maturity.

As the company aims to fulfill the needs of its agents and customers with a caring tagline “Assuring 1Nation’s Future”, Hassan concludes that Takaful Malaysia also aims to use its three-pronged strategy this year to improve the customer experience, develop a full-fledged agency retail channel and introduce more product innovations into the market.