Are You Insured TODAY?

A Father's Cry ... "I wish I still have time for my son"

2007-10-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

A Father's Cry ... "I wish I still have time for my son"

After watching this video clip, it reminds me that accident can happen anytime and anyplace regardless whether you are young or old, male or female. That's the nature of accident. Picture yourself as the father in the video clip. If it were to happened to you, what will your last wish be for your love ones ... ??? Are you prepared to leave them here on earth with your departure? Or have you give them the "Love Letter Of Your Life" to them, that they may not suffer financially or burdened by debts or loans. Think about it ... Think about your love ones that are waiting for you ...

(Credits goes to Thai Life Insurance for such touching video clip)

My New Business Card

2007-10-23T17:00:00.001-07:00

My New Business Card

Have you ever wondered how your assets being distributed when you’re gone?

2007-10-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how your assets being distributed when you’re gone?

In life you would have own houses, land, factory, car, cash, shares, unit trust, gold, shop lot, jewellery, etc as your personal assets. How are these assets being distributed upon death?

Let’s have a look on the procedures and problems below:

But, if you have or own a Life Insurance Policy with proper nominations, the process will be much easier. Let’s look at the flow chart below;

Insurance Reps – Pests or God send?

2007-10-08T05:26:00.000-07:00

Insurance Reps – Pests or God send?

Occasionally, when I attend functions, I will get the opportunity to meet new acquaintances. It’s exciting to meet new people from different background and job scope like doctors, engineers, managers and many more. Often, while being introduced, people would predictably ask, “So, what do you do for a living?” I would always give them a big smile and then said, “Well, I am a Life Insurance Rep”. I often find that almost instantly, there will be a moment of silence before either party break the silence or the common phrase is “I see” and I will notice a quick change in our earlier conversation to another topic with some uneasiness from the other party. “Well, I guess it was nice meeting you tonight and this is my business card. Let me know if you need any insurance” I said before I moved on as we exchanged our business cards.

So who are we exactly? Well we go by many names such as insurance agents, insurance rep, financial consultant, financial planner, business development executive and so on. We are actually representatives appointed by the life insurer (referred as the Principal) and are authorized by the Principal to represent and sell the life insurer products to end users.

So what are our roles here? We are responsible mainly for helping individuals, families and businesses select insurance policies to protect their health, lives and property. We have to undergo strict regulations set by the government. LIAM (Life Insurance Association of Malaysia) is the governing body regulating the appointments of life insurance agent.

Prospective candidate must be,
Ø 18 years old
Ø Pass Pre-contract Examination (PCE)
Ø Pass Certificate Examination in Investment-linked Life Insurance (CEILLI) if the agent is transacting investment-linked business
Ø Must complete SPM / MCE or SAP with at least 5 subjects passed or its equivalent qualification.
Note: Please refer to LIAM or Allianz Life Insurance Malaysia Berhad guidelines for additional information.

So are Life Insurance Reps – Pests or God Sent? What do you think? I would like to relate this story for you to make your own analysis. Here goes …

Once upon a time, there were 4 close friends. Mr. Lim is a doctor, En. Ali is a banker, Mr. Ong is a teacher and Mr. Lui is a life insurance agent.

The 4 friends will have dinner at Mr. Ong house every Friday night without fail. Mrs. Ong enjoyed cooking for her husband’s friends especially the Doctor and Banker. She dislikes the life insurance agent – even at times considering him to be a pest.

One night, Mrs. Ong received a call from the police station informing her that her husband had met with an accident and was admitted into the hospital. Unfortunately her husband passed away.

Many friends visited Mr. Ong house to pay their last respect. The first friend to arrive was Doctor Lim. He said, “Mrs. Ong, I am sorry your husband passed away. He was a good friend, a good husband and a good father. By, the way, our Hospital requested you to pay for your late husband’s medical bill. It is $20,000”.

The second friend Banker Ali arrived. Banker Ali said, “Mrs. Ong, I am sorry your husband passed away. He was a good friend, a good husband and a good father. By, the way, our Bank requested you to settle your late husband’s housing loan. It is $80,000”.

The third friend Agent Lui arrived. Agent Lui said, “Mrs. Ong, I am sorry your husband passed away. He was a good friend, a good husband and a good father. By, the way…….”

Mrs. Ong lashed out, “You are all useless friends. Can’t you see my husband is dead? You are all here to ask him to pay his bills and loans.” We don’t have the money.

Agent Lui replied, “Please Mrs. Ong. I am not here to ask for any payment from your family. Your husband was a responsible person. He purchased a life insurance policy and named you as the beneficiary. I apologized for being late because I had to collect a check. I am here to present your family this check of $ 500,000”.

So what’s your opinion on Life Insurance Reps now? Hope that you have a better understanding now after reading this story.

The moral of this story is “Humble agent performs the most important service to society. Remember that the amateurs built the ark but professionals built Titanic.”

Winston Churchill quoted, “We make a living by what we get. But we make a life by what we gave”
Hope you enjoyed this post. In closing, I would like to dedicate this short prayer to all our fellow co – workers in this industry. I hope that we’ll continue to run this race and overcome every obstacle faithfully to protect people’s lives as our mission.

My Prayer

Dear Lord;

“Thank you for this wonderful opportunity that you gave us as Life Insurance Reps. It’s by far the noblest job ever in the history of mankind. Help us Lord, to run this race faithfully without giving up or breaking down halfway. Let it be our sole mission to see and talk to people – to protect their lives and their love ones. Let your name be glorified whenever we protect one life. May people see Jesus thru our good conduct and action in the market place. When we are down with obstacle, we’ll look upon you to draw strength and wisdom from you, to continue this race. May your blessings continue to overflow us from heaven as we run this Race of Life”

Amen

What is Life Insurance is all about?

2007-10-08T04:56:00.000-07:00

What is Life Insurance is all about?

“So what is the fuss of Life Insurance all about? I don’t see the point and the need for it now.” exclaimed one my young working prospect. I called him earlier and introduced myself, my company that I am representing and the plan that I wanted to present to him. Being curious about the name of the plan, he granted me an appointment and here I am, in front of him, telling him on the importance of Life Insurance Plan and why he need it. And the series of interview took place from there.

So back to the question, what is Life Insurance is all about? Well, for start, whether you like it or not, everyone needs life insurance whether at work, or for marriage, new born babies, your children’s future, investment, medical, retirement, travel, or etc.

Life insurance will provide the right solution to your life’s challenges at every stages of life.

“So what are the benefits of Life Insurance?” you might ask?

Well, for start, that’s a very good question. There’s absolutely no reason for you to get one life insurance policy if you don’t know what’s in for you, right?

Below is the list of benefits of Life Insurance:

Maximum Tax Relief of up to RM6,000 for Life Policy and RM3,000 for Medical and Education policy
Tax free income
Unfrozen estate
Immediate cash upon incident
Create trust fund with lowest cost
Create instant assets
Inculcate saving
High return with low risk
Guaranteed your financial goals
VIP service at home / office
Greatest love letter
Peace of mind

So let’s go back to my young working prospect’s story. So what’s the fuss is Life Insurance all about? Well, there’s no fuss about it but only one reason – that people really don’t understand the importance and the urgency of Life Insurance, period. I believe you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that you need a Life Insurance Plan. All you need is your sole responsibility towards your precious life and your love ones. (I hope that would be your most compelling reason for you) That will lead you to understand the importance and the real value of a Life Insurance Plan for you and your love ones. So, ARE YOU INSURED TODAY?

Insurance, Aiyoh … No need lah

2007-10-08T04:22:00.000-07:00

Insurance! Aiyoh …! No need lah!

Is the phrase above sound familiar? I believe most of us have an experience with insurance companies’ representative, one way or another. They may approach you through telephone calls or they may approach you directly or through friend’s recommendation. Regardless, some of us will immediately engage into our defensive mode with response such as “I’m not interested”, “I don’t believe in insurance”, “I’ve got plenty”, etc. I can understand why people can be very defensive at times. They are just merely frustrated at times by the constant bugging of the insurance reps that may have caught them at the wrong place, wrong time and wrong people. Let’s just understand a little some of the frustrations here that can lead to big disappointment for some insurance reps. (I know how it feels before I became an insurance rep myself). One of the biggest frustrations that I have ever faced was when this particular insurance rep kept bugging me daily for 2 months without fail on his insurance company’s plan. This has caused me to think that this guy don’t have anything else better to do other than to call me daily. The next reason is my own personal opinion – I don’t quite seem to understand the concept of insurance and why I need it. And I think that’s the main factor for not taking up any insurance plan back then even though I was already working.

And why people don’t take up an insurance plan? And why I myself don’t have one back then? The answer to those 2 questions is this – They (including myself) don’t have any insurance plan is simply because they don’t understand the concept & importance of Life Insurance for them. The key phrase here is “They don’t understand”.

Let me ask you, if you don’t understand the concept of driving of a car, without any knowledge at all, would you dare to drive? Will you want to take the risk? I’m sure all your 5 senses will be very alert. But, should you understand the whole concept of driving, the fundamentals and the basic skills of driving (through a proper driving school of course), then it’s different. You will and can drive the car to where ever you want to go.

That’s the same way with a Life Insurance Plan. If today, an insurance rep come and tell you about his or her company’s insurance plan without telling you why you need it, you definitely wouldn’t take up the plan. However, if the insurance rep did a good job not only by doing a fine presentation on his company’s insurance plan but also did a good job by telling you why you need, the importance of having one or more and you understand it well with the compelling reason to have one, you would have act on it and sign it the proposal forms.

If today you understand the concept of Life Insurance well, by now you should own at least one insurance plan. But if you are reading this now, you have understood the importance of a Life Insurance Plan for yourself and you don’t have one, (aside from financial difficulties) – You still don’t understand the concept of Life Insurance yet. (Weird … Huh?)

In Wikipedia, the meaning of Insurance - in law and economics, is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for a premium. Insurer, in economics, is the company that sells the insurance. Insurance rate is a factor used to determine the amount, called the premium, to be charged for a certain amount of insurance coverage. Risk management, the practice of appraising and controlling risk, has evolved as a discrete field of study and practice.
In other words, instead of becoming your own insurance company of which you insured yourselves with your own money (by depleting your savings), you transfer your risk to a real Insurance Company like Allianz and let them insure you by you saving a regular savings (premium) into an insurance plan (In this case, I recommend Allianz – PowerLink Plan).

If you still doubt, let me give you a scenario, if yesterday, you woke up and realized that your body don’t feel good as it normally does. Naturally you’d gone and saw a doctor. The doctor then did a complete medical checkup on you and upon examining, detected a lump on your body. Not wanting to take a risk, your doctor quickly referred you to a specialist doctor and the doctor gave you a thorough medical check up. Finally the specialist doctor confirmed after running some tests and diagnosed you with cancer – lung cancer. The specialist doctor then said “Sir, nowadays, the medical treatment in Malaysia is quite advanced. There is hope for you. The treatment does have quite a fair of success rate. If you want, we can start the treatment immediately. The estimated cost for the whole cancer treatment is RM 150,000.00. ARE YOU READY TO PROCEED?”

For a moment you paused. Probably, you may think, “How on earth can I get the lump sum of RM 150,000 for my treatment?” That’s when your problem may just about to surface and you start asking yourself, “What about my house mortgage? It’s been only been paid for 3 years! What about my two children, Nicky and Randy? They are still young! Will my wife has to look for a job to support the family when I’ m gone?” Questions after questions begin to play hard in your head. It seems, at that moment, there seem to be no hope at all. And at that particular moment, you asked yourself “What am I going to do NOW?”

IF YOU ARE NOT READY to face all that, then you should start thinking NOW while you are still got your health for an insurance plan that can help you and your family. There are 16 life insurance companies available in Malaysia and Allianz is one of them that you can choose from. If you really love your love ones, I urge you to take action immediately after reading this post. Remember, do not procrastinate. It will do you no good. Give your family member the peace of mind with your greatest love letter ever TODAY!

Is Your Love One Insured TODAY?

2007-09-27T02:19:00.000-07:00

Is Your Love One Insured TODAY?

This MTV is based on a real story - The worst plane crash in the history of Korea. After watching this video, towards the end of the video, the victim of the plane crash gave her fiancee, her final gift - The potrait of her fiancee as her act of love for her fiancee.

My questions are :-

1) What is Your Final Gift For Your Love One?

2) Is Your Love One Insured TODAY?

3) Have You Done Your Part Yet?

If you can't answer the 3 Questions completely, then you really need to do something about it.

ACT NOW ! We are here to help you.

John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

God has given His love gift to you, His son, Jesus, for your eternal life. God has already started His Heavenly Insurance Plan for you. Have you got your's yet?

My Business Card & The Company Logos

2007-09-26T04:20:00.000-07:00

A Formal Introduction

Our Corporate Agency &

Principle Company Logos

http://www.bussmalaysia.com/

www.allianz.com.my

Mission Statement

2007-09-26T03:48:00.000-07:00

OUR MISSION AS A FINANCIAL CONSULTANT

"Our MISSION is .....

keeping Families Together

by Providing the Gift of Love,

Peace of Mind,

Financial Protection,

Dignity and A Future

To all our Loved Ones"

Our Purpose, Mission & Core Values

2007-09-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

We are here to serve the public by educating & to create an awareness on the importance of Personal Financial Planning.

Our Purpose:
Our purpose is found in Isaiah 54:2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes."(NIV). We hope that through the internet, we can spread this awareness on Personal Financial Planning as far as it can go.

Our Mission:
Our mission is keeping families together by providing the gift of love, peace of mind, financial protection, dignity and a future to all our loved ones.

Our Core Values:
Our core values are PAMP-Protection, Accumulation, Managing & Preserving Wealth with biblical principles & sound financial advices.

Are You Insured TODAY?

2007-09-25T20:36:00.000-07:00

Dearest Readers;

Greetings! My name is Alvin, the owner of this blog "Are You Insured TODAY?" First and foremost, I would like to thank God for His grace and mercy for enabling me to use this platform to educate & to create an awareness for the public on personal financial planning with the following acronym (PAMP):

P - Protect Your Wealth
A - Accumulate Your Wealth
M - Manage Your Wealth
P - Preserve Your Wealth

This blog will serve as a platform for many readers who are searching for the real reason behind personal financial planning and how this skill and knowledge will help them when the need arises. I have seen a lot of people, from young to old, do not really understand the principle behind personal financial planning particularly in these 4 areas (Protecting, Accumulating, Managing and Preserving their wealth).

It breaks my heart whenever I read in newspaper or watch the news over the television, parents asking for public donation to save their children with health condition for treatment in hospital. It's saddens me when a father and a husband to his child and his wife passed away suddenly leaving both the mother and the child in financial predicament to fend for themselves with heavy bills and debts. All this happened simply because the bread winner of the family may be financial planning illiterate or financial planning ignorant.

But I've seen responsible individual as well who took time to plan out for their financial planning as an act of love to their love ones - their wives, their husbands, children and parents. I've seen a young man, with low earnings plan for his personal financial planning simply because he love his mother so dearly. Let me illustrate with this true story. I call this story with this title - The Greatest Love Gift Of All.

There was this young man and his name was Anandi. This boy came from a poor family. His father left the family when he was very young. He hasn't got much of education and he can't wait to earn his own income so that he could help his mother, who works as a cleaner. One day, our financial planner showed Anandi an insurance plan. After some simple persuasion, Anandi parted the first 2 months premium to start this plan. Not a very big policy, only RM 15,000 policy. It was a Saturday evening. This financial planner would submit Anandi's proposal form back to office on Monday. On Monday morning, this financial planner received a call from Anandi's mother. The old lady said "My son is Anandi, he told me, on Saturday evening that he bought an insurance policy with you?" This financial planner said "Yes ... why?" - Thinking that Anandi's mother has disagreed and objected to his son's decision for taking up this policy. The old lady started crying "..... Can claim ... ?" This financial planner was stunned for a moment and said "What happened? Anything happened to Anandi?" The old lady said "My son met with an accident ... a lorry knocked him down ... my son is ..... dead". This financial planner then said "Auntie, I am going to submit his form this morning and I don't know if my company will pay the claim. I will do my best auntie." The old lady cried even louder "My son said that he loved me and that is why he bought the insurance plan, in case anything happen to him, the money can help me". This financial planner did submit his case that morning and it is true fact that Anandi has paid the premium to effect the policy. Finally, the insurance company did honour the claim. The money was paid to Anandi's mother within a week.

This young man's story is excellent to illustrate the importance for an individual to be sound in his or her personal financial planning. I'm sure the RM 15,000 will at least be able to help Anandi's mother one way or another, probably to clear her debts or to use for her retirement. It does pay handsomely when individuals take time to learn and plan on their personal financial planning as an act of love for their love ones.

Finally, I would like to end here with this beautiful quote by Winston Churchill.

"If I had my way, I would write the word 'insure' over every door of every cottage and upon the blotting book of every man, because I am convinced that for sacrifices that are inconceivably small, families can be secured against catastrophes which otherwise would smash them up forever. It is our duty to arrest the ghastly waste, not merely of human happiness, but of national health and strength which follows when, through the death of the breadwinner, the frail boat in which the fortunes of the family are embarked flounders."

- Winston Churchill

Thank you

Alvin Lai