AAI Life starts 2012 in top gear

A niche player in the field of insurance for over a decade in Sri Lanka, Asian Alliance Insurance (AAI) continues to forge ahead, keeping up and even surpassing those who’ve previously held strong in the industry. At an interview, AAI General Manager – Marketing & Sales Chula Hettiarachchi revealed the record performance of AAI Life in the 1st Quarter of 2012, the driving force behind their continuing success and plans for the future.

Here are some key excerpts from the interview:

AAI General Manager – Marketing & Sales General Manager Chula Hettiarachchi

Q: AAI Life has recorded an exceptional overall business growth of 30% over last year. Your comments?

A: Yes, not only in the first quarter 2012, AAI Life has always maintained at least double the rate of average industry growth year over year, for the last several years. The new business growth represented by the first year premiums in 2011 against the year 2010 too was 32% against an industry growth of 11%.

Q: Are there any special reasons behind AAI’s continued success?

A: It’s a result of a well planned operational process, backed by strong principles of business. We at AAI Life strongly believe on the fundamental values of Life insurance, where ‘protection’ comes first against ‘investment returns’.

We honour the fact that the clients have much better options in the market when it comes to ‘high investment returns’ rather than investing their hard earned money in Life insurance. We are specialists in ‘protection’ and our mission is accepting risks with responsibility on behalf of our valued clients, but not exposing our insurance clients to investment risks in a highly volatile investment market.

However, promoting ‘protection tools’ is extremely difficult we know, as compared to selling ‘investment tools,’ but our professionals in the marketing and sales teams believe it as our social responsibility to do the ‘right’ thing against the ‘easy’ thing. They take the difficult path to explain the selected clients the core values of Life insurance, who buy with a great understanding.

This strong bond of ‘protection; lasts long, giving exceptional benefits to the clients, sales team and to all stakeholders of the organisation. This is the foundation of our continued success.  

Q: Any other achievements besides exceptional business growth?

A:  Yes, a lot, most important are the client satisfaction measurements. Our client retention rates are the best in the industry, currently exceeding 75%. The plans are to raise this bar to international standards exceeding 95% in our current business plan.

Our client portfolio represents the highest premium value in the life industry; current average monthly premium by a client exceeds Rs. 5,000. Our plan 2012-2016 should bring this value above Rs. 10,000. The claim settlement rate is high as 98%. Just 2% of the total value only remains unpaid due to very unavoidable circumstances. We honour our promises.

Q: Any special plans for the future?

A: AAI is now a member of the giant Softlogic Group, owners of the Asiri Group of Hospitals. With the new synergies, we plan to take the leadership in the healthcare insurance sector in the near future. It’s great; we are now geared to cater to the demands of a new sector, expanding the horizons of ‘protection’.

Q: How do you see the future challenges in this highly-competitive industry?

A: Our economy is developing fast, and we have been within the first three Asian nations in GDP growth rate for the last few years. Per-capita income almost doubled in a short span of time; educational standards too do match most developed nations of the world.

‘Family protection’ is a part of our culture. You can’t expect a better market for Life insurance business, if you cater to the real need of these people.

As we maintain our market approach of positioning the core values of Life insurance, educating the public through professional advisors on unmatched benefits this great concept offer, and as AAI honours long-term business ethics and disciplines against short-term business gains, I personally do not see much challenge in the future market situations, until and unless most others follow the same good strategy.