Want to be an insurance agent manager? Then show an annual payslip of more
than 120,000 yuan (15,171 U.S. dollars) and you may well be.
Shanghai United MetLife Insurance Co is busy wooing recruits to join its
agent team by stating as one of its job requirements - an average monthly income
of 10,000 yuan (1,265 dollars) in the previous year - for applicants
interested in the insurer's "Top Gun" program for agent managers.
The position attracted 628 applicants, more than 40 percent of whom are
master degree holders.
Only 15 applicants are expected to be chosen after making the final interview
and join the company where they will undergo training which is claimed to cost
the firm 50,000 dollars for each person.
The joint venture between MetLife, the biggest U.S. life insurer, and
Shanghai Alliance is going all out to grab a bigger market share as a latecomer
in the Shanghai market by building up its talent pool for a career which is
shunned by some financial professionals in the country.
"Insurance agents are professionals with ample financial background that win
respect in overseas markets," said Hua Qi, who gave up agent jobs when he
graduated with a master's degree in finance. "However, it is a different picture
where bankers are more considered as elites and insurance is eyed as a job with
low market access."
United MetLife's move came in a market where an insurance agent, or policy
salesperson, is somehow perceived as a an alternative job avenue for lay-off
worker.
Complaints from policy holders that agents haven't explained policies clearly
enough and causing them problems when they seek compensation is one main
headache for the industry.
United MetLife is not the first insurer to invest money to build up an elite
agent team. Firms like Manulife-Sinochem and Citic-Prudential have already
started similar schemes to build up professional agent manager pools.
Manulife-Sinochem, the affiliate of Manulife, the world's fourth biggest
life insurer, in August 2002 started to build up its elite agents in China and
picked 25 among 600-plus applicants that year.
Such market-driven moves also coincide with an attempt from domestic
regulators, both central and local, to enhance the qualification of the
country's policy agents amid a booming insurance market.
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