“Let’s see how we can ‘kill’ this client”.

“How much money can we suck out from this client’s wealth?”

“What is your budget Mr. Client? I would like to know how much money you can afford to pay into my wallet.”

“This insurance plan comes with FREE insurance coverage and yet it helps you to invest for retirement (who cares that in this plan you likely have no coverage and no money for retirement when you are old). The best of all the commission is so good”

“The projected return is 8%pa and early maturity termination is as short as 2 years! Common old lady, don’t think so much because my wallet is waiting for you to invest!”

These are possibility the common thoughts from an unethical salesperson. These days, they shared the same names as many other professional advisers, namely Personal Financial Consultant, Financial Adviser, Wealth Manager and so on. It becomes almost impossible to know who are the sheeps and who are the goats.

When I come into this industry, I was attracted to it due to my interest. I was already competent in investment but it only takes me a few months into the industry to gain my competency in life insurance. Perhaps due to my academic training, it was not difficult to understand abstract concepts which many academically challenged advisers might have. I know of insurance advisers in the industry for many years yet cannot understand simple concepts such as risk transfers because this is an academically abstract concept.

However, what keeps me worrying was my idealism that I should only provide unbias and objective advice. This is hard to most people and I do not want to paint a rosy picture of what that means. Many very good products are also those that rewards the adviser least. For products that has a higher-commission, they are usually already sold by advisers way before these clients come to see me. 99% of the time, my clients who consulted me are those who already bought some kind of product before. Therefore it is always the case of me helping to plug holes into the client’s insurance portfolio which tends to generate low commission. For those who have not got into ILP in a big way, I will recommend unit trust. However the short-term commission from unit trusts is pathetic as compared with ILP. To put it simply, I was worried about my bottomline. Having 3 dependends is not joke! I know full well that there are many existing advisers and many yet-to-be advisers watching whether will I survive or become “realistic” rather then ideal. One client who engaged me as his adviser recently asked me this question very frankly: “Are you still remaining idealistic or have become realistic?”

Today in my firm’s business meeting in which all advisers gathered at Promiseland, I was pleasantly surprised to know that I won a prize because I was the top in sales for life insurance in the month of January this year! I feel that my idealism has become a reality. Being unbiased and objective does pay. Never did I thought that selling disability income, term insurance, hospitalization plans and a small number of whole life policies can earn me the best performer in life insurance sales! This is not to mention that I have been taken a ride by so many clients who consulted me for free only to “disappear” soon after. Then I realized one thing is that word of mouth does spread. Even people who don’t know me referred clients to me. Truly amazing and I thank you all for the support.