Selling Life Insurance Solutions in the Middle East – Why, When and How
Jeremy Young of Transamerica Life (Bermuda)
May 29, 2023
The final panel discussion of the Hubbis HNW Insurance Summit on May 3 in Dubai saw a small panel of experts debate the right approach to selling HNW life insurance solutions in the UAE and further afield in the Middle East. This is a short summary of selected key insights and opinions from the assembled experts.
Chair
Jeremy Young
Global Head of Distribution and Product Strategy
Transamerica Life (Bermuda)
Panel Members
Tim Denton
Executive Vice President, Head of Wealth Structuring
Habib Bank AG Zurich
Simon Price
CEO
DIFC Insurance Association (DIFCIA)
Priyanka Roy Jivani
Partner
1291 Group
Key Observations and Insights in Brief
Sell advice, don’t sell products, but make sure your compensation protocols are based on the client outcomes.
Advice is all about understanding needs and promoting solutions, not pushing products to address what you might (erroneously) think fit the client’s requirements.
The wealth market in the region is evolving into a more professional environment and the complacent type of ‘copy and paste’ model of the wealth management advisors in the past is no longer relevant or indeed workable.
Today, the conversations need to be about the clients and the gaps that exist in their planning compared with their objectives and hopes; in this way, appropriate and value-added solutions can be devised. Talk about client needs, take a holistic view of the clients and their families and their assets, and then move to discussions about the future liquidity need and the estate and legacy plans that clients have, or their hopes that are not yet properly catered for in relevant, well-devised structures.
With wealthy families in the Middle East, the family wealth and the family businesses are usually inextricably linked and in a far closer relationship than in Western economies, hence advisors need to appreciate the local culture and be empathetic to the region’s practices and history, whilst devising solutions that fit the modern and increasingly global world.
As people live longer, much better planning is required, so the discussions and solutions must evolve. The way the [wealth] industry should talk about and should approach life insurance as a concept is not a life insurance product per se, but around future liquidity, cash values, and so forth.
The older the clients are, the less they actually need in terms of cover, as their offspring are already settled in their own working and family lives, hence the need for cover can in their later years be significantly reduced.
Overcoming the clients’ natural reluctance to talk about issues of ageing and mortality is central to the development of the relationship and the proposition. As one export remarked, talking about building wealth and aspirations are fine, but talking about issues of future health and longevity and then about issues of legacy and succession are far more sensitive matters.
In an increasingly complex and increasingly regulated world, plans and policies must be reviewed regularly to ensure they remain relevant to the individuals and their families and viable in practice
Chief Commercial Officer at Transamerica Life (Bermuda)
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