”Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India as a brand is strong, but is in a state of flux in an emerging environment,’ observed its Executive Director (Marketing) Mr Roy Choudhury.

Delivering the inaugural address at the 9{+t}{+h} LUGI (Life Underwriters Guild of India) Convention, scheduled between September 23 and 25 at the Codissia Trade Fair Complex here, Mr Choudhury called upon the delegates to keep pace with the changes. ‘If agents are not suitably equipped with knowledge, there cannot be any standard in this industry,’ he said.

Hailing the dynamic agent force and the Insurance Regulator’s role in ushering in new concepts in the IC 33 model, he said ‘such education and awareness would help advice clients better.’

He however conceded that as an organisation, the Corporation would need to look out and beyond. “Lot of Corporate democracy is required in our organisation,’ he said without dwelling much on this.

Emphasising the importance of garnering the talent pool to emerge stronger, Mr Choudhury said ‘there is a need for managerial intervention to harness the talent. There could be hiccups en route, but we need to overcome this and influence the environment. We will have to move fast as there has been a total degrowth in the life insurance business. Though the Corporation still holds a 72 per cent market share, we have lost some business to our competitors. Agents will have to trained strongly,’ he added.

The Corporation is proposing a national roll out towards segmentation of the agency force from October he said and explained that there were four groups of agents such as Life Mitra to Life Adviser, Financial Adviser and Wealth Manager.

‘Today, chartered accountants, engineers and other professionals are our agents and a good number of them are doing great job. It is therefore necessary for us to redefine ourselves when we look at this. Confidence building is necessary for there is lack of confidence in our organisation,’ he said and urged the participants to sell the products ethically, and work towards strengthening the reputation of the Corporation and not ‘for image’.

‘Don’t misguide the policy holder,’ he said and urged them to work efficiently, effectively to ensure strong relationship and emerge stronger