PAAI Continues To Promote The Importance Of Insurance As Customer Financial Risk Protection

PAAI press conference in Jakarta, Monday 14 March. (Didi Kurniawan/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Association of Indonesian Insurance Agents (PAAI) continues to encourage the competence and professionalism of insurance agents so that important messages about insurance as future financial protection can be socialized and well received in the community.

For this purpose, PAAI will always be present as a forum for agents to be more professional in providing the best service to customers. Founder of PAAI, Wong Sandy Surya said, since its establishment in 2016, PAAI which is entering its 6th year will continue to hold various programs to educate insurance agents to be more professional.

"Our tagline is 'profession for the benefit of customers'. To support this we will make various programs, such as opening special classes, which will be filled by a training team who are experienced practitioners," said Sandy, at the PAAI press conference in Jakarta, Monday 14 March.

Given the importance of insurance and the magnitude of the benefits provided, Sandy hopes that more agents will join the PAAI forum. So that together we strive with the same rhythm in increasing the contribution and participation of the insurance industry in building the economy.

Insurance Literacy

PAAI Ambassador, Deddy Karyanto said, PAAI is also committed to continuing to educate the Indonesian people that protection is important. Especially in the current pandemic conditions, having insurance is a necessity because insurance can protect customers' financial risks in the future.

Citing data from the Indonesian Life Insurance Association (AAJI), the life insurance industry has protected as many as 65.56 million Indonesians in 2021. This figure grew by 2.9 percent compared to 2020, with a total sum insured of Rp4,360.81 trillion.

Meanwhile, the total claims and benefits paid by the life insurance industry amounted to Rp. 159.43 trillion. This includes COVID-19 claims, which are tangible evidence of the life insurance industry's commitment in general.

AAJI noted that from March 2020 to December 2021, the life insurance industry had paid claims related to COVID-19 amounting to Rp8.82 trillion, which is proof of the industry's commitment to protecting the public.

Based on data obtained from AAJI, in the period 2016 to October 2021, the life insurance industry has paid claims and benefits related to unit-linked products of more than IDR 335 trillion for 4.9 million policies and 5.5 million the insured.

This illustrates that there are so many parties who benefit from unit-linked product ownership in the life insurance industry. In addition, the size of the benefit payment also shows that the life insurance industry is a liquid industry, so that the Indonesian people should not hesitate to buy insurance products.

As a certified Financial Planner, Deddy added that the role of literacy by agents is very important. In this case, the agent as a financial advisor must be able to convince customers or prospective customers to never regret even though they continue to pay premiums, even though disaster does not occur. Because the true purpose of insurance is part of risk management or providing an umbrella before it rains. This must be continuously disseminated to the community.

"Education is the most important part for the community and our job as a forum for insurance agents throughout Indonesia is to make people understand more that insurance is not just a savings account," said Deddy.

The Importance of Protection

Bonita Larope, practitioner and certified Financial planner said, there are still many of our people who have not thought about the need for protection. This is because they think that other people can get chronic diseases, accidents, fires, etc., but they don't, because they are young, healthy, diligent in exercising, being careful, etc.

He made an analogy, should have insured the vehicle before the accident, before it was stolen. And insure your home before a fire occurs, insure yourself before being hospitalized or suffering from a chronic illness.

"If we care about our family and loved ones, then we will decide to have protection from now on. Don't let the family get hit by a financial disaster because they have to bear costs that are not only as big as our assets, they can even be greater than the value of our assets," said Bonita.

Customer Experience

Nila from Jakarta explained that her husband's insurance claim was immediately disbursed when his husband died. Likewise, his health insurance premiums and his children were released.

"Having health insurance in which there is a unit link program is really very helpful. We not only get protection benefits but also investment benefits," said Nila.

Marceline Yolanda Widjaya from Jakarta also shared a similar experience. When her husband was diagnosed with cancer and had to do therapy in Singapore at a very expensive cost. Lucky to have critical illness protection, the insurance company provides claim compensation of Rp. 1 billion which was liquid at that time for medical expenses.

And when he died, he received a claim worth IDR 1 billion again. Likewise, his insurance policy and his children get premium waivers.

"I am very grateful to know a professional agent who offers products that fit your needs and help with all claims," concluded Marceline.