Amy Wat Chi MeiAIA Hong Kong

Ms Wat’s professionalism shines through in the quality of her business. She boasts an impressive record of 100% policy persistency rate over the last five years. In the past eight years, the only year in which she fell short of her high standards was 2012 when her persistency rate was 99.88%.

As a result of her professionalism, she has received LIMRA’s International Quality Award, which honours agents for excellent production and outstanding persistency of life insurance business as signs of quality business, for nine consecutive years; and Life Underwriters Association of Hong Kong (LUAHK)’s Quality Advisor Award, which recognises advisers’ professional ethics and dedication to the provision of excellent services, for eight consecutive years.

Ms Wat is also a model of consistency. The year 2017 marked her 11th year in AIA and also her achievement as an 11-year MDRT Qualifying and Life member.

By all accounts, she has the potential and ability to perform at an even higher level of productivity and achievement. But she holds true to her vision of being a model professional in the insurance industry, as well as living the MDRT ‘whole person’ concept. She also sees it as a mission to spread financial knowledge.

With Hong Kong as a gateway to mainland China, many agents have shifted their market focus to serve high net worth PRC clients. But she has chosen to continue to serve Hong Kong’s lowerto middle-class segments as she believes that all classes in society should be able to enjoy the highest quality of insurance services.

Family is also a top priority for her as a mum to two young daughters aged three and five. To ensure that she spends sufficient quality time with her kids and family, she limits her week’s work schedule to nine half day slots.

In 2017, she helped in the creation of the ‘Premier Lady’ group, which consists of mums in her district, to promote work-family balance. In addition to the group, her active contributions to others include being a senior premier builder in the AIA Premier Academy to coach new joiners, speaking at LUAHK’s MDRT day to inspire others in the industry, participating in mentorship programmes and serving as a certified financial planner ambassador at the Institute of Financial Planners of Hong Kong to promote professional financial planning to private companies and the public.

Nguyen Thi Thanh LichManulife Vietnam

Four years into her budding career as a life insurance adviser with Manulife Vietnam (MLV) and Ms Nguyen is already an incredible success, considered as one of MLV bancassurance adviser team’s superstars.

She has emerged as MLV’s top adviser with the highest APE for the past two consecutive years. In 2017, she held the company record for three consecutive quarters as its top APE producer and also registered the highest number of cases over VND100m($4,395). Her production alone accounts for close to 60% of her bank branch’s performance.

Ms Nguyen is also well loved by both colleagues and bank staff. Not only is she a role model for her peers at MLV, she is also a helpful coach for the bank staff. As a top producer, she shares tirelessly and selflessly about her experience to inspire other MLV advisers and also accepts invitations from various Techcombank branch directors to speak to bank staff about the concepts of life insurance and how to promote it effectively.

Her confidence, sincerity and a great passion for life insurance are what set her apart. She is well-versed in the product portfolio and features of other insurers in the market, which enables her to compare the various options available to customers to assist their decision making.

Her aim is to provide customers with a full picture of the choices they have and help them to make the best possible choice to be financially protected, even when they do not choose MLV.

Ms Nguyen’s decision to embark on a career as a life insurance adviser came about when she saw how her sister struggled to make ends meet as the sole breadwinner of the family with two kids when her brother-in-law got into an accident years ago without any insurance coverage. Thus, her passion for the industry was ignited as she strives to serve customers with all her heart to assist them in getting financially protected.

With over 10% y-o-y growth in number of policies and 64% y-o-y growth in APE production in 2017, the future is bright for this young star.

Selena WangAIA Hong Kong

Ms Wang graduated from New York University Law School, one of the top law schools in the US, and qualified to practise law both in the PRC and New York State. She was a practising lawyer in one of the most prestigious law firms in Asia - King & Wood Mallesons – for six years, before deciding to embark on a career in the insurance industry in October 2016.

In her previous job, she advised Chinese listed companies on overseas big ticket M&A transactions, and helped foreign companies to invest in China.

Being familiar with law and investment, she found the role of insurance adviser a perfect fit for her skillsets. As a lawyer, her mission was to mitigate corporate clients’ investment risks, while her current role as an insurance agent is of a similar nature, but for family and individual clients.

Her rapid rise to success was all the more impressive due to the multiple roles she fulfilled in 2017.

She became a mother for the first time and as a first-year adviser she achieved MDRT Top of the Table honours. Her portfolio of business was not only limited to life insurance, but also group medical and Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) accounts to corporate clients.

She also completed the executive development programme of AIA and began recruiting and training new colleagues. All of her newly recruited agents graduated from prestige colleges and had an average of over 10 years’ work experience.

Ms Wang puts her legal background and network to good use to raise the bar and the image of the industry. Aside from sharing her knowledge with other agents to help them understand the legal implications of different financial products and certain policy terms, she has also invited experienced lawyers and friends to share their views on and knowledge of various topics including legal structures and tax issues of wealth inheritance.

She also organises personal image management and artwork collection seminars for agents in AIA. These seminars are open to potential recruits too, to enhance the image of the profession as professional advisers, rather than merely sales people.

As the vice president of NYU Alumni Club in South China, she regularly organises financial seminars, green-day activities for alumni in Hong Kong and Southern China, and also helps alumni and friends with career advice and charity fundraisings.

A woman with many hats, she continues to push herself to be extremely efficient in managing her work, family and social roles.

Tan Lay SeongGreat Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Bhd

For over 23 years, Mr Tan has endeavoured to create an agency environment with a healthy atmosphere. While much has been done, he strongly believes that the best is yet to come. He is a firm believer that one can always strike a balance between personal sales and agency management. Despite being one of the top agency leaders, he is also an MDRT Life Member.

He has developed and created a management system consisting of 32 sub-systems that monitor activity, lifetime learning strategies, marketing and sales as well as recruitment and career planning in order to groom agents to become well-rounded and highly-productive in their career.

In addition to setting high standards in his personal sales and leading his agency to great heights, he has manged to groom 31 group sales leaders.

Always ready and willing to share his experience, he has spoken at multiple forums including international conferences such as the Worldwide Chinese Life Insurance Congress and International Dragon Award (IDA) conventions. He has also authored three books to share his vision to raise the social status of insurance practitioners. He hopes that one day the profession of a life insurance adviser could be a dream job for everyone.

Mr Tan’s long list of accolades in 2017 alone – including being named champion of the Akard Award Builder awarded by the National Association of Malaysian Life Insurance and Family Takaful Advisors (NAMLIFA), receiving the Master Leader Award in Great Eastern, and grooming over 40 Supremacy Qualifiers in the company - is a testament to his leadership.

Even with so much on his plate, he continues to give back to society. He conducts University & Youth Elite Training Camp for youngsters before they enter the working field, to instil positivity and inculcate in them the need to take responsibility for planning their own career path. Over the years, some of these participants have started their own successful businesses and many of them are doing well in the corporate world. His contribution to society was also recognised when he was nominated and shortlisted as one of the finalists in last year’s 2nd Asia Trusted Life Agents and Advisers Award 2017 for the Corporate and Social Responsibility Category.

To Mr Tan, one of his motivations and also a core value is that he sees life insurance as a lifechanging career that helps both the advisers and the life assured’s family. He sees life insurance as a support pillar for society as it helps people when they need it the most.

Agnes NgPrudential Assurance Company Singapore

With just a year of managerial experience under her belt and seven agents in her team, Ms Ng has received several accolades recognising her success and accomplishments. She was the first-runner up associate financial services manager in Prudential Assurance Company Singapore in 2017. Her team also achieved the Million Dollar Agency Award for exceeding $1m in production.

Prior to becoming an agency leader, she had over 13 years of experience as an adviser with Prudential where she achieved multiple awards and promotions. She was promoted to master financial consultant, the highest rank as an adviser in the company, and she was also conferred the titles of wealth manager and corporate benefits manager, reflecting her achievements as a personal producer with extraordinary results across multiple areas.

But her dream of magnifying her efforts through grooming a team of professionals, who in turn can reach out to help more people by providing the right financial planning saw her make the switch from a successful adviser to agency leader.

Ms Ng holds a clear vision to recruit a team of high quality professionals and feels immense pride in having groomed and developed winners who have gone on to achieve their own awards. Every member in her team qualified for Quality Club (Prudential Singapore’s recognition for the top 30%), including those who joined less than 12 months previously. Three of the seven in her team made it to the top 14% in Prudential with one of them achieving MDRT, the Premier Silver Award (top 0.9% in Prudential Singapore) and the Top 10 Rookie Award which recognises the accomplishment of new agents within their first two years of service in the company.

But more important than awards, Ms Ng advocates quality financial advice to clients to ensure gaps are identified and actions taken. She walks the talk with a 100% policy persistency rate in 2017. Through leading by example, her group persistency rate is also an impressive high of 99%.

Her commitment to continuous learning and upgrading can also be seen through the professional certifications she acquired in 2017, such as Certified Will Planner, Trust Planning for Insurance Practitioners, Business Succession Planning and the completion of Agency Leader Mantra Course.

Divya TusnialTata AIA Life Insurance, India

Ms Tusnial’s incredible transformation from an ordinary housewife and mother of two daughters in a traditional Indian family to a high-flying insurance professional who has achieved five MDRTs, one COT and three TOTs from 2008 to 2017 saw her crowned as Insurance Agent of the Year at last year’s 2nd Asia Trusted Life Agents & Advisers Awards.

She has continued to fly the flag high. Her performance increased by five-fold as she produced over five times the TOT requirement in 2017. She is also a recipient of LIMRA International Quality Award for her excellent record of maintaining inforce business.

Since her win, she has been featured in various publications including MDRT’s official publication Round the Table, the country’s leading newspaper Times of India and the country’s leading business news channel ET Now (Economic Times).

Ms Tusnial has also embraced the responsibility that comes with being a winner by continuing to step up to contribute to the insurance community and to give back to society.

Working in a traditional male-dominated society and being a mother to two daughters could be considered by some as a handicap to setting and achieving big goals. But Ms Tusnial does not allow herself these excuses as she firmly believes in demonstrating high performance. Thus, she continues to share her journey and success formulae across the country and even internationally to inspire other agents and especially women.

She regularly conducts ‘Hello Divya’ classes for all MDRT aspirants on the first of every month in her home town of Kolkata, India. She has been doing this since January 2017 with 35 fresh participants in each batch. Over 14 months, she has directly mentored over 490 MDRT aspirants.

She also gives back to society to touch the lives of others despite her busy schedule. Her work in this area started in Gokul, a small village of mythological significance in Mathura district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. She often pays visits to monitor the progress of these projects including planting and maintaining 200 trees to help with afforestation, setting up a children’s playground with basic amenities for under-privileged children, and sponsoring the marriages of four female orphans and supporting them in setting up their homes.

Tay Kah LokAXA Insurance, Singapore

Throughout his five-year career as an adviser, Mr Tay found that clients and the people he met asked him similar questions. He figured that the best way to help his clients and the community was to film the answers in a series of videos so that others could access the knowledge and information they required 24/7.

That led to the creation of MONEYMAP, where he filmed a series of three-minute educational videos revolving around financial literacy for the benefit of the general public. In 2017, he produced 22 such videos.

Utilising the power of social media he has shared his videos and informative financial articles on various platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn. One of his videos, regarding Singapore Armed Forces group term insurance, clocked over 10,000 views on his Facebook page.

Through the exposure of his content and brand online, and by regularly keeping his clients updated via channels such as WhatsApp broadcast group, he has instilled greater confidence and trust in his professionalism.

Many of his clients have left five-star reviews and testimonials on his Facebook page and many have readily volunteered and participated in the production of his client video testimonial.

The combination of initiatives focused on creating value for the community has elevated his business model from push to a client-attracting pull model with clear measurable outcomes. Thirty per cent of his business is initiated by existing clients, 100% of his referrals are given to him without prompting and the number of cold prospects writing to him to request a consultation has jumped by 300%. From the leads generated, he successfully closes about 50% of them.

His efforts have not gone unnoticed. He was named by his company as AXA social ambassador for 2018 because of his active and consistent contribution in the digital scene. He has also selflessly shared his experience. He was selected by the head of distribution to share his digital journey in a video that was broadcasted at a directors’ forum and he has also shared his ideas and philosophy with fellow advisers on internal platforms. Outside of his company, he has been invited to volunteer and share his knowledge on financial literacy to students.

Antonia Lucrecia NicdaoPhilam Life, Philippines

Mrs Nicdao started her career in the insurance industry in 1975. She was inspired to become an insurance agent after meeting Lulu Del Mundo, another luminary of the insurance industry.

Over 43 years in the industry, Mrs Nicdao has changed the lives of many women who were just like her – wives and mothers yearning to provide a better life for their family. With her gentle and motherly ways, she nurtured housewives to become top producers.

Mrs Nicdao is a district manager of Nicdao Associates, an insurance agency of Philam. At 82 years old she continues to be passionate about her role as a positive example in the company.

Due to an eye condition many years ago, she does not have her full eyesight anymore. But she has not allowed the limitations of age and health affect her commitment as a district manager. Her agency is the landmark office of the company in the east of Manila which is an emerging and bustling area.

She oversees 113 advisers and nine leaders and has had the experience of developing new agencies. She continues to attract dynamic new people to embrace the career as an adviser.

Even as an octogenarian, she continues to win accolades and awards. In 2017, she achieved the following recognition: top district manager for region I of Manila, gold awardee for corporate solution, premier awardee as a district and for her direct unit and GAMA awardee (IMA-Gold).

She has a way of making people feel special and loved. She inspires people with the way she cares for them and the way she helps them with their concerns, whether personal or professional. She is always on top of any situation and is always ready to help and understand them like her own children.

Last year, her son Eric Nicdao, who is her codistrict manager, was invited by the company to become the chief agency officer. He brings with him the values and excellence that his mother has inculcated in him to lead the agency force of Philam Life and to become a leading player in the Philippines

Citibank, Hong Kong

The AIA-Citi partnership was signed as an exclusive distribution agreement for a 15- year period from 2014 to 2029. The two firms have a shared vision of becoming the best bancassurance player in Hong Kong, recognised for its excellence in serving customers’ insurance needs across the region, with the best people and platform in the industry.

The partnership stands out in several ways, including the provision of total wealth management solutions to customers through a multidimensional approach to bancassurance. Both firms are devoted to embedding insurance solutions across all AIA-Citi wealth management platforms to serve its customers’ needs, making its life insurance partnership an integral proposition in the banking environment.

The partnership also drives a holistic cultural evolution for positive, long-term change through innovative coaching strategies for all job functions in the bank. This ensures that the sales mind-set is focused on looking after customers’ needs by providing solutions that meet the needs and the budget of customers.

AIA-Citi have jointly developed unique and specific programmes that leverage expertise from both sides of the partnership. Other than in-depth sales training, AIA insurance best practices have been included in Citi’s market-leading total wealth management (TWM) advisory model, which has strengthened banking staff insurance planning capabilities and driven considerable results over the year. TWM was launched in March 2017 with quarterly themes and sales ideas provided to relationship managers (RM) for cross-selling insurance to Citigold clients. TWM has seen the active investment and insurance client base grown by 34% in 2017.

The partnership employs a three-pronged focus (shareholders, customers and people) on delivering exceptional results across the board to outperform competitors in 2017, with a focus on long-term development and sustainability.

Best value was achieved for both companies’ shareholders by achieving consistent business growth since partnership, with impressive y-o-y growth. AIA-Citi has recorded an 84% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since 2014. Thanks to the strength of the partnership, AIA-Citi HK is the best performing bancassurance player with highest growth by annual net premium (ANP) in the market.

The new initiatives introduced have delivered a more positive customer experience. Initiatives include a standardised ‘Relationship Manager Total Wealth KYC’ with four questions as part of total wealth advisory to facilitate needs-based conversation instead of product-selling.

The partnership’s holistic cultural evolution has also led to vastly improved performance across both partners. In addition, according to the 2017 AIA Employee Engagement Survey result, AIA-Citi partnership team’s score has improved from 4.23 points to 4.91 out of 5.

Cathay Life Insurance, Taiwan

Cathay Life Insurance was founded in 1962 and has nearly 8m policyholders, which represents a third of the island’s population. It was the only financial institution in Taiwan to make it to the list of global Fortune 500 in 2017. Despite its success, it continues to place a great emphasis on the welfare and development of its agency force.

It made two observations concerning agents. First, it noted that the number of highly effective insurance agents is dwindling due to retirement. Second, the average Taiwanese employee clocks 2,034 annual working hours, which ranks as the sixth highest in the world. To speak with breadwinners, insurance agents need to visit at night or on weekends. This makes it hard for agents to sign up new customers or maintain a work-life balance.

Hence in 2017, Cathay Life Insurance systemised the ‘AGILE’ project and launched its four main undertakings: upgrading agent’s competency (AGency); integrating a support platform (Integration); training team leaders (Leadership); and applying efficient tools (Efficiency).

The purpose of the project was to implant agile DNA in agents to raise their competiveness and strengthen training and marketing abilities, thereby achieving work-life balance. It also focused on shifting away from one-to-one marketing to the more efficient one-to-many worksite marketing during regular working hours.

Through programmes and tools such as microlearning and e-learning management system, worksite matching services between external companies and suitable agents and a mentor programme, AGILE helped to upgrade agents’ marketing skills and supervisors’ leadership and training skills and improved work efficiency.

The project produced the following results: a 95% satisfaction rate with AGILE courses; a 93% certification passing rate; an approval rating increase of nearly 5% after the project compared with before; a 5% increase in the activities of participants in AGILE compared to non-participants; an 830% growth in insurance premium revenues from new worksite contracts; and a 211% increase in the number of cases. In addition, 13 lectures attended by worksite clients were held to discuss specific topics, with a satisfaction rate of 96%.

Over 4,000 worksites were developed and the customer base grew by 24,000 (with 72% new customers).

As a result, Cathay Life Insurance ranked first in the industry in total premiums ($25.61bn, 22.5% market share), FYP ($7.8bn, 18.5%market share), and FYPE ($2.62bn, 21.1% market share).

*The currency exchange rate between $ and NTD was calculated at 1:30.