Keeping Customers for Programmed withdrawal

Image credited to Telegraph

Working against the tenacity of an insurance agent is a herculean   task, my boss always say that it is difficult to beat the tenacity of an insurance agent and a Jehovah witness, that should have been a long study over a period.

In a recent per-retirement workshop in Lagos, we argued that what gives the insurance company is the fact they enjoy a mass market.

In any forum organized by National Pension Commission, Insurance companies through their agents always target retirees, but Pension Fund Administrators were at sea at what to do.

When we begin to discuss on the way forward, I told them that the problem we had with the agents is that they have a mass market, in explanation, I told them that they can walk to any customer and market their product, but for Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) they need to ascertain if the customer in question is with the Pension Fund Administrators or not. Therefore PFAs are only opportune to talk to these customers when they walk up to your stand, identifying themselves as your customers will you able to talk to them on the advantages of choosing programmed over annuity.

So what will PFAs do in the event of these, is to continuously market the programmed withdrawal option as against the annuity option not at the point of retirement but at every encounter with any customer. There is also the urgent to reveal every necessary information  about the options, then taking time to sell the programmed withdrawal option thereafter.

There is also the need for the controlling body, National Pension Commission to effectively check the unhealthy practices of these insurance agents as noted  by one of the PFAs in a recent forum in Lagos. Reacting the National Pension Commission representative noted that they are working on that and also on setting aside a certain percentage of fund  about 5 percent , to be contributed by the players in the scheme, to take care of retirees in programmed withdrawal that exhausted their fund but are still living.

But the basic fact , insurance agents are using in selling the annuity option is the they will receive more pension monthly, therefore it becomes imperative for National Pension Commission to deliberate on the need to pay additional lump sum for customers on programmed withdrawal whose income has grown considerable that will ensure more customers on the programmed withdrawal option.

Odunze Reginald is the Lead Consultant, Chareg Consulting, a social media consultant and social marketing consultant , you can visit our twitter anchor @regydunze, find us on Facebook @ Reginald odunze and reginaldodunze.com, at google+ @ Reginald Odunze and at Linkedin@reginald odunze.