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Political noise will not affect life insurance sales: Manulife
Jonathan Hekster, the chief executive officer of Manulife Indonesia, foresees a persistently rosy outlook for the life insurance industry despite the political noise during the general election in April, global uncertainty and financial market volatility.
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Jonathan Hekster, the chief executive officer of Manulife Indonesia (Courtesy of/Manulife Indonesia)
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anulife Indonesia chief executive officer Jonathan Hekster foresees a persistently rosy outlook for the life insurance industry despite the political noise of the general election in April, global uncertainty and financial market volatility.
“As one of the oldest foreign life insurance companies in Indonesia with about 2.4 million customers now, we have operated here for more than 33 years. We have faced many uncertain situations and political elections, yet we have been able to keep focusing on our business to fulfill Indonesian financial needs,” Hekster told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
He said that regardless of any situation, risks in life could come anytime, anywhere. "This is something that people need to be aware of and we will help them to anticipate those risks," he said.
Hekster added that Indonesian Life Insurance Association data show that the penetration of the industry was only about 7.1 percent of the 260 million population. Hence, there is still huge potential, especially due to the steady rise in the number of middle-class and wealthy people.
He said that this year, Manulife had launched three insurance products: Education Protector (MEP), a regular-pay unit-linked insurance product to help parents plan for their children’s education, MiTreasure Optimax Protection (MiTOP) and Manulife Prime Assurance (MPA) designed to protect high net-worth customers and prepare them for legacy planning through comprehensive life insurance.
Unfortunately, he added, he could not disclose the unaudited financial results for this year.
“But last year our new business premium increased by 19 percent to Rp 4.4 trillion [$314 million], our consolidated comprehensive income almost tripled to Rp 2.6 trillion and our risk-based capital position was 582 percent, way over the regulatory minimum requirement.” (vin/bbn)
