Are you insured ... enough?

Miss SB: Hello

R: Hello, This is R

Miss SB: Hello R, This is S - Do you remember me? I was your class teacher.

R: Errr. Hmmm. (Thinking to himself - even if she was my class teacher, how in hell did she get my cell phone no. and what is this about) Not really ma'm

Miss SB: In 1989, when you were in the 5th standard, I was your class teacher. I moved out one year later. So its not a surprise that you don't remember me. Recently I've joined MNYLC as a Life Insurance Advisor (Read Agent/Broker/etc). I am running for broker of the year and am among the top Advisors in the country for MNYLC.

R: (Thinking to himself - impressive ... then maybe MNYLC has only 10-15 advisors and she may be the best among the worst.)

Miss SB: I would like to talk to you about your life insurance needs. Can I come and see you today?

R: That might not be easy. I work at XYZ. (Thinking to himself - Hope the distance factor saves me)

Miss SB: Oh, that's ok. If its ok with you, we can meet up around 3pm.

R: Let me see ma'm. I think I'm busy this afternoon with a few important meetings (that's the only thing R does these days)

Miss SB: Oh R. I would have loved to see you today. (:-) and your money) I told you that I am running for advisor of the year and when I mentioned it to V, he gave me A's number and A gave me your number.

R: (Damn you both V and A - How dare you give my number without my permission?)

Miss SB: I am running a little short of my targets for becoming MNYLC Insurance Advisor of the year. I was so hoping that I'd be able to tell you about these amazing policies and sign you up.

R: (Thinking to himself - Not so fast lady) Oh, I would have loved to meet you this afternoon. I've got your cellphone number. I'll call you over the weekend and we can meet up some place and go over these attractive policies that you are talking about.

Miss SB: I'm sure you'll love these. I've already sold over 70 policies this year and most of my clients are ex-students (:o) who are really glad to meet me and are really happy with the policy that I've offered them.

R: (Thinking to himself - :-( Whatever - How sad can you get? Misusing the sacred student-teacher relationship for your benefit)

After 3 weekends of avoiding SB and unable to avoid her any longer, R finally meets SB - sits through a painful 2 hour session of pushing of 3 favorite policies of SB (My guess is these were the highest commission paying policies in the MNYLC family)

Miss SB: ULIPs of MNYLC return atleast 25% a year.

R: What? Are you sure? Even investments in equity don't return that much. How can a Insurance policy return so much.

Miss SB: Errr. Hummmmm. followed by some crap

R: Can you show me some figures of the actual returns?

After a lot of fumbling, it turns out the returns were 19% for one quarter when probably the market rose dramatically and meagre returns of 10-15% during most of the other quarters.

So question to you is - Are you insured ... enough? If you aren't, give me a buzz and I'll make SB's day and hopefully R's day too (he might be able to get away without going in for a policy). :-)

PS: Incidentally, I read recently in a Mag that MNYLC is among the highest commission paying Insurance Co.s in India right now and the 3 policies mentioned to R are among the highest commission yielding policies in MNYLC. After knowing that, what should R's response be the next time SB calls him?


Update: I found out later that the best policy to go in for - the policy hated by most Insurance Agents is the Term Policy. Minimum Investment, Maximum Coverage. Only -ve is no returns if you live to 60. So if you have about 50K to invest every year, invest 5K in a Term Policy and the remaining in some good Equity Diversified Mutual Funds. You'll not only save on the commission going out to your broker. You get value for money.