Culture of trust and fair treatment

I have mentioned the bad practices of insurance companies in this blog. Someone asked me this question a few times, "was the practice different when you were in charge of NTUC Income?"

I can say that the two key differences during my time were:
a) my colleagues were very clear that it was our policy to give fair treatment of policyholders
b) as the CEO, I was willing to receive and respond personally to feedback from policyholders.

I am sure that my colleagues do make mistakes or took decisions that may be unfair to policyholders, but these mistakes are reduced (due to our culture at that time) and the ability for policyholders to access the CEO helps to correct these mistakes. I might have made some mistakes as well, but it was not intentional and not aimed at maximizing profits.

We still have to ensure that the policyholders do not take advantage of our generosity and are not paid claims that they are not entitled to, but we do give the benefit of the doubt to policyholders (unless it is clear that they are abusing our trust).

I believe that all insurance companies should aim to treat their policyholders fairly, regardless of whether they are cooperative, social enterprise or commercial, even as they aim to run a profitable business. They should make an honest and fair profit, and should not make an excessive profit at the expense of the policyholders. They should pay a fair rate of bonus to policyholders on their participating policies. They should design products that charge a fair rate of premium and give a fair yield to the policyholders on their savings.

Tan Kin Lian