Natural calamities like Covid-19 and recent flooding have made people aware of the need to have health and life insurance across Pakistan, which led to a 17% growth in premiums of the overall industry over the past one year.
“Every cloud has a silver lining,” remarked Jubilee Life Insurance (JLI) Group Head of Retail Operations, Administration and Marketing Farhan Akhtar Faridi in an interview with The Express Tribune.
Natural disasters have made people conscious and forced them to develop backup financial plans. As the uncertainties of life became even more prominent, the inevitable need for financial protection becomes paramount. Therefore, life insurance has become a necessary cushion for the people who want to protect themselves from the troubling times and other problems.
The JLI group head said that the practice of continuing to save has become imperative when it comes to fighting inflation. Ensuring financial protection involves making a long-term commitment where the best returns come with long-term investment.
“Insurance firms serve as infrastructure enablers, innovation catalysts and credit facilitators especially today when economies are globally battling a plethora of challenges. Through a variety of products and services, simplified processes and technological advancements, insurance companies are a crucial piece within the equation of financial stability, particularly in Pakistan.”
“As economies have continued to revitalise and stabilise, the insurance sector is fueling the journey by paving the path towards sustainability. With diverse prospects on the horizon, Pakistan’s insurance landscape is bound to develop in a robust manner, aiding customers in a multitude of ways,” he said.
Sharing the industry experiences during the pandemic and the floods, he said, “every challenge comes with its own set of positives, especially in terms of learning experiences. This is exactly what JLI is doing in terms of looking for (business) opportunities even in the testing times.”
Over the past year, said Faridi, total premiums of the industry increased by 17%, showing a significant growth.
Life insurance companies alone paid out more than Rs186 billion in claims to individuals, corporations and a host of other customers.
At Jubilee Life, they have provided swift and hassle-free claims processing to assist customers and their requests for financial needs during uncertain times.
“Our company has been ahead in terms of claims by processing them consistently over the last four years across the industry. The organisation’s claims portfolio has grown multiple fold to Rs41 billion in 2021 from Rs17 billion in 2018.”
“Jubilee Life is the largest private sector life insurer and in terms of premiums/ contributions, the company holds about 38.6% market share in the private life insurance market,” he said.
Faridi added that innovation with focus on effective customer service has always been a priority for Jubilee Life. Through its decades of experience, it has found that customers are interested in personalised, usage- and behaviour-based insurance that rewards them for healthy lifestyle choices and reflects similarly in the premiums that they have to pay.
“We continue to integrate these insights into our service offerings. Our Wellness platform is a prime example of this, which is designed to be an end-to-end journey from customer on-boarding to policy servicing and claims reporting, streamlining the overall experience for our clients.”
With the advent of the digital age, issues like overhauling conventional processes, instilling awareness amongst customers and facilitating their adaptations to change along with ensuring the confidentiality of client data have arisen.
“At Jubilee Life, we are working towards addressing all of these factors comprehensively. For starters, we are working on a user interface, which will help customers to understand their needs and simplify the decision-making process by bringing convenience into the process of purchasing life insurance,” Faridi said.
The goal of digital transformation at JLI means it ultimately ensures the policyholders need not to visit any branches physically. They will be able to log on to their mobile/ web-based application and complete the tasks they wish to.
“Even during the Covid times, 75,000 claims out of 124,000 were settled digitally through Jubilee Health application.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 14th, 2022.
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