Career

<h3How to become a Life Insurance Agent?

Dynamic young men and women of minimum 20 years of age holding National Identity Cards, having Matriculation certificate and capable to accept the challenges, can be appointed as Sales Representatives. They have to complete pre-determined performance standards. The candidates can approach the Zonal Offices or the Area Offices/Agency Offices spread over the nooks and corner of the country for selection.

Career Paths/Success Stories of few Marketing Executives

A Sales Representative having two years association and having fulfilled the laid down promotion criteria is elevated as Sales Officer. He has to pass in-house courses.

The Sales Officers completing the laid down promotion criteria of Sales Manager are upgraded as Sales Managers.

The field channel is paid basic commission and additional bonuses for quality and consistency. All the three channels are provided group insurance facility and the Sales Officers and Sales managers are allowed limited medical facility and on completion of pre-determined parameters, seating & allied facilities which include the office, office furniture etc.

Training Courses Offered for Marketing Executives

State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan provides adequate training to its marketing executives through the Field Manpower Development (FMD) Department. There are four Regional Academies, one each in respective region, 26 FMD Centers, one in each zonal office to impart training, seminars and refresher courses to different levels of our marketing force. FMD department offers three courses exclusively for the marketing executives. These courses have been adopted from LIMRA (Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association of USA). They are:

Following types of seminars are regularly conducted in different zones as per requirement of the zone. The topics are as under:

  • Time Management
  • How to build up team
  • How to improve persistency
  • How to improve Renewal Persistency
  • Recruitment and to get result
  • Policyholder Service
  • Leadership + Motivation
  • And many others


Foundation Course (FC)

The Foundation Course is basic requirement in Insurance Ordinance 2000 in Pakistan. According to this Ordinance, every field workers should be fully trained about the insurance products and should be able to assess needs of customers. According to the Ordinance, Agents operating in Life Insurance shall be required to complete a Foundation Course of three months duration. The Foundation course contains following phases:

  • Classroom Training 10 days
  • On Job Training 80 days (Practical Field training under the supervision of Area Manager or Sector Head)
  • Total No. of days 90 days

Every agent must complete Foundation Course for registration in the State Life.

Management Orientation Study Course (MOSC)

This course contains 17 units: Its duration now in 2006 is changed from 15 to 10 days. Following topics are covered under this course:

  • Planning and Management
  • Recruiting
  • Selection
  • Training
  • Supervision

This course together with FC is an essential requirement for promotion of Sales Representative to Sales Officer.

Marketing Management Series (MMS)

This course comprises of 5 Modules, each module contains 5 units and total 25 units are included in this course. The normal duration of this course now changed from 25 to15 days, This course is conducted continuously for 15 days. Following Subjects are included in this course:

  • Recruiting for result
  • Selection for Success
  • Penetrating your Market
  • Improving Performance
  • Planning for Productivity

This course together with FC and MOSC is an essential requirement for promotion from Sales Manager to Area Manager and above.

Success stories of few Marketing Executives

Career in life insurance sales is very promising and has chances of elevation to the highest positions. The history is full of people who joined life insurance as Sales Representatives and reached the position of Executive Director. M/s Mubarik A.Malik, M.Hafeez Malik, Mian A.Qadir, Akram Hussain and many others joined life insurance as Sales Representative and retired as Executive Director/ Sr. Executive of the Corporation.

There are number of others who joined life insurance and achieved laurels, distictions and positions of prestige during the past 50 years. Mr. Riaz Akhtar, Sr.Area Manager, is one of those stalwarts who has been consistently doing marvelous business and has been a Crorepati Area Manager consecutively for nearly two decades.

The profession provides ample opportunities for the educated young people who accept the challenge and keep on climbing the ladder of success and have an opportunity to the highest positions available in the Corporation.

Professional Qualification

Actuarial Science

Actuarial science deals with risk management. A qualified professional in Actuarial science is called an Actuary. The Actuary is a business professional who uses mathematical skills to define, analyze and solve financial and social problems. In dealing with such problems, actuaries create and manage programs which reduce the adverse financial impact of the expected and unexpected events like illnesses, accidents, unemployment, loss of property or premature death.

At the principal Office of State Life there is a separate division looking after all actuarial matters. From time to time State Life also inducts bright young students in its Actuarial Training Scheme, which provides an opportunity to acquire actuarial qualifications while engaged in practical actuarial work as an employee of State Life.

State Life Actuarial Training Scheme

State Life has a program for recruiting freshly qualified intermediate (pre-engineering) and A-level candidates as Actuarial Trainees. Based upon its requirements and vacancies available, State Life invites applications by advertising in all the leading daily news papers of the country. The criteria and procedure for selection is mentioned in the advertisement, which is strictly followed. Based upon the progress of the actuarial students, they are promoted to higher grades.

The Society of Actuaries USA and Institute of Actuaries, UK, both conduct examinations in Pakistan through their representatives. For examinations of both the professional bodies, the student has to put in personal efforts to pass the examinations through self-study.

Process of registration for the examinations of both the professional bodies is simple and every student has to register on his own. Admission to the UK Institute as a Student member is not automatic and the candidate needs to apply for the membership of the institute. Both these bodies offer discounts to the students of developing countries. You may write to these bodies in order to obtain discounts.

Details about the syllabus, registration, examination structure, examination fees, discounts, etc is given in the Catalog, which can be obtained free of cost by writing directly to the respective professional bodies at the following address or visiting their website:

Institute of Actuaries
Staple Inn Hall
High Holborn
London WCIV7QJ, UK
https://www.actuaries.org.uk/

Society of Actuaries
475 N. Martingale Road
Suite 800
Schaumburg, IL 60173-2226, U S A
https://www.soa.org/

Chartered Insurance

Different qualifications offered by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), London, UK are valuable and accepted globally in insurance market. State Life also recognizes these qualifications and encourages its employees to pursue them. The CII offers following qualifications on earning prescribed number of credits:

Certificate CII
Diploma CII
Associate CII
Fellow CII

For further details, please log on to the website of the CII:www.cii.co.uk

Life Management

Life Office Management Association (LOMA), USA offers different qualifications for management of life and health insurance. Most cardinal of these is Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI). State Life encourages its employees for pursuing these qualifications. For further details about different qualifications offered by LOMA, please log on to their website: www.loma.org