EP 99 – Samdarshi Sumit – President Director and CEO at PFI Mega Life – A Lot of Bite-Size Insurance Being Sold

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Michael Waitze worked in Global Finance for more than 20 years, employed by firms like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, primarily in Tokyo.  Michael lived and worked in Tokyo from February 1990 until December 2011.  Michael always maintained a particular focus on how technology could be used to make businesses more efficient and to drive P/L growth. Michael is a leader in the digital media space, building one of the biggest and fastest-growing podcast listener bases in the region.  His AsiaTechPodcast.com show has listeners in more than 170 countries and his company, Michael Waitze Media produces some of Asia’s most popular podcasts.

All round expertise in Financial services with experience across Life insurance and General Insurance , Retail Lending, Branch Banking and Management of High Networth Segments. The experience is across Product, Business and Strategy roles with last few years in leadership roles.

Asia InsurTech Podcast spoke with Samdarshi Sumit, the President Director, and CEO at PFI Mega Life in Indonesia. Samdarshi shares how life insurance has changed due to the global outbreak of Covid-19 and how digital transformation has accelerated. When it comes to transformation in general, some of the biggest challenges are changing behavior, mindset, and culture.  

The pandemic has forced agents to adopt new ways of selling insurance. While investment-linked products have traditionally been sold face-to-face, they are now sold virtually using video calls. These video calls can be recorded as proof that the customer has been informed about relevant terms and conditions and agreed to the purchase of the product. In addition, virtual meetings make it easier to add subject matter experts to a conversation if needed which lifts the quality of advice making sales conversations more powerful and dynamic. 

PFI Mega Life has further digitised customer service in 2020 and deployed e-policies as well as a chatbot with a positive adoption rate. Customers seem to be more open to digital offerings as COVID has forced everyone to adopt new behavior and engage in digital offerings. 

Samdarshi shares his views on platforms and their importance for distribution and reaching new customer segments offering micro and bite-size insurance solutions. While micro-insurance is often targeted at low-income groups, bite-size insurance products are designed for any income group, solving a specific need.  

Other companies mentioned in this episode: Senseforth, Gojek, Tokopedia

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