am i a greater fool?

in my observations, there have been far too many blog and forum postings penned by the famous and not-so-famous personalities/consumers on how financial advisers have continued to mislead and mis-sell insurance policies in singapore and so on and so forth, ad infinitum.

but let us step back for a moment and reflect on financial advisers who have been given the proverbial treatment of being taken for a ride?

here, i'm referring to financial advisers who are not only ethical but consistently and genuinely doing their darnest or utmost (driven by their passion) to serve consumers and their interests?

my comments:

amongst some other financial advisers who may be in a similar situation like myself and if i have to relate my own experience after 13 years in the financial industry with promiseland independent, mine may be a complete reversal of what have been regularly posted in many blogs and forums on 'bashing' of financial advisers.

take 2010 for example, i spent almost 8 months' worth of sacrificing my only day off, which is saturday doing national service which did not yeild any meaningful business to me and my company.

what do i mean?

the following is a summary of what occupied the substantial portion of almost 8 months' worth of meeting up with prospects/referrals on saturdays in 2010:

a. doing servicing, meaning signing of forms to effect change of address, change of
premium mode, etc affecting several insurers which is less administratively friendly
as compared to say, a tied agent;
b. effecting downgrade of shield plans, sometimes for individuals and often for
families;
c. effecting upgrade of shield plans, for both individuals and families;
d. explore insurance options for those who may be classified as sub-standard risks,
meaning those with a medical history/pre-existing conditions;
e. explore insurance options for those whose early stage cancer has completed treatment
and follow-up.
f. collect cheque payment for payment of premiums which thank God is not too frequent;
g. accompanying prospect/referral for medical exams
h. initial meetings doing fact finding and or financial needs analysis
i. other miscellaneous items like effecting change of adviser.

the nett result is moi obtaining less than 5% of new business, with almost all coming from taking up shield plans.

why?

because up to almost 90% of these prospects/referrals already have a medical history and or pre-existing conditions and the majority being declined due to having a recent history of contracting cancer.

for those whose insurance applications resulted in a counter-offer from insurance companies, the usual response is ntu or not-taken-up, meaning the prospect/referral is unhappy with either paying extra premiums, health exclusion/s or even both.

as can be seen from my experience, i have continually expanded my own and my company's resources and even sacrificed the only free day of the week, saturday without any commensurate return from doing what i term as 'national service' riding on my track record of never having charged for my services in my entire career as a financial adviser.

many promiselanders (my fellow advisers in our company) have openly labelled me a 'fool' and i felt this is a timely wake-up call for me to wake up from my slumber and reflect on this dubious title and decide on how i should continue to perform my role as a financial adviser from this time forth.