As people are increasingly using mobile-based apps for their healthcare needs, the insurance industry needs to keep up with this trend by innovating and using technology as an enabler.
MetLife is doing this worldwide as well as locally. One example is our mobile app for our corporate insured members in the Gulf.
It features things they need most: locating a medical provider using Google Maps, viewing or updating their profile, monitoring their pre-approval and claims status, viewing a soft copy of their health card and using this soft copy. The actual card is not on their person during the visit to the medical provider.
What types of clients does the company target?
MetLife targets all individuals who are in need of life insurance.
We rely on our product and channel flexibility to provide individuals in the GCC (citizens and expatriates) and large local and multinational corporations with a full range of savings, retirement and protection solutions, including life, accident and health insurance.
On the employee benefits side, we see an increasing trend of employ-ers offering protection policies to their employees as part of their benefits package.
With its large expat workforce, the GCC region has an established end-of-service gratuity system. This has traditionally offered a method of saving and pension provision. However, it is unlikely to produce an income sufficient for retirement. The market has a great appetite for this benefit.
As our recent UAE Employee Benefit Trends Survey shows, 60% of employees in the UAE feel they are behind in their savings objectives. Some 61% of employees are concerned they will not have enough to live comfortably in retirement – a figure that rises to 75% among those distracted at work by financial stress.
Employees need help with financial planning, and six in 10 employers recognise their responsibility to help workers plan for retirement. Internationally portable solutions designed for foreign nationals are needed to create better retirement security.
How is the growing regulation in the financial services industry in the Middle East shaping your company’s sales trends?
Around the world, life insurance is a highly regulated industry. A stable and predictable regulatory framework plays an important role in ensuring that our industry can deliver financial certainty for millions of people, while making significant investments back into the economies we serve.
We commend the leadership of GCC countries and their insurance authorities for establishing robust regulatory frameworks based on global standards.
Having good regulatory standards in place should give consumers the confidence to access the insurance products they need, and give the industry the confidence that all companies play by the same rules. Fair play is central to ensuring the sustainable development of the market.
Do you expect any changes to your distribution model?
Our professional agents’ role remains central, while bancassurance is one of the fastest-growing distribution channels in the region and also a key distribution model for MetLife. Direct marketing is also rapidly expanding, and we see high growth potential in the region in this area. MetLife is well known for its direct marketing expertise, particularly in Japan and Western Europe.
In terms of your investment products, which are doing well?
Our lead products continue to be the variations of unit-linked plans that are directed to wealth management.
There is also a variety of investment-linked solutions that come along with a range of protection benefits to accommodate customers’ various needs, including living benefits-type programmes.
The most popular MetLife investment products in the GCC are the International Wealth Builder (an investment plan with life insurance options that can be tailored to meet customer goals) and Future Protect (a comprehensive, whole of life, unit-linked insurance plan).
Have you noticed any significant trends in underlying fund selection by investors in recent months?
The trend to maintain investment directions into global bonds, as well as the US and the subcontinent equity markets, continues under the various unit-linked plans promoted in the region.
