NAFLIA unites life insurers to launch national awareness campaign

11 August 2015 02:42 am Views - 2043

Fifteen life insurance companies came together in Colombo recently to take the first step in a joint initiative to promote life insurance to a million people in September, designated Sri Lanka’s ‘Life Insurance Awareness Month’.

The initiative was launched at the sixth annual conference of the National Forum for Life Insurance Advisors (NAFLIA) at the BMICH, at which Insurance Board of Sri Lanka (IBSL) Chairperson Indrani Sugathadasa presided as the chief guest.

Representatives of the 15 companies passed to each other a symbolic ‘Flame of Protection’ -- a stylised graphic of which will be the logo for the month-long campaign intended to extend the protection of life insurance to a targeted 75,000 families as part of NAFLIA’s goal of ‘A Day All Sri Lankans Are Insured’, the theme of the 2015 conference.

‘Get Life, Live Life’ -- the slogan for the 2015 Life Insurance Awareness Month -- was unveiled at this event as a prelude to the September 1 launch of the campaign at the outdoor stadium of the Vihara Maha Devi Park in Colombo and the event is expected to draw about 1,500 active life insurance sales professionals.

Addressing the conference, Sugathadasa stressed that “as an industry, we need to envision a country that is fully insured,” and expressed the view that the day all Sri Lankans are insured is a dream that the industry can make a reality sooner rather than later.

Advocating a change in the way insurance sales professionals speak about life insurance in order to improve understanding of its value, Sugathadasa urged the 900 leading life insurance advisors that attended the conference to aspire to a day when people buy life insurance, rather than have advisors selling them insurance.

She described life insurance as the modern-day ‘magic’ that protects people from the uncertainties of life, similar to the magic that follows tragedy in fairy tales. “If Cinderella’s father had life insurance, she would not have had to suffer under the wicked stepmother,” Sugathadasa said in lighter vein.

The 15 life insurance companies that have come together to jointly drive awareness of the value of life insurance are AIA, Allianz, Amana Takaful, Asian Alliance, Arpico Insurance, Ceylinco Life, Cooperative Insurance, HNB Assurance, Janashakthi, LOLC Insurance, LIC, MBSL Insurance, Sanasa Insurance, SLIC and Union Assurance.

The annual NAFLIA conference is the only forum in Sri Lanka’s life insurance industry for high-flying insurance advisors. The forum is intended to enhance their professionalism, facilitate sharing of knowledge and address common interests. The insurance industry employs more than 40,000 life insurance advisors, of which the highest achievers in life insurance attend the NAFLIA conference.