AIA Group Limited announced having reached a total of 3,752 agents registered as Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) members on 6 May 2015, positioning AIA as the top ranking multinational company on the prestigious MDRT membership list.

MDRT is internationally recognised as the standard of excellence in the life insurance and financial services business. Its members are required to generate a certain level of premium, commission, and income, and demonstrate exceptional professional knowledge, strict ethical conduct and exceptional client service. 
“This outstanding recognition is a testament to the relentless commitment of our agency force to the highest level of professional service to families and individuals across Asia,” said Patrick Teow, CEO of Group Agency Distribution of AIA Group. “We will continue to support the development of our agents by offering a steady stream of high quality training programmes, hiring and retaining top talent, and providing the most advanced tools for enhanced efficiency and productivity. This sustained effort will not only be beneficial to our agents and our customers, but it will also contribute to further strengthen our position in the market.”

Underlying AIA’s efforts to support and grow its agency force, the company launched its Premier Agency strategy in 2010, which led to significant investments into the agency training and development. In 2013, AIA extended this initiative and entered into a strategic partnership with GAMA International, an association dedicated to supporting the professional development of field leaders in the insurance and financial services industry. The programme provided AIA’s agency teams with skills-based professional development and opportunities for peer-to-peer networking. By 2014, more than one-third of AIA’s agency leaders across 
the Asia region had completed the GAMA training. 

In addition, AIA has been investing in new technologies that transform the agents’ day-to-day operations and dramatically enhance customer experience. As an example, the Group’s interactive point-of-sale (iPoS) enables agents to engage with customers anywhere and at any time with the aid of a tablet, allowing an interactive and dynamic experience that significantly improves customer acquisition and retention. As a major innovation for the insurance industry, iPoS is currently available in 11 AIA markets. 

AIA has also started to roll out a next-generation system that integrates a new interactive mobile office (iMO) platform with iPoS technology. The system with expanded functionalities will further enhance the quality of the interactions between AIA’s agents and customers to ultimately drive business growth.  

AIA’s commitment to having the highest quality agency force in the region is reflected in the Group’s results, with AIA’s agency business recording a 21 per cent growth in Value of New Business (VONB) in the six months ended 31 May 2015.