Member of the National Assembly of Bac Kan province Nguyen Thi Thuy speaks.
On the morning of May 31, discussing at the Conference Hall on additional assessment of the results of the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and the state budget in 5, delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy (Bac Kan) analyzed the inadequacies of life insurance, offered many solutions to improve the quality as well as attract the participation of the people.
According to the delegate, in essence, life insurance is a highly humane product, helping to support people, minimize loss and damage against risks related to life, health, illness and disease.
However, after many lawsuits and complaints from customers, which were publicly posted recently, public opinion could not help but be suspicious.
Many customers have checked the contract and can't help but be confused.
There are customers who have brought their policy to the insurance company to ask but the information they receive is completely different from what the consultant has provided. This makes many people who intend to buy insurance to raise their vigilance…
Delegates said that recently, many newspapers have published articles to show people how to avoid risks when buying life insurance.
There is a newspaper that has published a series of articles pointing out the "underground traps" in insurance contracts, showing that it is time to seriously consider this issue, so that the core and human values of life insurance are not affected by those who intentionally violate them.
Life insurance policy is usually about 70-100 pages long, is a complex financial product with many specialized terms that the loss will mainly be on the buyer's side if it encounters a disinterested consultant.
A delegate from Bac Kan province emphasized that even financial experts who do not work in the insurance sector will have difficulties in accessing life insurance contracts.
Many financial experts say they only understand about 70% of the content of this contract.
Recently life insurance policies are often in the form of investment links, part of the customer's money is invested in stocks and bonds, so the more complicated.
Many people share that no matter how carefully they read, they do not understand the flexibility in insurance packages; it is impossible to know if the investment after 5 years, 7 years will get back what percentage of the paid amount.
Regarding the team of consultants, delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy emphasized that this is the key stage leading to many lawsuits and disputes in the past.
Because of the very complex nature of life insurance contracts, a team of consultants is needed.
However, many consultants, instead of clearly advising on the nature of life insurance as risk prevention, deliberately give vague or even misleading advice on insurance products to quickly close the application and sign the contract.
According to regulations of the Ministry of Finance, the maximum commission rate that consultants are entitled to is up to 40% in the first year of the contract.
Because of the generous commission, many consultants only tell customers about the benefits they are entitled to, not clearly tell customers about binding terms, adverse terms...
Many customers think that they will be protected for their health, after the contract expires, they will receive the full amount paid, but the reality is not as the consultant's words.
With some types of investment-linked contracts, the profit is only an expectation, depending on the market and the insurance company that brings this money to invest is not 100% sure that this amount will be profitable.
Delegates pointed out that this is the source of many recent frustrations due to the lack of transparency in consulting.
According to the Vietnam Insurance Association, through the inspection in 2022, it was found that deliberately false propaganda about insurance products was one of the detected errors.
Public opinion also questioned whether or not the insurance company knew but intentionally ignored the fault of the consultant, the insurance agent, to the detriment of the customer.
When one side is a professional insurance company and the other is a non-professional buyer, while many consultants do not have enough mind and scope to push all the responsibility on the buyer's side, it is unreasonable in both reason and situation.
Noting that Vietnam's life insurance participation rate is among the lowest in the world, about 11% of the population, while the Philippines is 38%, Malaysia is 50%, the US is 90%, delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy said that to achieve such a high rate, it is necessary to make the life insurance market healthy so that people trust and do not feel risky when buying insurance. That means participating in insurance requires honesty and transparency from both sides to bring benefits.
From the above analysis, delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy proposed the Ministry of Finance to conduct a comprehensive inspection of life insurance activities, focusing on investment-linked insurance.
The Ministry of Public Security shall verify and clarify whether or not there are signs of fraud or deception of customers, if so, initiate investigation.
It's time for insurance companies to review all stages of the insurance process, from contract design to consulting, contract signing and customer complaint settlement.
"Only when really transparent and sincere will people not turn away from life insurance," delegate Nguyen Thi Thuy emphasized.
According to VNA
