There are two types of self-serving Insurance intermediaries – Online Portals and Insurance “Salesmen”. Each of these are broadly of two types again. Two types of Online Portals are – Aggregators, earning referral fees and Brokers earning commissions. Online portals are too focused on conversions and quick sales than understanding the customer needs, educating the customer etc.; well online portals are not built for that kind of high-touch & personalized engagements. Then, two types of Salesmen are – Sales Staff of Banks or Sales Executives, earning incentives, lured by pay hikes/promotions and Individual Insurance agents earning commissions, lured by foreign trips etc. These salesmen too are too focused on achieving their personal sales numbers than what is best for the customers. A disclaimer to clear any smallest doubt – No, I don’t mean all of them are same; not all are bad. Then there are media houses, bloggers, vloggers, influencers earning th r ough ads or/and referral f
Sometimes, few (very few) clients ask me why I don't give them transaction access to their investments with me. They feel, it's their investment (money) and they have birthright to have transaction access to their investments. They feel, like their bank gives them internet & mobile banking, debit card, cheque etc and enables them to freely operate their account as they wish, I should also give full transaction access to their invesments. Few (very few) other clients feel, I should "co-create" their investment portfolio taking into account their understanding & assessment of geo politics & its impact on economy & market, their views on the 'trends' in the market, their view on how the pandemic is going to play out and impacts the economy & different sectors and so on. They feel this 'obviously' because of their vast experience of 2+ years in stock market, they have made great returns and found a knack of investing in the market. F