MAA Takaful eyes RM30m annual sales

By Lee Cherng Wee
MAA Takaful Bhd is aiming to achieve RM30 million in annual sales with its newly launched SmartMedic 100 medical insurance policy.
"We are targeting 2,000 policies a month. We already have 1,600 policies submitted in the first 10 days after the launch," MAA Takaful's head of business development Saiful Nizam Esahak told The Malaysian Reserve.
Launched a month ago, SmartMedic 100 is the first basic medical plan in the market that hands out RM5,000 for funeral expenses for all causes of death.
"Another difference is the higher hospital room and board benefit at a minimum of RM150 per day for up to 200 days a year. We are giving this due to the rising hospital fees and medical expenses," said Saiful.
Under the lowest plan, SmartMedic 100 provides a minimum coverage of RM50,000 a year with a lifetime limit of RM150,000. The plan requires male policy holders aged between six and 15 years to pay an annual premium of RM387. "The policy expires when the policy holder is 80 years old. As a takaful company, we have a surplus sharing of 50:50 upon expiry, if there is any surplus left," said Saiful.
MAA Takaful's panel of hospitals includes 78 private hospitals and all government hospitals. It also engages a third party managed care organisation to handle hospital admission, issue medical cards and manage claims on behalf of policyholders.
Currently, MAA Takaful has 11,000 registered agents but only 5,000 are active. Saiful hopes the new product will activate the remaining 6,000 agents and help recruit new ones.
Saiful believes that the current economic downturn will benefit SmartMedic 100 as customers switch to protectionbased insurance.
"Due to the economic slowdown, people will refrain from buying investment type of policies and go back to the protection type," he said.
(This story appeared in The Malaysian Reserve on Feb 3, 2009. The Malaysian Reserve is a daily business/finance newspaper published out of Kuala Lumpur, with a sectoral page on Islamic finance on Mondays, edited by Habhajan Singh)