Manulife Cambodia: five years in and still growing fast
12 September 2017, Phnom Penh, Cambodia - In the five years since Manulife set up an office in the Kingdom of Cambodia, the local business for this international life insurance company has grown rapidly. Today, more than 45,000 Cambodians throughout the country have insured their future financial well-being through Manulife Cambodia. Let’s hear from Robert Elliott, CEO of Manulife Cambodia.
Although Cambodia’s life insurance industry has been flourishing in the last decade, many potential customers are coming across the concept for the first time. Manulife is superbly positioned to take off in this new business. As people’s awareness of life insurance products spreads, so too does the Manulife’s brand. The company is highly respected worldwide as well as in Asia, and its footprint in Cambodia has seen it receiving even more support from locals: they consider Manulife reliable.
Manulife Cambodia’s CEO Robert Elliott believes the prospects in the kingdom are bright. “The Cambodian economy is performing very well with stable GDP growth at around seven per cent, one of the highest in Southeast Asian countries.
“The emerging middle class is growing, so more people are starting to become financially independent and more conscious about saving for and protecting their long-term financial future. That includes the future of their children’s education. Given these factors, we do see Cambodia as a good place to grow our business, as well as the life insurance industry as a whole.”
Elliott also believes that even today, the relatively low penetration rate of life insurance in the Cambodian economy brightens the prospects for the future. “Life insurance is a new industry in Cambodia. The penetration rate of life insurance in Cambodia is around 0.2 per cent of GDP, while it is between 3 and 4 percent in other ASEAN countries. This means we still have a lot of opportunities to protect the financial future of more Cambodian families.”
There are exciting plans to develop Manulife’s brand in Cambodia. Elliott added, “Manulife is committed to helping our customers achieve their dreams and aspirations. In Cambodia, our vision is to help build a better financial future for the Cambodian families.”
The case studies below illustrate the benefits of insuring yourself against life’s hardships.
“A couple in Angkor Chey District in Kampot province, Kol Sokha, 29, and his wife, Sun Srey Oun, 25 years old, said, “Buying life insurance can really save lives.
“At first, we wanted to buy the service to have a savings plan for our children’s future education. We’d never thought that we would get into an accident.”
However, disaster did strike, and that’s exactly what happened. Srey Oun continued: “One night, someone called me and said, my husband has had an accident and is severely injured.
“When I got to the site of the accident, I lost my mind. I saw my husband lying unconscious on the sidewalk with so much blood all over his body. I cried so much and was so scared.” When arrived at the hospital, the doctors scanned his head and found that he had a fractured skull.
Once she’d got over the initial shock, Srey Oun recalled that her husband had bought a life insurance package from Manulife. She called the company’s insurance advisor early the next morning. Srey Oun said the call with the advisor helped calm her and gave her confidence. “He explained everything to me and encouraged me to have hope. The advisor was very friendly and helped me recover my composure. He told me to believe in him, and that Manulife would try all possible means to support her family.”
Sokha’s life has been saved but he’s not able to work and make income for the family anymore. Manulife’s disability compensation has kept the family supported throughout. Now, their five-year-old boy is in kindergarten. “If it weren’t for the life insurance we bought from Manulife, we would be dealing with so much pain and financial constraints right now.”
In another case, Lee Yong Man, CEO of Cam Capital Specialized Bank, found Manulife’s service to be impressive. Lee, who purchased Manulife’s group life protection for his staff, praised the company’s service after one of his employees passed away due to illness and Manulife provided compensation to the employee’s family, “The claim was handled very well without any problem. It was one of the best and most efficient transactions I have witnessed, as it happened to one of our employees. Since the claim, I have been trying to introduce quality clients to Manulife whenever I have opportunity to do so.”