In this the consulting, control, and contract review stage is of the most important. In a talk with Saigon Investment Mr. NGUYỄN THANH HÀ, Chairman of SBLAW Law Firm, spoke of the many issues concerning life insurance in Vietnam.
JOURNALIST: - Sir, in your opinion, before signing a traditional life insurance or investment insurance contract, what should buyers pay attention to?
Mr. NGUYỄN THANH HÀ: - Before signing a traditional life insurance contract or investment linked life insurance policy, the buyer needs to choose a reputable life insurance company. This is the most important factor in deciding what type of insurance to buy. Next, study the characteristics of different types and packages of life insurance that suit your needs. During the selection process, you can consult with financial advisors to make an accurate decision and in accordance with your wishes. Another important factor is that life insurance buyers need to carefully consider the information declared in the life insurance contract such as personal information, insurance package, as well as rights and obligations of the parties declared in the contract.
Life insurance fees and premium payment times are different for each insurance package. We need to find out the fee and time specified in the contract to get this information. In the case of payment and indemnification, not all risks occurring in the process of participating in life insurance will be paid or compensated for. Therefore, in addition to consulting about the benefits of life insurance, the buyer also needs to carefully understand cases of compensation, payment, and non-compensation in the contract.
- Sir, life insurance contracts are often very llengthy, and use of many specialized terms makes it difficult to understand for insurance buyers. What should insurance buyers do under the circumstances?
- It is true that an insurance policy is often very lengthy, which can make the reader feel confused about what is in the content of that contract. Therefore, to ensure the interests of insurance buyers, in addition to the contract, the company must have a summary attached to talk about the important contents that the buyer needs to pay attention to. Because according to the provisions of the current law and under the obligations of insurance management, the summary serves as a supporting tool to help the insurance buyer have an overview of the insurance contract.
In fact, between the insurance company and the current regulations related to insurance, there is usually no guidelines on how to summarize the main contents or the main idea of the contract, in order to help buyers better understand the contents of the insurance, and better understand the nature of the insurance contract so that the buyer is not confused. Therefore, most of these summaries are often derived from the job responsibilities, as well as the profession of the employee or insurance consultant.
- Sir, to correct this situation, what policies should be added for better management and control?
- The most important is still the conscience of the insurance companies. Insurance enterprises need to improve the professional training, insurance knowledge, and ethics of consultants to ensure the interests of customers as well as the reputation of the company, because when under sales pressure, consultants may entice customers to sign contracts. For consulting activities on complex insurance products such as investment linked insurance, it is necessary to request a recording of the product consultation process for customers. The operator periodically calls to enquire and advise customers, promptly answers customer questions, and provides guidance. When a complaint occurs, the insurance company needs to quickly invite customers to resolve it directly.
From the perspective of policy management, the responsibility of the Department of the Insurance Supervisory Authority under the Ministry of Finance, and related specialized agencies need to strengthen control over the operation of enterprises. Accordingly, the Department of the Insurance Supervisory Authority must regularly request life insurers to strengthen inspection and supervision of the performance of agency contracts and to assess the quality of agents' consulting, introducing, and selling products. In particular, the Department of the Insurance Supervisory Authority and enterprises need to have stronger sanctions and strictly handle insurance agents who violate the law in carrying out activities authorized by insurance enterprises.
- Sir, now many life insurance buyers put their full trust in advisors. So, if the insurance buyer finds out that he was cheated by the consultant, can he sue?
- Clause 1, Article 16 of the Law on Insurance Business in 2022 also stipulates that the conclusion and performance of insurance contracts must comply with the basic principles of civil law. The parties to an insurance contract must provide information, exercise their rights, and perform their obligations honestly, on the basis of absolute trust in each other in the process of entering into and performing the insurance contract.
In case the insurance buyer discovers that he has been deceived by the consultant, he can ask for an investigation of the fraudulent act of appropriating property under Article 174 of the 2015 Penal Code, as amended in 2017. Therefore, to ensure their legitimate rights and interests, people can sue and request a competent court to declare the insurance contract invalid due to deception or report it to the police investigation agency for being fraudulently appropriating property if there is evidence that the insurance buyer was deceived by the consultant.
- Thank you very much.
