After receiving World Finance’s award for Best Insurance Company in Taiwan, 2012, Fubon Life intends to enhance its already-impressive services. In 2012, in addition to its localised services, Fubon also made an effort to enhance efficiency by introducing a new cloud service. The company actively develops insurance professionals to strengthen the competitiveness of its services, and complements its diversified product portfolio with a multifaceted distribution strategy in order to continue to excel in the Taiwan market, and move closer to achieving its vision of becoming the number-one life insurance brand in Asia.

Despite the continuing recession perpetuated by the European debt crisis, Fubon still managed to deliver a steady and impressive performance in 2011. The company enjoyed a market share of 22.4 percent and, by the end of 2011, had announced an annual earning, after tax, of NT$10.1bn, and an earnings-per-share figure of NT$4.8, which is 52 percent higher than the previous year. It has now topped the local life insurance industry in terms of revenue for three years in a row. By July 2012, the total assets of Fubon had exceeded NT$2trn.

Customer-focused cloud services Fubon has made considerable efforts to develop a more considerate and customer-focused service for its clients. In addition to its 24-hour call centre service, Fubon has also established nearly 100 ‘Fubon House’ locations to provide more accessible services to its policyholders. In 2011, Fubon further extended the service by developing ‘Fubon Local Community’ to help its clients enhance their quality of life by hosting health, investment and sports lectures and events. The company also introduced a new policy image underwriting system to shorten the approval process by replacing hard copy with digital image files.

New policies can be processed and issued within two working days. Fubon also brought in cloud technology to deliver the Fubon smartphone app, which allows clients to check on policy details, apply for personal loans, and learn their product’s performance levels via their smartphones.

In order to provide clients with the best service quality, Fubon Life puts great emphasis on its insurance agents’ expertise and service capabilities. In order to help agents acquire professional licenses, the company also designed a career development programme, which stipulates the obligatory training courses in marketing, management and recruiting for different managerial positions to help agents start their own businesses internally. It’s quite possible for them to set up their own sales offices after just three years.

Fubon also lead the industry when it introduced the ‘Fubon New Vision’ online training channel with advanced multimedia on demand technology, so that agents could improve their professional skills anytime, anywhere. With diversified and comprehensive training resources, Fubon leads the industry in terms of MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table) members. Fubon has also developed a ‘multi-dimensional insurance administrative expert training program’ to strengthen the expertise in insurance underwriting, claims handling, front desk services and consultation services. It also provides active support to help employees acquire professional certifications. For example, the number of employees registered for LOMA (Life Office Management Association) exam grew by more than 40 percent in 2011, and the number of employees acquiring professional licenses and certificates also grew by more than 90 percent.

Innovative products, diversified channels
Despite already having a diversified portfolio, Fubon continues to introduce innovative products that cater to social trends and customer needs. In response to the ageing society in Taiwan, in 2011 Fubon launched a specific injuries and diseases insurance product that has more specific criteria than conventional long-term care insurance – and a lower premium – to help people fill the gap of long-term care. It also introduced annuity product with monthly dividend payment and medical insurance for the elderly to help the customers prepare for retirement at an earlier stage. In addition to its 15,000 agents, Fubon also works with more than 80 percent of banks and more than 160 insurance brokerage house in Taiwan to help the customers access its insurance products and services via a more diversified and convenient distribution network.

Fubon has been devoting time to charity work for many years. In 2011, it expanded its coverage to five major underprivileged groups including underprivileged children, teenagers, those who are physically or mentally challenged, elderly people who live alone, and indigenous peoples. Fubon joined forces with the Fubon Charity Foundation in promoting the ‘Make Friends with Love’ programme, which has funded more than 110,000 children from nearly 2,000 schools. Fubon has also been the title sponsor of the Taipei Marathon for nine years. It has become one of the largest sports events in Taiwan, with more than 120,000 participants annually. It has not only encouraged the general public to exercise more, but also raised charity funds for underprivileged minority groups.

Duplicating local success overseas
In addition to cultivating the local market, Fubon is also actively exploring overseas markets. Currently, it has established Fubon Life Vietnam as its first subsidiary in Southeast Asia. In China, Fubon has officially signed a joint-venture agreement with Nanjing Zijin Investment Company to established Fubon Zijin Life. Once the deal is approved, Fubon Life will be the first joint-ventured life insurer to set its home office in Nanjing City.

Fubon is widely recognised for its professionalism, service and corporate social responsibility achievements. By 2012, Fubon Life had won the title of ‘Taiwan’s Most Admired Enterprise’ in the insurance category four years in a row. In addition to being recognised by World Finance as Taiwan’s Best Insurance Company in 2012, Fubon has also been voted the number one life insurer that industry aspirants want to work for by college graduates with majors in finance and insurance.