By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
If a sports players' dream is to enter the ``Hall of Fame,'' insurance salespeople dream of joining the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), a global association for those among the top 1 percent of the world's life insurance and financial services professionals.
Julian Good, who was selected to serve as president of the association from September, said that one shouldn't expect overnight success in this profession.
``Statistics here show if you hire 10 people to come into an agency, after two to three years, three will remain, and after five years, only one.''
Good has worked in the industry for 28 years, mostly working for MetLife.
He said he's always been a student of his profession. ``When you are green, you grow. When you are ripe, you rot. In order to grow, you have to always remain green,'' he said, adding that the most important thing is to build up trusting, long-term relationships with customers.
MDRT was founded in the United States in 1927, and grew into a global organization with over 31,000 members from 80 different countries. Korea, with around 3,000 MDRT members, accounts for a considerable part of the organization. It aims at helping the members become more successful and productive in their lives, and become socially responsible people willing to give back to others.
``We take great pride in knowing what we do as a career, that is helping people and their families, if they die too soon, if they live too long or if they become disabled. Our profession provides those products and services that no one else can.''
He said insurance and financial advisors have competitiveness over other financial businesses such as banks and securities companies as no one else, whether a banker or stock broker, takes the time to get to know the client, to interview them and discuss their needs and concerns.
``Others look at this as a transaction. We look at it as helping people through their journey of life," said Good, who stressed that people buy life insurance because they love their family, to ensure against a risk such as disease, death or aging.
He said the problem of aging is a big issue in other countries as well. Often, people aren't prepared for retirement. They either have to keep working or they have to be supported by their family and/or children.
Good stressed that insurers should be conservative and avoid taking risks. The company he worked with before joining MetLife went bankrupt. ``They took risks with assets. I found out what happens when a company takes chances,'' he said.
``When we sell insurance products, what we are selling is a guarantee. It's a contractual promise to pay in an event something happens.''