Invest Online - Your Investment Inspirations  

Mr Harold Ng, Director of Financial Services at Harold Ng & Associates representing Great Eastern Life Assurance Co Ltd and Overseas Assurance Corporation Co Ltd speaks with INVEST about his experiences and thoughts about a career in the financial services and insurance industry.

Seated across the table in one of the conference rooms at the Great Eastern at Changi Building, Harold Ng exudes a scholarly, intellectual stature. He does not fit into the stereotypical slick and smooth–talking salesperson image conjured up when you think of people in the insurance and life planning business.

Mr Ng, an engineer by training, stumbled into the business 18–19 years ago while doing his reservist training. A friend of his who worked for Prudential invited him over to see his manager. Being young and naive at that time, he was very impressed with the environment. “What attracted me was actually the lifestyle,” he said. With the commissions that they earn, people in the industry could afford to spend a little more ostentatiously. But that was not the only reason which drew Mr Ng to the career. “...The other strong attraction was being your own boss. I like to direct and I like making decisions on my own,” he said. It was then that he made the decision to enter the industry.

At that time, Mr Ng was in his second job at an MNC. He started his stint in the insurance industry on a part–time basis and continued with it for a period of 4 years. Making his way up the ranks in the MNC, Mr Ng was eventually promoted and started to travel because of his job scope. However, he was faced with a rather interesting situation. “By then my part–time income from selling insurance was more than my full time income,” he recalled. “My wife was telling me that if I don’t quit and do this full time, I was crazy not to.” Being at the crossroads of his career, Mr Ng was on the verge of being promoted to manager in the insurance industry where he would have to give up his full time job. “In the insurance industry, managers have to be on the job full time,” he said. Faced with this, he decided to embark on his career in insurance as a full time agent. In these days, insurance agents are known as Life Planners in Great Eastern Life (GE).

When asked about character traits and qualities of a successful Life Planner, Mr Ng said that the “never–say–die” attitude is of utmost importance. When he was selling insurance as a sideline, he found it to be quite easy as he was approaching people outside the MNC that he knew would most likely buy a policy from him. “But when I went full time, that was the challenge,” Mr Ng said. Before he resigned from his managerial position at the MNC, he told everyone there and they all promised to buy a policy from him. But that did not happen. He calculated that from all the positive responses that he received he would have easily attained membership at the Million Dollar Roundtable, an exclusive international association for insurance salespeople and financial advisors who had met a set commissions target and other requirements. “When I went back to all of them, not a single cent came in.” He remembered those financially trying times well as he made no sales for 6 months. The predicament was aggravated by the birth of his second daughter as well as him committing to a landed property without selling off his condominium.