There is an infectious excitement in the air when one speaks with Robert J Elliott, the CEO and General Manager of Manulife Cambodia. And with good reason too.
The veteran insurance professional is on a mission to build a better financial future for Cambodian families. Having arrived in the country in 2012, when it opened its maiden office in Phnom Penh, his passion for insurance and improving the lives of the native people has not waned. If anything, he is even more convinced he is on the right track.
“This is a young nation with a vibrant and well-educated urban and semi-urban population. Cambodians are digitally savvy and willing to use technology for banking and other transactions.
“The people have a tremendous future, and in time, they will buy insurance policies online too. Manulife is ahead in this sense as the company has a 90% public awareness rate, so when people think of insurance, they think of Manulife,” he says, with great exuberance.
Elliott says Cambodia presents a unique opportunity for the company as the industry in the Kingdom is still in its infancy and has vast growth potential. Besides, Manulife is the first international life insurance company to operate in the Kingdom.
The life insurance industry in Cambodia, he says, has the potential to make a huge impact on the social well-being of its people and protect their long-term financial security.
“Most Cambodians will live long and healthy lives, and use their money to care for their families, purchase cars, houses and fill their other needs. But to achieve their dreams and that of their families’, they need to ensure that their financial health is protected.
“Manulife has a range of products that help achieve this. For instance, we have savings and education policies and even policies to cover critical illness.”
“As Cambodians transition from being young men and women to become husbands, wives, fathers and mothers, their financial needs change. Anticipating this, we offer a range of products to help plan every stage of their lives, like education policies that pay for their children’s university fees.”
“This is important because all the parents don’t want to tell their children that they cannot pursue further education due to a lack of funds,” Elliott says.
He certainly knows what he is talking about. Having built a 36-year career in insurance, 26 of which has been with Manulife, Elliott has helped realise the dreams of thousands of insured across several countries.
Growing up in Malaysia, where his parents lived, the Irishman built his insurance career in the United Kingdom where he worked for 13 years from the 1980s, rising up to be a member of the UK Executive Management.
He joined Manulife in Hong Kong in 2005 as Vice-President, Agency Operations. During his five years there, he helped deliver record sales and recruitment results apart from leading agency development initiatives and key projects.
In 2010, Elliott was appointed Senior Vice-President and Chief Distribution Officer for Singapore, where he was responsible for everything from overseeing agency and partnership distribution to quality assurance.
Moving to Cambodia two years later, he did not hesitate to take up the challenge despite the contrast between the Kingdom and the countries he had previously served. This, he says, is because of the unique opportunities Cambodia presents, where Manulife partners the people to raise their standard of living.
With the company’s character being strong, reliable, trustworthy and forward-thinking, Elliott says: “We listen to the people and make all our new products and policies relevant to them. Cambodians want to start a family, go into business and do so much more.”
“A single insurance policy cannot fulfil all their needs, so we constantly increase our product range to suit their ever-growing needs,” Elliott says.
For instance, he says if people calculate their potential earnings over 40 years, they would realise that they need to protect their long-term financial goals and interests.
That said, Manulife currently insures some 60,000 Cambodians with a total sum assured of over US$1.4 billion. The insured are made up of staff of companies it insures and a growing number of individuals.
A large number of the company’s insurance advisors are playing an important role in making life insurance accessible for Cambodians.
