January 2022

Dear colleagues,

Happy New Year to one and all. 2021 has zoomed past us, and I hope that everyone is well-rested and recharged for the new year ahead!

As we usher in 2022, we want to Start Fast. Let’s all commit to succeed together this year and Finish Strong. I believe we can achieve even greater results when we move together as one, staying focused and setting our minds to outdo ourselves and beat our 2021 performance.

While we wait with bated breath for our full-year scorecard to be out, I am proud to say that we are the undisputable number 1 agency force as at 3Q2021. This is no easy feat. We have more than doubled our Total Weighted New Sales (TWNS) since 2019 despite the challenging business environment with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We have shown our resilience and partnership as a company and as an agency force, weathering unexpected storms and turning adversities into opportunities, winning all the way.

At our recent Kick-off, I shared about our three critical pillars for success – 天时 (Environment and Opportunities), 地利 (Infrastructure and Tools) and 人和 (People, Team and Commitment). We have GREAT products and digital tools to help us deliver GREAT service to delight our customers, and we have all of YOU in our GREAT Lion team to scale even greater heights. Let’s BREAK NEW GROUND together, continue to do right by our customers and for our customers, to be the number 1 agency force in 2022!

Last but not least, I would like to remind everyone to take care of your health, both your emotional and mental well-being and of those around you as well. The pandemic has heightened the importance of finding new ways to cope with our daily stresses, anxieties and worries. I encourage everyone to keep things in perspective, for yourselves and for your clients. Know that you can reach out anytime you need help as we are always here to support you.

May the Great Eastern LION roar louder and continue to stand tall and proud as we Break New Ground together, and achieve more in 2022!

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Our corporate employees and financial representatives raised S$328,744 for the Garden City Fund1 in support of the National Parks Board’s OneMillionTrees movement. This amount will fund 1,429 trees to be planted around Singapore, including at East Coast Park and along the Rail Corridor in the coming months.

One of the fundraisers was Mr Goh Chan Joo, Financial Services Director, GEFA. He shared: “Everyone has a part to protect the environment that we are living in. This is just my small contribution to go green and preserve our planet. I feel that every effort, no matter how big or small, will make a difference and goes a long way.”

Another contributor, Mr Tenzin Quek, Executive Senior Manager, GEFA, said: “We are here today, enjoying the fruits of the labour planted by our forefathers. Now, it’s our turn to give back to the community by planting trees so that future generations can benefit from a green city.”

We remain positive on global equities and downgrade our view on bonds to negative.

Economic growth in most regions may moderate but remains elevated in 2022. Inflation is likely to recede slightly as supply bottlenecks and energy prices ease. Even though there will be a normalisation phase in the coming months, the fiscal and monetary policies should still support the overall global economic growth. Risk assets such as equities will remain favoured by investors in this market environment.

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Would anyone break his scholarship bond after three months? Hear from our rookie, Lee Weixiang, who did just that and achieved success in his first year!

1. Why did you join Great Eastern as a financial representative?

I actually broke my 2-year government scholarship bond to join Great Eastern as a financial representative. I made this major decision as I wanted to take charge of my own financial planning earlier in life, and felt that I could apply what I learn in my job to help my family and friends along the way with their financial planning as well, as I have always believed that being financial healthy at whichever life stage one is in, is very important.

I joined Great Eastern as a financial representative because Great Eastern is a very established insurer, where I knew that I would be able to achieve success by learning from the best industry experts and by leveraging the company’s strong suite of products and financial solutions. The comprehensive training programmes that Great Eastern offers, as well as its digital platforms to provide a seamless remote advisory experience for customers, convinced me to join the Great Eastern agency force.

I also wanted a career which could give me the greatest income potential based on the effort I put in, along with a flexible work schedule.

2. What were some of your challenges when you first started out and how did you overcome them?

As a rookie financial representative, I found it challenging and stressful to approach strangers to convince them why they should work with me as their financial planner. I started my career during the pandemic, where we could not do roadshows or face-to-face sales, nor cold calls. I overcame the limitations on traditional sales levers when we launched GREAT CareShield Supreme, and found the opportunities for prospecting this great product through digital marketing. My confidence grew as I received many follow-up queries through my prospecting efforts, which led to meeting clients to share how I could help them with holistic financial planning and them purchasing GREAT CareShield Supreme as well.

The other key challenge was to amass the necessary product knowledge of our various offerings in the quickest time so that I could explain the benefits to potential customers. I also wanted to have good knowledge beyond personal finance such as estate planning and a full understanding of our CPF system, to effectively establish myself as a competent and trustworthy financial representative to my clients. To keep abreast of the latest market developments, I made it a point to take up relevant courses as we never stop learning.

For me, being disciplined was a huge challenge when I first started. As there are no work deadlines unlike in the corporate world, I actually came up with a work timetable from 9am to 6pm to ensure that I was doing productive work during the “normal working hours” to maintain discipline and focus. I constantly reminded myself that I am my own boss and working hard is the way to go!

3. What keeps you motivated in your current role?

The “thank you” messages from my customers definitely make my day and motivate me to work even harder for them. I also enjoy meeting people from different walks of life and to have the opportunity to help them with their financial planning to meet their financial goals.

Other work perks such as being able to manage my work schedule and knowing full well that what I make in the end is based on my work performance, motivates me to work even harder every day.

4. What would be your advice for those who are considering a career in financial planning?

Do not be afraid to join this rewarding career even though it may seem to be a fiercely competitive one with many financial representatives or insurance agents in the market.

There are many people who are not aware that they need to do proper financial planning for themselves and their loved ones. There is a huge opportunity to really help others around you and to bridge the knowledge gap. Stay professional and advise with ethics in mind. As long as you are customer focused and provide sound financial planning advice to meet your customers’ needs, you can do well.

Sharpen your financial knowledge by attending relevant courses to bring even more value to your customers to help them with holistic financial planning.

Being disciplined is an important key to success, and do not rest on your laurels even after hitting your targets. Most of all, be a financial representative who does what is right for your customers because what we advise and plan for them will make a difference to them achieving their financial freedom.

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A team that does good together, stays together. And doing community work regularly as a team is a commitment. Jason Ng, Agency Director of DP Group under Great Eastern Financial Advisers, shares why his team does community work together.

1. What started you to do this team community work?

Giving back to the community is important to me, and I believe that it forges a stronger and more closely knitted team when we do community work together.

2. Please share about some of the community causes that your team supports.

We support various causes. For example, we volunteer monthly at Food from the Heart, a charity organisation to pack and distribute food packs to the less fortunate as there are many low-income individuals and families who do not have enough to buy groceries and food. The gratitude and appreciation from the beneficiaries when we deliver the food packs to them never fail to warm our hearts, and this is what keeps us going to continue doing good for them.

We make annual donations to help Operation Rejoice, a humanitarian group in Singapore to support school building projects and also support its other humanitarian efforts such as sponsoring cataract surgeries for the people in Nepal. We hope that we can participate in overseas humanitarian projects when the situation allows in future.

In December last year, we wanted to spread festive joy during the Christmas season and decided to do that through the National University Hospital under the Ronald McDonald House Charities to children undergoing cancer treatment. We bought art supplies as Christmas gifts to them as we wanted them to feel loved during this season when they could not be at home to spend Christmas with their families.

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