Max Life, New York Life launch knowledge, leadership programme to boost productivity

Private life insurer Max Life Insurance and US-based New York Life have launched a co-branded knowledge and leadership programme to boost the productivity of its agents in India.

As a part of this partnership, Max Life is collaborating with former executives of New York Life to share insights and best practices to help the former drive efficiency in agency distribution. The team comprises of three recently retired agency business officers of New York Life.

New York Life had a long association with Max Group, first as the founder of joint venture partner in Max Life from 2000 to 2012 and recently, as a strategic investor in Max Ventures. Global best practices will also be shared by this team.

The company said that this collaboration will help strengthen its agency channel. This is also a part of the company's overall strategy to significantly enhance the share of business via its proprietary business channels.

"Max Life's strategy is focused on an accelerated build-up of its proprietary channel. By FY21, we expect proprietary channels to contribute to around 40 percent of our sales," Prashant Tripathy, Senior Director and Chief Financial Officer (Designate Managing Director and CEO) said.

Max Life has also announced a separate agreement with New York Life for the latter to provide certain offshore support services to its former executives.

The life insurer, which has 289 office units across the country, is expected to expand its agent office footprint to 350 offices by the next financial year. . To further strengthen its agency distribution channel, Max Life plans to hire over 1 lakh agents over the next three years.

As part of the knowledge partnership, ex-New York Life executives will provide insights on smart recruitment strategies, agent/office productivity enhancements, improvement in agent advisor management among others.

Further, they also aim to help Max Life drive leadership development -- Office Heads, Regional Managers and Zonal Vice Presidents -- in order to groom and retain the best-in-class talent and support the expansion of the business.