Prudential rules out idea of own financial advisory firm

Singapore

BRITISH insurer Prudential is sticking to its guns in selling exclusively through its agency force even as more insurers in Singapore move to set up their own financial advisory (FA) arms.

Speaking to The Business Times, chief executive Wilfred Blackburn quashed speculations that it is looking to branch out into the FA space.

Using Singapore Airlines (SIA) as an analogy, he said travellers choose the airline because of the service, product and exclusivity.

"Consistent with that, we've taken a direction that is we want our products to be sold by people who only sell our products because again, the customer experience is so important to us. How those critical moments are managed, we believe that can only be done by our people. We trained them to do things our way. Now, of course, we got to make sure our products are the best and our services are the best, but we're committed to ensurin…