Allianz-Tiriac boss: Sales of life insurance down to half

Sales of life insurance on the domestic market have halved in the last few months as a result of the financial crisis, says Cristian Constantinescu (pictured above), general manager of Allianz-Tiriac, the leader of the insurance market. "Firstly, people are clearly thinking about how they are going to repay their loans, which have gone up, and about how they can cope with other everyday expenses that are rising and are no longer thinking about life insurance," Constantinescu says.

He adds that the downward trend will continue in the coming months. "It was only natural for it to go down; it is the most affected segment. The impact of the crisis over life insurance is serious, as over any financial product for that matter. November will be a worse month than October for life insurance, and December, which used to be a good month, with lots of promotions and campaigns, will be very slow in terms of sales," Allianz-Tiriac's general manager says.

The biggest problem, he adds, is not with companies, but with the sales force, as for most of the agents, selling life insurance is the only job they have. General insurance agents usually have full-time jobs, and selling auto or home insurance is usually just a part time activity. In addition, life insurance agents say that sales have plunged lately.

"This is a disaster, sales have gone down to one quarter over the last few months compared with last year. I would sell 30 policies a month in July; the decline started in August and I am now selling 6 or 7 policies a month, or 10 at most," says an agent of a life insurance broker.

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