Mark O'Dell, general manager of AIA, may be a college dropout, but education is now one of his passions. Last year he set up the group's Financial Health Check Academy to train its own agents in needs-based selling. As the programme was not compulsory, he had to convince his own sales force, some of whom are battle-hardened veterans, of the need to get back to school.

'Going back to my days as an adviser, it became clear to me and the whole industry that we need to embrace needs-based selling,' he says. 'It's about the process of persuading a customer of the need to do planning, that without planning they run the risk of not accomplishing their goals. The only way you can convince people is to have them believe that it is in their best interest to take action.

'To me, the win-win situation is to have a professional process that will make it almost self-evident to customers just what they need to do. When I first came to Asia in 1994, people said Asians don't want to share financial information. To a degree that may be true - but it's largely false.'

To date, more than 280 advisers have gone through the programme of 100 hours of classroom and field work. That is a drop in the proverbial bucket of more than 4,000 agents, but it's a start.

Mr O'Dell says the research leading up to the academy involved surveys of numerous customers. 'We didn't find any resistance to giving financial advice, if asked in the context of a financial plan,' he notes. 'We found they were not just willing but delighted to go through a process where they felt their needs were understood, that time was taken and they were given recommendations that were well thought out.

'And they were willing to refer other people. I felt we needed to convince our salespeople, not just by what works in the US, but by what Singaporeans want.'

Among those who have completed the course, productivity is 50 per cent higher. 'They continue to be surprised by their own customers who give them positive feedback,' says Mr O'Dell. 'It seems the only way is to get dozens, then hundreds, of champions who become convinced that following that process will build a better career and do better for their customers.'

Yet another pet initiative is corporate social responsibility, which he saw as a 'weak link' in AIA's operation. The group has become a major sponsor of the Singapore Cancer Society, to which it has committed $1 million over three years. It also supports the Boys' Brigade Sharity Gift Box, encouraging staff to fulfil the wishes of the beneficiaries.

'It has been important not just to give financial contributions but also to build a culture of giving back,' says Mr O'Dell. Last year, 600 to 700 of the wishes were taken up by AIA agents and staff, some delivered personally by staff.

What of personal investments? Mr O'Dell doesn't have an adviser himself because he is 'self directed' - with an online brokerage account, some funds, insurance and real estate. He maintains some $6 million of life cover, mostly in the form of AIA term assurance. 'I think that's enough to make sure my wife and family don't have to sacrifice if something happens to me,' he says. 'I have some permanent insurance bought when I was quite young. But if you need millions of dollars of cover and you have competing priorities, term (cover) is a good option.'

This article was first published in The Business Times on September 13, 2008.