DearTime, Malaysia’s first life insurer in the Bank Negara Malaysia Fintech Regulatory Sandbox, has officially made its innovative, democratised group insurance policies available to legal entities via the official launch of its corporate portal. With this, legal entities such as companies, organisations, societies, and more can now purchase DearTime’s affordable, simple, and accessible insurance policies for staff, customers, members, or anyone else who may require insurance coverage.
“Purchasing group insurance has historically been a complicated process. Besides having to pay for the Sales & Services Tax (SST), legal entities were only able to purchase insurance for staff, but not for customers or members. That aside, legal entities would also often have to go through arduous processes and hassles whenever their staff makes an insurance claim,” said DearTime CEO Jon Ng.
“With the launch of DearTime’s democratised group insurance, legal entities can now purchase insurance for staff, customers, or anyone at all via DearTime’s corporate portal without needing to liaise with an agent. Best of all, any claims made from these insurance policies will not require the involvement of the legal entity, making this a completely hassle-free process. Much like how DearTime strove to disrupt the industry with its unique business model, our democratised group insurance aims to do the same as well,” added Jon.
Launched in July 2022, DearTime employs a unique, fully digital business model which allows customers to buy, edit, and claim insurance directly from the company via its app or website. By creating a direct link between the customer and DearTime without needing to go through a middleman, DearTime is able to offer a convenient and affordable life insurance option to Malaysians. Moreover, customers will also be able to access DearTime’s services anytime and anywhere, as the entire process is carried out through fully digital means.
With the launch of its democratised group insurance, DearTime is upholding its ethos of insurance-for-all by making these insurance policies individually owned. This means that although the insurance is purchased and paid for by the legal entity as a “group”, every policy is individual owned with its respective benefits.
Besides the flexibility of being able to purchase insurance for anyone, another upside that legal entities will enjoy by purchasing individually owned insurance policies as a “group” is the exemption from the 6% SST. Moreover, as these are individual policies, policy owners will claim directly from DearTime and hence, no action will be required on the legal entity’s part.
For example, making a claim at one of DearTime’s 300 panel hospitals is a simple and intuitive process. Policy owners simply need to perform a face scan in the DearTime app and a unique claim code will be generated which is to be presented to the panel hospital staff. From then on, DearTime will directly liaise with the hospital without the involvement of the legal entity, and the approved claim payout will be deposited directly into the policy owner’s bank account.
Additionally, as individual policies, policy owners will also have the ability to nominate their beneficiaries for claim benefits or continue paying for their policy, should the legal entity stop paying for them. Moreover, as these are individually owned policies paid for by the legal entity as third-party payor, the individual policy owner will enjoy additional tax relief as well.
Apart from offering legal entities a convenient solution to purchasing insurance for staff, the launch of DearTime’s democratised group insurance also offers legal entities the opportunity to be creative in fusing insurance into their business models by selling products or services that come with life insurance.
For example, companies can purchase insurance for customers as a form of marketing promotion or part of renewing loyalty memberships; loan or credit providers can include life insurance to recover unpaid instalments upon the borrower’s demise; fund management houses can include life insurance so that capital is guaranteed to the investor’s family if the investor passes away; and charity or religious organisations can purchase insurance for the poor. The possibilities are endless, subject to relevant requirements and legislations in place.
With its pioneering life insurance utilising a fully digital process from start to finish, DearTime looks to catalyse a surge of more insurtech that will disrupt the insurance industry in Malaysia. This is in tandem with the government’s goal of raising the national insurance penetration rate to 75%.
