Grit and listening

Fumiya Konaka, a two-year MDRT member from Osaka, Japan, had a circuitous and bumpy road toward his advisor career. He was raised by his single mother and worked various jobs after graduating high school, including stints as a plumber and with a piano moving company. Eventually, his estranged father returned to his life to tell him he had terminal cancer. His father also did not have life insurance and struggled financially. After witnessing the desperation of a relative, Konaka chose to pursue a profession that would enable him to provide to others the protection and planning that his family didn’t have.

He joined an independent agency when he was 27, and his outreach was basically making cold calls and lots of cold canvassing. These efforts bore little fruit, and his earnings during some months totaled just 50,000 to 60,000 yen after tax ($300 to $400). He languished there for two more years before moving to the corporate sales department with another insurance agency. His first role was one most advisors might consider a step backward, as he was assigned to handle administrative work for tax accountants.

“Financial advisors typically have flexible schedules with full commission compensation, but my workdays started at 9 a.m., just like a wage-earning employee,” Konaka said. “The agency had launched an initiative to send a financial advisor to support the admin work of tax accountants, and I was the only one assigned to this office to work for them. My manager felt I needed to learn more about taxation, business insurance and most importantly, about the needs of corporate clients.”

An education in taxation

Another advisor might have groused about being an assistant in a tax office, but Konaka welcomed this assignment, as he saw it as an opportunity to use one of his strengths — listening — to learn from his mentors and managers. One piece of advice that he embraces to this day came from the agency’s owner who told him, “No cases are too big or too small. Each case is equally important, so work faithfully and put your best in each case.”

Working and learning from tax accountants gave him the knowledge and skills to serve business owners. He began to understand from the tax accountant’s perspective how insurance can be used as a financial management tool to help client companies gain access to working capital, borrow money, and plan for business succession, inheritance, benefits and retirement.

“Tax professionals understand insurance not only as a product, but also as a policy stream,” Konaka said. “Government policies and notifications are reflected in insurance taxation as a result. By reviewing those notices carefully and understanding them myself, I can see new and effective areas of use for insurance products for the agency’s business clients. Learning the basics of corporate accounting was a huge advantage for me. With the professionals’ help, I could read the numbers and see the true meaning of the numbers.”

Eventually, one of the tax accountants took notice of his good work and referred him to a corporate client. It was a sign of trust.

“You cannot expect tax accountants to become centers of influence and refer important clients to you without having trusting relationships. I had the privilege to show that I am reliable, which differentiated me from other financial advisors who approached the tax accountant’s office,” Konaka said. “Your attitude speaks more about your integrity than your words. It all comes down to my drive to learn and my personality.”

Declaration of independence

Konaka, still eager to learn and adapt, received many more referrals and recently opened his own practice.

“I have been entrusted with many types of insurance, both personal and corporate. As I became more and more acquainted with company managers, I wanted to treat my clients from the perspective of a business manager, and this is what prompted me to become independent,” Konaka said. “The name of our company was established with the meaning of a company that builds bridges between people and finance. Through the financial product of insurance, we pledge to provide a bridge that is suited to each client’s life and to be of service to them.”

Tetsuo Kageshima writes for Team Lewis, a communications agency assisting MDRT with content development for Asia-Pacific markets. Contact mdrteditorial@teamlewis.com.