SINGAPORE: A man went on social media to vent about a relative who recently switched careers to become an insurance agent, claiming she has been persistently pushing family members to purchase insurance plans.
On the r/asksg forum, he shared that this change has “thrown the family dynamics out of whack.”
According to the man, the relative began inviting family members to attend events organised by her small team under her supervisor. She also offered to review their existing policies and continued recommending new products.
This, he noted, happened even after their own long-time agent conducted a review and advised them to refrain from purchasing additional plans and instead prioritise building their savings.
He added that the outreach extended beyond immediate family. The relative has allegedly contacted a close family friend, around 70 years old and known to be financially comfortable, on multiple occasions. He claimed she even suggested that the elderly woman consider cashing out her current life plan to redirect the funds into products she is promoting.
“Her angle is always ‘please help me out…’ I find this abhorrent—especially when helping her out to hit a target can impact someone for life when stuck with a bad plan,” he wrote.
“I find it really hard to see from her perspective and to see past how all her actions are purely self-serving and for personal financial gains. Though she insists she really wants to help the family.”
In an attempt to better understand her motivations, he asked insurance agents on the forum whether the pressure of the job is so intense that it pushes people to prioritise sales over personal relationships.
“Is the job so demanding or the Kool-Aid so sweet that it can drive one to whatever means, even when it threatens family ties?” he wrote. “Other people in a similar situation, how do you preserve the familial relationship—show support but not actually buy anything you don’t need?”
“Be firm. The ‘please help me out’ line is annoying.”
Situations like this are always tricky. We understand that the pressure to hit targets in the insurance industry can influence behaviour and even change how someone interacts with their inner circle.
At the same time, it is not easy to turn a loved one down without hurting their feelings or straining family ties. Striking that balance can be challenging.
Still, before things escalated, many Singaporean Redditors advised the man to be firm about setting boundaries.
One said, “Not all FAs will try to scam their elderly relatives; those in my family did not. This one is 100% a personality problem. The family should come together and warn her against pulling a fast one on vulnerable elderly in your family and social circles, or else she is gonna be kicked out.”
Another wrote, “Be firm. The ‘please help me out’ line is annoying if the person does not at least try to offer anything of value. The problem is, there is not a lot of value to offer a family that already bought their insurance.”
A third shared, “I remember my dad used to have a pesky insurance agent friend who would always visit us when we were kids. My dad would ask him point-blank, ‘Are you visiting as a friend or a salesman? If as a friend, I will switch on the fan and offer you a drink, and we could sit down and chat. If you’re here as a salesman, we remain standing without the fan.’”
Others suggested more subtle tactics. One user joked that the family could simply “create a new group chat without her” and mute the existing one, much like how colleagues sometimes start a separate chat without the manager.
Another commented, “Ask her to work in real estate. Heard can climb pretty fast! Some 2 years can be a director!”
In other news, a university student who tutors primary school children part-time was left speechless after receiving a red packet containing S$2,888 from her tutee’s parents.
“They just gave me a really thick red packet, and when I got home and opened it, it was S$2888,” she wrote on a local forum on Tuesday (Feb 24).
