Legends of Takaful: Ezamshah Ismail

"We should not encourage sharing of surplus" - Ezamshah Ismail

Ezamshah Ismail was one of the earliest students in the actuarial science programme of ITM (now known as UiTM). At that time there were only 4 students. He then went on to do his masters at Northeastern University (USA), which at that time was one of the top universities for Actuarial Science. After graduating from Northeastern he worked for Mercer in New York and then came to work in Mercer Kuala Lumpur. Mercer acquired Duncan C Fraser and eventually became Actuarial Partners.

His introduction to Takaful was when he became the CEO of AMAL insurance. At that time he worked to get a Takaful license for them. He left just before it started in order to become the CEO of Hong Leong Tokio Marine Takaful and take up the challenge of starting a Takaful operation within four months.

Through his master’s degree in Shariah law and finance he developed a passion for organizing Takaful in a new way. This led to the design of a new (for Malaysia) model where there was no surplus sharing from the risk fund.

He shares with us his experiences, learnings and views in this interview.

About Legends of Takaful:
Legends of Takaful, a podcast series celebrating 40 years of Takaful in Malaysia. Over the next 12 months, we will sit down with legends of Takaful in Malaysia, people who truly shaped the industry, going beyond the numbers and finding out what really inspired them, their challenges and struggles as well as their insights. We truly hope that this will both help drive Takaful forward for the next 40 years as well as assist countries just starting out in Takaful.

Timestamps:
00:00:00 – 00:06:04 Introduction
00:06:05 – 00:15:43 Journey to Takaful
00:15:44 – 00:23:57 Unique aspects in the development of HLTMT
00:23:58 – 00:43:55 The difference between E-wallet and J-wallet
00:45:56 – 01:16:10 INCEIF – Talent acquisition for Islamic Finance
01:16:11 – 01:03:58 VBIT – Alignment with Maqasid of Shariah

Organizations mentioned
1. Universiti Teknologi Mara
2. Society of Actuaries
3. Mercer
4. American Malaysian Life Assurance
5. American Malaysian Assurance
6. Commerce Life Assurance
7. Bank Bumiputra
8. Hong Leong Group
9. Hong Leong MSIG Takaful
10. MSIG
11. International Islamic University of Malaysia
12. INCEIF
13. Bank Negara Malaysia
14. Ayady Takaful
15. Alight Insurance
16. United Nation
17. Reinsurance Group of America Labuan
18. Reinsurance Group ofAmerica
19. PruBSN Takaful
20. Malaysian Takaful Association
21. Tabung Haji

Books mentioned:
"A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America: A Hard Look at Spirituality, Religion, and Values in the Workplace" - Elizabeth A. Denton, Ian Mitroff
ISBN: 978-1-118-59961-7


More Ezamshah quotes from the interview:
1. "Human resource is more important than money resources."
2. "When we make a donation, Allah will protect us. It is not quantifiable."
3. "We live to die."
4. "Make sure all acquisition of wealth are in halal way."
5. "VBIT is a transformation, not a reformation."
6. "VBIT very much aligned with shariah."
7. "BOD of Takaful operations have to put participants' priority first, not shareholders."

Hadiths Quoted:
1. Narrated `Umar bin Al-Khattab:
I heard Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) saying, "The (reward of) deeds, depend upon the intentions and every person will get the reward according to what he has intended. So whoever emigrated for the sake of Allah and His Apostle, then his emigration will be considered to be for Allah and His Apostle, and whoever emigrated for the sake of worldly gain or for a woman to marry, then his emigration will be considered to be for what he emigrated for."
[Sahih al-Bukhari 6689]

2. Abdullah b. Tawus reported on the authority of his father who reported from Ibn Abas (Allah be pleased with them) who reported from Allah's Messenger 'may peace be upon him) that he said:
One who gets back his gift is like a dog which vomits and then swallows that vomit.
[Sahih Muslim 1622]

3. Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) reported:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "When a man dies, his deeds come to an end except for three things: Sadaqah Jariyah (ceaseless charity); a knowledge which is beneficial, or a virtuous descendant who prays for him (for the deceased)."
[Riyad as-Salihin 1383]

#takaful #insurance #actuarialscience #reinsurance #shariah #IslamicFinance #finance #FinanceandFaith #Podcast #Malaysia

Actuarial Partners is an actuarial consulting firm that has been adding value to clients for more than 45 years. Visit our website at: www.actuarialpartners.com

learn@AP is the Learning and Development division of Actuarial Partners Consulting. Learn about Life Actuarial Practice, IFRS 17 for Takaful and Short Term Reserving at our website: www.actuarialpartnerslearning.com

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