Prudential Assurance has sued Peter Tan Shou Yi, a former executive at the insurer, in connection to a mass defection of agents to a rival financial advisory firm in 2016.
Tan is accused by Prudential of encouraging over 230 agents and team leaders to resign and move to then-newly founded Aviva Financial Advisers, the Straits Times reported. A former senior financial services manager at Prudential, Tan led a group known as the Peter Tan Organisation (PTO) which had around 500 agents on its roster.
According to Prudential’s lawsuit, Tan allegedly made several statements and representations to the agents from May to June 2016, which led to the agents’ departure. It added that the agents left while Tan was still contracted to Prudential as an agent and agency leader.
The report said that alleged recordings of Tan meeting with PTO agents and agency leaders and encouraging them to leave were brought before the court. Tan’s lawyers are questioning the authenticity of the recordings.
In 2017, an even larger migration happened, in which approximately 300 agents left Advisors Alliance Group, an agency attached to Great Eastern Insurance, and transferred to AIA Financial Advisers.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has noted these abrupt movements of agents and released guidelines for financial advisory recruitment in cooperation with the Life Insurance Association (LIA) of Singapore.
