Asia Head of Claims

The Asia Head of Claims is accountable for overseeing the day-to-day running and management of claims, partnering with business units to execute solution to reduce Fraud Waste and Abuse, review claims process to improve efficiency and portfolio and customer experience. This role owns claims outcomes, operational discipline, regulatory compliance, and reputational risk across all markets. It is responsible for ensuring:

• Claims are processed fairly, consistently, and within corporate and regulatory standards
• Pending and aged claims are actively managed and processed
• Fraud, Waste and Abused claims are identified effectively
• TPAs are tightly governed and held to account
• Escalations and complaints are managed decisively

Collaboration across the various functions of operations, pricing, risk, proposition marketing, advanced analytics and distribution will be key in forming the approach.  This role will require frequent interfacing with regional and country level COOs and functional executives and getting “on the ground” to better assess and drive success.

Key Responsibilities:

1) Asia Business Units Claims Oversight & Management (BAU – Core Accountability)

• Provide end-to-end regional oversight of claims operations across Asia, ensuring consistent, fair, and timely claims management in all markets.
• Own BAU claims operations control, including adherence to service standards, turnaround times, decision quality, and documentation discipline.
• Ensure SLA management and active control of aged and pending claims, with clear escalation, accountability, and resolution.
• Oversee claims related complaints management, ensuring timely resolution, defensible outcomes, and minimal regulatory or reputational exposure.
• Monitor and manage market level claims performance, intervening directly where standards, controls, or outcomes fall below expectations.

2) Fraud, Waste & Abuse (FWA) Control

• Own the regional approach to fraud, waste, and abuse prevention and detection within claims.
• Ensure effective identification, investigation, and escalation of suspicious or high risk claims.
• Oversee consistent application of investigation standards and referral processes across markets and TPAs.
• Drive actions to reduce leakage and protect portfolio integrity while maintaining fair customer outcomes.

3) Regulatory Compliance, Risk & Governance

• Ensure claims operations across Asia fully comply with local regulatory requirements, market conduct standards, and policyholder protection rules.
• Define, maintain, and enforce regional and global claims governance frameworks, including policies, SOPs, authority limits, and escalation matrices.
• Provide guidance and structure to support local teams in meeting regulatory and audit expectations.
• Act as the senior regional point of accountability for claims related regulatory engagement, audits, and remediation.

4) TPA Oversight & Performance Management

• Own the governance and performance management of TPAs across the region.
• Ensure TPAs operate strictly within agreed SLAs, KPIs, authority limits, and regulatory standards.
• Monitor TPA performance across turnaround times, quality, pending levels, complaints, and compliance.
• Take decisive action on underperformance, including remediation plans, escalation, or changes to operating arrangements.

5) Collaboration & Partnership

• Partner closely with Underwriting, Legal, Risk, Compliance, Customer Operations, and Distribution to ensure aligned claims outcomes.
• Partner with Operation transformation team as SME on claims transformation initiatives
• Support markets by providing clear guidance, decision support, and escalation leadership on complex or sensitive claims.
• Work with stakeholders to address systemic issues, reduce friction in the claims process, and strengthen end-to-end outcomes.
• Represent the claims function as a credible, control focused regional leader with senior management and key stakeholders.

Experience & Profile

• 15+ years in life insurance claims, with substantial BAU leadership responsibility.
• Proven experience running claims operations at regional or multimarket levels, ideally across Asia.
• Deep expertise in:
  • claims governance and regulatory engagement
  • pending claims control
  • Manage FWA
  • escalation and complaint management
  • TPA oversight
• Strong judgment, resilience, and confidence in taking difficult decisions.

Success Measures

• Clean, controlled claims operation across Asia
• Low and stable pending and ageing claims
• Strong regulatory outcomes with no surprises
• TPAs performing to expectation
• Complaints managed decisively with minimal escalation

About Manulife and John Hancock

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. To learn more about us, visit https://www.manulife.com/en/about/our-story.html.

Manulife is an Equal Opportunity Employer

At Manulife/John Hancock, we embrace our diversity. We strive to attract, develop and retain a workforce that is as diverse as the customers we serve and to foster an inclusive work environment that embraces the strength of cultures and individuals. We are committed to fair recruitment, retention, advancement and compensation, and we administer all of our practices and programs without discrimination on the basis of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or religious beliefs, creed, sex (including pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions), sexual orientation, genetic characteristics, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, or any other ground protected by applicable law.

It is our priority to remove barriers to provide equal access to employment. A Human Resources representative will work with applicants who request a reasonable accommodation during the application process. All information shared during the accommodation request process will be stored and used in a manner that is consistent with applicable laws and Manulife/John Hancock policies. To request a reasonable accommodation in the application process, contact [email protected].