Kuala Lumpur, October 23, 2012 – The International Shariah Research Academy for Islamic Finance (ISRA) in collaboration with the Malaysian Takaful Association (MTA) had jointly organize takaful thematic workshop to discuss ISRA Research Paper No;35, entitled “Application of the Wadi’ah Concept in Traditional Family Takaful Products”. The workshop was held at Lanai Kijang, Bank Negara Malaysia Kuala Lumpur and was attended by 60 participants including speakers and participants from various institutions.

The paper explores shariah, operational and commercial issues in structuring traditional family takaful products and analyzes the concept of guaranteed survival benefit in takaful benefits outside the risk/tabarru’ fund. The research suggests that the wadi’ah fund can be treated as a platform to provide guaranteed survival benefits that are similar to what is practiced in conventional traditional life insurance product. Number of issues has been addressed before such a product could be viably introduced into the market, such as shariah and operational matters.

The details of workshop as follows:

Welcome Address by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohamad Akram Laldin, Executive Director, ISRA
Session 1  : Application of the Wadi’ah Concept in Traditional Family Takaful Products
Presenters	Muhammad Ali Jinnah Ahmad, ISRA Nor Azman Zainal
Paper Discussants	Burhanuddin Lukman, IIUM Hassan Scott Odierno, Actuarial Partners
Session 2: Discussion, Q&A

This research require further deliberation and attention include the shariah and operational concerns, product design and pricing strategy, infrastructure and system requirements, and prudential requirement such as actuarial reserving. It is hoped that this new, innovative structure would serve the needs of the takaful industry, particularly family takaful, in offering products and services demanded by various clientele.