Demand for life insurance trending upward for wealthy Chinese

Credit: HelloRF

High-net-worth Chinese people are showing increasing interest in and stronger demand for life insurance amid unsteady times, industry insiders said.

In the past 20 years, China's social wealth has increased 15 times, accounting for 18 percent of the world's total, and the country has become the second largest wealth management market in the world, said Zhu Qingguo, general manager of Aegon THTF Life Insurance Co.

The coronavirus pandemic has heightened economic-development uncertainty, prompting the super-rich class to target life insurance products with higher coverage for better security and intergenerational inheritance of their wealth, he added.

The company also teams up with trust houses to provide more customized services for its clients.

Insurance plus trust services have been recognized by more and more customers over the past two years, and the market has entered a stage of rapid growth, said Wang Nan, general manager of the Family Trust Business Department at CITIC Trust, a Chinese investment management company.

Collaboration between insurance companies and trust firms provides customers with easier access to family-trust accounts by leveraging insurance policies and making installment payments, she said.

China's life insurance market has been confronted with formidable challenges in the past two years, with the growth of premiums turning negative in 2021, according to Zhang Liang, senior vice president and head of the China Market at Reinsurance Group of America.

Meanwhile, the number of insurance agents has decreased around 30 to 40 percent, he said.