On the evening of March 29, Xinhua Insurance officially disclosed its 2021 performance report. The financial reports of the six major listed insurance companies were all released, and the operating lists of the six main life insurance companies were also announced.
Facing the difficult challenge of the downturn in the industry in the past year, the hard-core indicators of various life insurance companies have performed geometrically. Who will go with the trend and who will go against the trend? A series of data not only affects the nerves of the capital market, but also relates to the high-quality development trend of insurance giants.
Especially for the individual insurance sector with high gold content and agent channels, whether the various reform measures launched by listed insurance companies have achieved results, or when will we see the dawn, has once again become the focus of market attention .
After Xinhua Insurance disclosed its 2021 performance report, the overall profitability of the six major listed insurance companies in the past year surfaced. According to
annual report data, as of the end of 2021, the total net profit attributable to the parent of the six listed insurance companies is 222.072 billion yuan. Based on this data, the average daily net profit of the six listed insurance companies in 2021 is about 608 million yuan.
As we all know, in the Chinese insurance market, life insurance occupies the bulk. Therefore, in addition to observing the overall profitability of listed insurance companies, changes in the profitability of life insurance business are also of particular concern. However, considering the net profit indicators, the overall performance of the six life insurance companies in 2021 is hardly optimistic.
Specifically, in addition to the above-mentioned Xinhua Insurance’s net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 4.6% year-on-year, China Life Insurance and CPIC Life Insurance increased slightly by year-on-year 1.3% and 1.4% respectively, and Ping An Life Insurance and Health Insurance , Taiping Life Insurance and PICC Life Insurance’s 2021 net profit will decline significantly year-on-year.
Among them, Ping An Life Insurance and Health Insurance saw the largest decline, reaching 37.2%, and its net profit in 2021 was 60.303 billion yuan; Taiping Life Insurance’s net profit fell by 22.5% year-on-year to HK$11.475 billion, equivalent to RMB 9.336 billion; PICC Life Insurance’s net profit fell year-on-year 8.4% to 4.145 billion yuan.
Regarding the net profit performance of various life insurance companies in 2021, Guo Zhenhua, professor of and director of the Insurance Department of the School of Financial Management of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, said bluntly that the profit performance of listed life insurance companies generally has multiple meanings.
Guo Zhenhua told "A Zhizhibao" about the reasons for the general lack of profitability. The first is that the value of new business of each company is declining, or the residual margin or potential profit brought by new business is declining, resulting in a very low net profit of the company. Hard to grow significantly.
The second is that due to the downward impact of the yield to maturity of national bonds in 2021, the discount rate of reserve funds for general life insurance business will decline. In addition, there are also reasons such as the increase in surrender rate and the increase in morbidity, which have caused various companies to raise a lot Reserves, profits will be reduced accordingly. For example, China Life's pre-tax profit decreased by nearly 38.3 billion yuan due to the increase in the withdrawal of reserves.
The third is that in 2021, the total asset investment yield of each company will not increase significantly, or will increase slightly or decline slightly. Ping An Life's total asset investment yield fell to 4% due to reasons such as China Fortune's assets accrual asset impairment, so Ping An Life's net profit also dropped the most.
Indeed, as professionals have said, behind the weak profitability of listed life insurance companies in 2021, it has nothing to do with the general decline in the value of new business.
Specifically, the annual report shows that in 2021, the new business value of China Life Insurance, Ping An Life and Health Insurance, CPIC Life Insurance, and PICC Life Insurance will all decline, down 23.3%, 23.6%, 24.8%, and 40.56% year-on-year, respectively. New China Insurance, which has relatively better growth in net profit, will also see its new business value drop by 34.9% year-on-year to 5.98 billion yuan in 2021. Only the new business value of Taiping Life Insurance increased slightly by 0.7% year-on-year to 7.444 billion yuan.
Regarding the reasons for the decline in new business value, someSub-listed insurance companies also make explanations in their annual reports. Ping An of China pointed out that the year-on-year decline in new business value was due to the increase in the proportion of savings products on the one hand, and on the other hand, it was also related to the company’s adherence to the high-quality human development route and the decline in the number of agents during the transformation period. CPIC Life said in its annual report that due to multiple factors such as external market conditions and changes in business structure, the value of new business in 2021 will decline year-on-year.
In fact, the general decline in the value of new life insurance business of listed insurance companies in 2021 is inseparable from the continued sluggish operating performance of individual insurance channels that life insurance companies rely on for survival. According to the annual report data:
In 2021, the one-year new business value of China Life’s individual insurance sector will be 42.945 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25.5%;
In 2021, the new business scale premiums of Ping An life and health insurance personal business will be 127.776 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.22%, of which the agency channel scale premiums will be 93.509 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.94%; the new business value of the agent channel will be 31.076 billion yuan, A year-on-year decrease of 27.6%.
CPIC Life’s insurance business income from the agent channel in 2021 will be 188.629 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.2%; the one-year new business value of the agent channel after deducting the required capital cost will be 13.074 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 25.97%.
In addition, in 2021, the new business value of Taiping Life’s personal agents will be about 6.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 5.88%; The new business value was 5.78 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 35.68%.
In fact, no matter whether it is the decline in the value of new life insurance business or the difficulty in boosting the personal insurance sector, after all the analysis, we cannot get around the fact that under the background of the individual insurance channel reform, the agent team as a whole has shrunk. , the pain magnified again.
From the perspective of various companies, PICC Life Insurance will have the most obvious decline in the number of sales agents in 2021. In 2021, the number of individual sales agents in the company will be 185,900, a year-on-year decrease of 55.13%.
Similarly, China Life, as the "big brother" of life insurance, is also greatly affected by factors such as active clearance and agent departure. The annual report shows that as of the end of 2021, China Life's total sales force will be 890,000, a year-on-year decrease of 39% from 1.458 million in 2020. Among them, individual insurance sales force was 820,000, a year-on-year decrease of 40.49%.
In addition, In 2021, the number of personal life insurance sales agents in Ping An will also drop by more than 40%, reaching 41.4%, from 1,023,800 at the end of 2020 to 600,300; The scale of manpower is 389,000, a year-on-year decrease of 35.8%; the average monthly number of insurance agents of China Pacific Life Insurance has dropped from 749,000 in 2020 to 525,000 at the end of 2021, a year-on-year decrease of 29.9%.
It is worth mentioning that, with the number of agents of listed life insurance companies shrinking, it is rare for Taiping Life to grow against the trend. According to the annual report, as of the end of 2021, the number of individual agents of Taiping Life Insurance was 385,000, a year-on-year increase of 1%, and an increase of 3,799 from the end of 2020.
Of course, behind the increase and decrease in the size of the agent team, it is actually linked to the channel reform strategies of various life insurance companies. For example, Taiping Life Insurance, whose manpower is growing against the trend, Cheng Yonghong, general manager of the company, said at the performance communication meeting, "Taiping Life Insurance can achieve positive growth of life insurance agents in difficult times, mainly due to "persistence in letting the team survive and live well" this concept".
On the contrary, the management of PICC Life Insurance is more inclined to "squeeze water". ChinaLuo Xi, chairman of PICC , said frankly at the performance conference, "What we want is real premiums without water." According to the annual report, PICC Life is unswervingly promoting the implementation of the "Big Individual Insurance" Panshi Plan 2.0 in the head office and branch offices, and driving healthy human development through customer management and professional sales.
Ping An of China mentioned in its annual report that the reform of life insurance agent channels is to implement layered and refined management of the agent team, combined with digital empowerment, and promote the optimization of the team structure to a "spindle type". In addition, China Life also objectively pointed out in its annual report that due to the multi-point distribution of the epidemic and the impact of the market environment, the industry generally faces the problem of difficulty in increasing and retaining sales force. Focus on improving the quality of the team.
Indeed, it is undeniable that the agent team of listed life insurance companies will shrink significantly in 2021 as a whole. According to the statistics of "A Smart Insurance", in the past year, the total number of personal insurance agents of the six life insurance companies dropped sharply to 163.81
. This data accounts for 65% of the 2.521 million reduction in the sales force of the insurance agency system in 2021.
It can be said that the loss of agent manpower of listed life insurance companies accounts for more than half of the industry.
Although the individual insurance channel is facing numerous challenges under the pain of reform, this has not affected the strategic determination of the management of listed insurance companies on channel reform. This can be seen from the statements of executives of various insurance companies that have held performance conferences.
Regarding the reform plan of individual insurance channels in 2022, Zhan Zhong, vice president of China Life, said that the company will continue to adhere to the effective team-driven development strategy this year. Specific measures include: first, focus on system optimization, such as the Basic Law system; second, focus on professional management, accelerate the promotion of the team building 4.0 system, and promote the development of the team to specialization and professionalization; To continuously improve and increase staff, we must focus on recruiting and cultivating outstanding talents.
Ping An of China said in its annual report that in the future, Ping An Life Insurance will further develop a diamond team, provide high-end customers and exclusive product resource support, and continue to expand the size of the diamond team by delineating sales departments with excellent management and potential for development. , increase production capacity ; For the new team, Ping An Life Insurance will implement "excellent +" increase and upgrade to increase the proportion of high-quality newcomers. Rate.
Talking about the transformation of life insurance, Kong Qingwei, chairman of China Pacific Insurance, also firmly pointed out that "There will definitely be resistance to transformation and reform, but if you don't go back, it will be a detour." In terms of agent team transformation, CPIC Life will, under the guidance of the "Long Voyage Action", build a "three modernizations and five best" agent team. Guided by the "core" basic law, the company will improve core manpower and core manpower production capacity, strengthen business quality control, and comprehensively upgrade the agency team.
Regarding the human resources development strategy of PICC Life, Luo Xi also pointed out at the performance conference that he will adhere to the strategic goal of excellent insurance. In terms of the transformation of the life insurance development model, we must stick to the standard of elite manpower and highlight the orientation of sustainable production capacity. Life insurance should focus on business value and effective manpower, and build two foundations at the same time: One is to build a long-term investment income channel; the other is to protect the risk and safety ecology.
Looking forward to the construction of the agent team in 2022, Taiping Life said that the company has launched a "high-quality business development strategy" to help the high-quality transformation of the channel team. Improve skills and grasp empowerment. According to reports, in terms of human resources development, Taiping Life Insurance has three key tasks in 2022. One is to "grasp the two ends and lead the middle". Agent technology empowerment; the third is to strengthen the support of the ecosystem.
And Xinhua Insurance, which released its annual report recently, also pointed out that in 2022, it will accelerate the exploration of marketing system reform, focus on improving the quality of the team, and lay a solid foundation for the company to achieve long-term and stable development. At the same time, Xinhua Insurance stated that in 2022, with the aim of improving the development momentum, it will coordinate and promote the overall layout with life insurance as the core, wealth management and health care industry as the support, and technology-enabled development, focusing on deepening the main channel of life insurance and promoting " "One ship with three engines" speeds up the long voyage.
Conclusion
Facing the ups and downs of individual insurance channel reform, many investment institutions focused on when they will see the results at this year's listed insurance company performance conference, but it seems that 2021 has not yet appeared. Therefore, in the face of the underestimation of stock price and the decline in the value of new business, the executives of various listed insurance companies have also called out more, asking the market to give more patience and confidence.
As Chen Xinying, co-executive officer of Ping An Group, responded, reform needs to look at the long-term, strategy, and implementation. China Life President Su Hengxuan also bluntly said that it will take some time for the industry to transform from old to new drivers, and the inflection point of high-quality development is not only reflected in the quantity, but also in the company's business behavior.
Perhaps the dawn of life insurance reform, especially the transformation of individual insurance channels, has not yet come in the short term, but the top life insurance camps are already making real changes.
