The cleanup of individual insurance agent teams in life insurance companies continues. In the first half of this year, 45 non-listed life insurers reported a total of 375,700 agents, a sharp decline of 40,000 in a single quarter. Excluding Taikang Life's 237,600 agents, the remaining 44 small and medium-sized insurers saw their agent numbers shrink to just 138,200, with six of them having fewer than 100 agents. Among 47 life insurers that disclosed attrition rates, 41 experienced a semi-annual attrition rate exceeding 10%, seven surpassed 30%, and the highest, Fosun United Health, reached 43.54%. Facing the triple pressures of declining talent appeal, imbalanced input-output ratios, and weakening channel value, insurer strategies are diverging significantly: industry leaders are ramping up quality recruitment to build talent advantages, while small and medium-sized insurers are caught in a dilemma between contraction and persistence.
The Cleanup Tide Continues: Team Size Diverges Among Small and Medium Insurers, Many See Attrition Rates Over 30%
Under the long-term transformation and cleanup of the individual insurance channel, new challenges are emerging. For the first half of this year, the total agent count for 45 non-listed life insurers was 375,700, down about 40,000 from the end of the first quarter. Excluding Taikang Life's 237,600 agents, the remaining 44 small and medium-sized insurers had a combined 138,200 agents at the end of the second quarter, a further reduction of about 4,000 from the previous quarter. In terms of agent numbers, among the 44 small and medium insurers, those with over 10,000 agents include CITIC-Prudential Life with 14,184 and Huatai Life with 11,101. CCB Life had 9,223 agents, Metropolitan Life, Generali China Life, and Manulife-Sinochem Life each had over 7,000. Additionally, eight insurers, including ABC Life and ICBC-AXA Life, had more than 5,000 agents. Thirteen insurers had agent counts between 1,000 and 5,000, while 17 had fewer than 1,000, with six like Cigna-CMB Life, Swiss Re Life & Health, and Hainan Life having fewer than 100 agents.
Comparing figures, 47 life insurers disclosed semi-annual attrition rates. Seven insurers, including Guobao Life, Aviva-Cofco Life, China United Life, Soochow Life, Taikang Life, and Huagui Life, saw rates above 30%. Influenced by prior base effects and channel focus, Fosun United Health had a semi-annual attrition rate of 43.54%. Metropolitan Life, Chance Life Insurance, and 11 others had rates between 20% and 30%, while 21 insurers had rates between 10% and 20%. Six insurers, including Aixin Life and Swiss Re Life & Health, had rates below 10%. Among small and medium insurers with over 1,000 agents, only Generali China Life had a single-digit attrition rate of 7.1%, with 7,553 agents at the half-year end.
Triple Pressures: Why Can't Individual Insurance Retain Talent?
The decline in talent appeal, reluctance to invest by companies, and weakening value advantages of the individual insurance channel are intertwined, creating a situation where agent numbers cannot stabilize. A channel manager from a mid-sized life insurer attributed the fall in talent appeal to changing career preferences, noting more people now seek quick profits. The insurance industry, however, demands high professional entry barriers, requiring continuous training and learning, making it not instantly profitable. New agents heavily rely on client resources, leading to unstable incomes early on, and many feel unsuitable. Combined with persistently poor industry reputation, talent attraction continues to wane.
Beyond talent shortages, insurers face operational dilemmas. The individual insurance channel is squeezed by the "profit-making" effect of bancassurance, while its high investment, long cultivation cycles, and poor retention rates make return on investment questionable. An industry insider noted that many companies dare not invest heavily in individual insurance due to the "unified expense and commission" policy, leaving small and medium insurers with no time window or expense space to expand the channel. Furthermore, the traditional perception of individual insurance as a high-value business is weakening. The same channel manager pointed out that the business is increasingly homogenous with bancassurance, reducing the value of many individual insurance products. Given the high cultivation costs and fixed investments required, companies question the necessity of maintaining such a team.
A senior official from a bank-affiliated life insurer acknowledged that stabilizing or reversing the decline in agent teams for small and medium insurers would take years, not just one or two.
Strategic Divergence: Insurers Choose Between Strength and Long-Term Value
Facing the dilemma, insurers are taking different paths. While large companies can pursue multiple strategies with long-term perspectives, small and medium insurers, especially those with thin capital and profit margins, must make immediate strategic choices. An insider noted that many are already de-emphasizing the individual insurance channel. This pressure trickles down to frontline agents, with some firms imposing high premium targets, which agents often fail to meet, leading to attrition. Some insurers have also started converting internal staff into agents, but survival rates are extremely low, effectively serving as disguised layoffs.
Conversely, some insurers are bucking the trend. In 2024, Century Life launched a "Qi Xing Xin Huo Ban" elite talent strategy, with its individual channel contributing over 50% of value, and aims to cultivate 1,000 IDA elite agents and 300 micro-insurance entrepreneurs by 2028. Hengqin Life established a "Personal Business Development Leading Group" headed by its chairman, initiating a plan to recruit sales consultants as employees. Metropolitan Life began its SSR 2.0 "Starlight Navigator" talent development program in May, extending a 48-month full-cycle elite growth path to optimize allowances and entrepreneurial incentives.
What is the core decision-making basis for small and medium insurers to retain their individual insurance channels? Financial sustainability is key. Li Wenzhong, deputy director of the Rural Insurance Research Institute at Capital University of Economics and Business, noted that the operational costs of the individual channel are rigid, including rent, training salaries, and systems. For small insurers with limited business volume, these fixed costs cannot be spread, leading to a vicious cycle of losses. If a company cannot achieve breakeven, retaining the channel lacks economic foundation. Insiders emphasize that insurers with stable profitability and long-term strategic vision are more persistent in developing the channel, and resource endowment is crucial.
Another consideration is the irreplaceability of the individual insurance strategy. Li Wenzhong argued that while new business in the individual channel is shrinking, its role in long-term premium business, high-value products, and brand building is irreplaceable by bancassurance. Relying solely on bancassurance also carries significant risks. If the bancassurance channel becomes crowded and its growth potential narrows, rebuilding the individual channel from scratch would be extremely costly.
Headwinds for Leaders: Small and Medium Insurers Seek Niche Survival in the Individual Insurance Race
For those maintaining the individual channel, the path forward is challenging. Talent competition is skewed, with large insurers continuously enhancing their recruitment programs, offering elite and high-quality talent series, and leveraging their comprehensive strength and long-term resources to build robust talent bases. In contrast, small and medium insurers face competitive disadvantages in brand influence, systematic training, and backend support, making it difficult to identify advantages and differentiated tracks.
Li Wenzhong pointed out that small and medium insurers have advantages, such as shorter decision-making chains and faster response times. They can react more quickly to product iterations, policy adjustments, and market changes. In terms of business strategies, they can build core barriers through specialized products and services. He suggested that these insurers should move beyond simple policy sales to full-process risk management services, focusing on niche areas like retirement, high-end healthcare, and family wealth inheritance to create differentiated product portfolios. The core competitiveness of the individual channel lies in warm, professional services, and small institutions can leverage regional advantages to build expertise in vertical fields, creating service labels that large companies find hard to replicate.
Finally, they should reform team organizational models, avoiding extensive expansion. They should abandon traditional mass recruitment tactics and explore diversified, lightweight, and elite new organizational forms. In the process of diversifying channels, they need to make trade-offs, avoiding the "small but comprehensive" pitfall that spreads resources thin. By concentrating human and financial resources to build a cadre of top-quality agents, they can achieve high-quality, sustainable operations.
Comments