Cleanup is underway when Sleep Policies – Whose Sleeping Fortune?

Recently, the industry's unified one-stop information query platform for "sleep insurance policies" was officially launched under the guidance of the State Administration of Financial Regulation, and the quality and efficiency of the special action to clean up sleep insurance policies have been further improved.

On September 20, the State Administration of Financial Supervision focused on the special action of "doing practical things for the people" and carried out the special work of cleaning up the "sleep policy" of life insurance, aiming to activate idle funds in society and awaken the "sleeping" wealth of consumers.

The reporter found that in the clean-up process, some insurance companies not only carried out a special clean-up action for the "sleep policy", but also found the value of the "sleep policy" in the clean-up process, and directly set up a special marketing service team for the "sleep policy" and "orphan list" to tap the gold mine behind the stock market.

The "empty window" of protection and the "idleness" of funds

"Sleeping policy" mainly refers to the occurrence of an insured event or the expiration of the insurance contract but the compensation or maturity payment of the insurance benefit, and the suspension or termination of the insurance contract but the cash value has not been paid. For consumers, the "sleep policy" means that there is a "blank window" and "idle" funds, and there are many risks.

He Xiaowei, director of the Department of Risk Management and Insurance of the School of Insurance of the University of International Business and Economics, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that there are generally two situations for sleeping policies, the first is that the policyholder does not pay the premium in accordance with the contract, resulting in the suspension of the policy. In the state of temporary suspension, if an accident occurs, the insurance company will not pay, so this time is a state in which the insured loses insurance protection. The second sleep state is that there are some survival policies or policies with maturity payment, after expiration, the consumer does not get the insurance money back, and the insurance money has been in a sleeping state on the insurance company's account, and this part of the funds will not generate additional interest, so it is also an idle state.

For consumers, a "sleeping policy" means a "blank window" and "idle" funds, that is, the failure to pay the premium as agreed in the insurance contract leads to the suspension of the validity of the policy and the inability to obtain claims, or the idle situation of not receiving the insurance money at the agreed time.

There are several main reasons for the emergence of "sleep insurance policies": first, customers do not understand the insurance they have purchased and do not know that their insurance has the function of returning the principal; second, the customer's address and contact information have changed, but the registration information in the insurance company has not been changed due to various reasons; third, the policyholder and the insured do not communicate well with each other.

In the first sleep state, the insured is in the "window" period of insurance protection. Failure to pay premiums on time as agreed in the insurance contract may result in the suspension of the policy, which may result in the inability to settle the claim. At the same time, for most insurance products in the market, the insurer has the right to terminate the contract and the insured loses the insurance protection after the policy has been suspended for more than 2 years. In addition, the main policy can apply to the insurance company for reinstatement of the policy within two years, but the policy rider may not be restored or added due to age, physical health and other reasons.

In the second sleep state, the insured's funds are "idle". After the expiration of the insurance policy of survival and maturity payment liability, if the consumer does not receive it at the time agreed in the insurance contract, the uncollected insurance money will always "sleep" in the insurance company, and the insurance money involving the maturity payment will not generate new interest over time, and the insurance liability will be terminated after the expiration of the insurance contract.

He Xiaowei said that for insurance companies, for the first type of sleep, clean up the sleep policy, or wake up the sleep policy, on the one hand, by contacting consumers to inform the policy of sleep status to increase contact communication, so that the policyholder can enhance the sense of gain. On the other hand, in such a way, the normal effect of the policy is restored, so that the customer can obtain normal protection rights. For the second type of sleeping situation, if the insurance money that the customer needs to receive due is not received on time, the insurance company should actively contact the notice to inform the customer that the insurance money will be withdrawn, which is the respect for the rights and interests of the customer, and for the insurance company, the funds are only idle, and it is the obligation of the insurance company to let the customer's rights and interests be properly protected.

In general, "sleep policies" generally occur more in long-term life insurance products. This kind of product may have gone through more than ten years or even decades from the insurance to the annuity or survival payment, and for such a long time, the policyholder's family situation, contact information, bank account, etc. may have undergone many changes, and even the person may have forgotten that he has purchased this policy. In the case of inconsistency between the policyholder and the beneficiary, the beneficiary may not know that his or her elders have insured him, let alone the specific rights and interests of the policy. "Sleep policy" means that there are many risks in the protection window and idle funds for consumers, and both the regulator and the insurance company itself have the obligation to help users "wake up" the policy.

"Disappeared him" - the old customer who lost contact

In addition to the problem of "sleeping policy", "orphan policy" is also a headache for the industry, "orphan policy" refers to the resignation of the insurance agent after signing the policy, resulting in the customer's policy temporarily in a state of no dedicated service. In recent years, with the departure of a large number of life insurance agents, an industry insider said that the problem of "orphan lists" is currently quite serious, and every large company is expected to have thousands of "orphan orders".

In fact, behind the "sleep policy" and "orphan policy", in fact, there are old customers who have lost contact, in the current situation of declining insurance company premium scale and weak growth of new orders, in recent years, many insurance companies have found the value behind the "sleep policy" and "orphan policy", and the old customers who have lost contact are also high-value customers worth maintaining.

CPIC's Long Voyage Action proposes that there are three "gold mines" in life insurance, one of which is CPIC's 160 million existing customers. Cai Qiang, general manager of CPIC Life Insurance, said in an exclusive interview with the 21st Century Business Herald: "We hope that in five years, CPIC Life Insurance will no longer have orphan orders, focus on serving old customers, replace sales with service, and strengthen service attributes." ”

He believes that a customer needs at least seven to nine insurance policies in his life, and at present, only one customer has one policy, and there is still a lot of room for in-depth development of customers.

Zhao Peng, vice president of Chinese Life Group and president of China Life Co., Ltd., also expressed a similar view in March this year, saying that Chinese Life's current stock of long-term insurance effective customers is 176 million, but the secondary development rate is only 3%. "The secondary development rate of the huge stock of long-term insurance customers is still at a low level, and there is a lot of room for improvement. Therefore, on the one hand, we must serve the existing customers well, and on the other hand, we must continue to attract customers through high-quality products and services. ”

The relevant person in charge of Ping An Life told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that the number of effective customers of Ping An Life Insurance is nearly 100 million. Ping An Life has launched a community grid model specifically for "orphan policies" to make surviving customers independent and exclusive.

Fu Xin, chief operating officer of Ping An, revealed in a previous interview with the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that Ping An's community grid channel has been promoted in 51 cities, and now there are nearly 10,000 community grid commissioners and about 30 million "orphan single" policies, and the continuation rate has increased by more than a dozen points.

Long-term service is the key to competition in the stock market

Whether it is the "wake-up" of the "sleep policy" or the re-takeover of the "orphan list", the essence is the continuous service of the policy, and only long-term effective service can make customers trust and better interact and link with customers.

Ms. Li, an education insurance product policyholder, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that her insurance policy was purchased more than 20 years ago, and there was no one to connect with her for a long time due to the departure of the original agent. "I feel that there is no follow-up service after the insurance company sells the policy, there is no sense of experience and gain, and the child should have a sum of money to receive when he is admitted to college, but when I suddenly remember, it has been a few years. She said.

Ms. Li also gave a negative answer to whether she would buy the company's other insurance products, because "once the agent leaves, there will be no follow-up service, and I feel that I have lost contact with the insurance company, and I have no confidence in the follow-up rights and claims of the policy."

Ms. Li's situation is not unique, especially for the insurance policies purchased in the early years, on the one hand, due to the age, limited communication methods and technological level, many agents have lost follow-up services after leaving their jobs, and the change of contact information and home address may directly lead to "loss of contact"; At the end of 2019, there were 9.12 million agency sales personnel registered in the insurance intermediary regulatory information system by insurance companies across the country, 9.102 million in mid-2020, 8.428 million at the end of 2020, 5.907 million at the end of 2021, and only 5.217 million in the first half of 2022, down 42.8% from the end of 2019.

The reporter found that in addition to the resignation of the agent, the policy is unmanned, the frequent replacement of service commissioners will also cause consumers to have doubts, some consumers reflected, the policy they purchased has been replaced by three service commissioners, the average service time of each service commissioner is less than a year, and I feel that I have left without saying a few words. Industry insiders believe that frequent replacement of service personnel will bring a bad experience to customers. The first is to reduce the credibility of insurance companies. Frequent changes in service personnel will cause customers to worry about follow-up policy claims and services, and then develop a sense of distrust in the insurance company. Second, it is not conducive to the follow-up service personnel to reasonably plan insurance services for customers. Due to the lack of tracking and attention to the whole process of "orphan singles", it is impossible to keep abreast of the economic changes and physical changes of "orphan single" customers, analyze the actual needs of customers, and provide reasonable insurance services to customers.

A person from the marketing department of an insurance agency told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter that we found through research that customers have three core needs. One is personalized advice, the second is professional advice, and the third is hope to have long-term service. Trustworthy long-term service is crucial. "The sale of policies is the beginning of the real service", and in the past, most insurance companies did not have continuity in the service of users, and tacitly assumed that sales and claims were two independent links, and there was a break in the middle. Under normal circumstances, claims or rights collection occur a long time after the sale, which may be years, or more than ten years or decades, and such a long time interruption, there is no continuous service, which does not meet the needs of customers and does not conform to the development trend of today's industry.

Many people in the industry believe that the industry will be a competition in the stock market in the future. In the competition in the stock market, the concept of long-term service is becoming more and more popular. Cai Qiang believes that it is necessary to focus on serving old customers, replacing sales with service, and strengthening service attributes. The old customer will be served well, and in the process of service, the existing customers may also have the need for additional insurance, and there will be referrals after the word-of-mouth.

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