Text丨Pingxiang Li Li
It can be a quiet time that is not calm. Theoretically, the second quarter is the traditional off-season for the life insurance industry, and after rushing to the first quarter of the peak season, the "overall situation has been decided" trend in the second half of last year seems to be ready to spread in the industry.
On the surface, each company still has its own business rhythm and work focus, but in essence, the colorful and intensive conference discussion and report has become a common landscape in the industry.
Although there are many new ideas in the choice of words and sentences, and the new projects, new plans, and new strategies that have been launched are mostly given loud and unclear names, but at the practical level, it seems that they have fallen into a strange circle of shouting difficulties and not knowing what to do.
Those who claim to have a resume and a so-called glorious past can only helplessly look at the sexy distance between the performance and the shareholders' requirements after reading those big and inappropriate correctness day after day, and the atmosphere under anxiety and pressure can be imagined, all kinds of anger, the reform and optimization of the organizational structure are like shadows, and then there is another thunderstorm.
Even the most narcissistic bigwigs are just bouncing around in various WeChat groups, as well as in their own imagination and cocoons, and then lonely to appreciate those words full of wisdom and philosophy that they coded.
This is a glimpse of the current industry, reflecting too much floating light.
From the new regulations to the trends, the trends to the phenomena, although they are still in the process of development, not clear and clear, some of the trends and emotions emitted by them are enveloping more and more people.
Emotions don't have to be real, but they are certainly a reflection of reality. Taking this as a text is for the sake of fragmented thoughts.
1 Let's talk about the lifting of bancassurance outlets: can this former king sit up in shock when he is dying?
On May 9, the State Administration of Financial Supervision and Administration issued the "Notice on Insurance Agency Matters of Commercial Banks", which was regarded as an event with a significant impact on the industry at the business level during this period.
Among them, the lifting of the "1-to-3" restriction on bank-insurance cooperation in commercial bank outlets, which has been sealed for 14 years, has attracted wide attention in the industry.
There have been too many interpretations and analyses of this policy:
Most of the comments believe that it will be beneficial for small and medium-sized companies to sign contracts with bank branches in the short term; Subsequently, these views were copied almost intact by insurance company staff in various reports, daily newspapers, industry reviews and other materials.
However, as stated in "Bancassurance Changes: Breaking the 14-year 1V3 Limit on Outlets, Can It Save the Growth of Small and Medium-sized Insurance Enterprises?" According to the article:
Judging from the development process of bancassurance in the past 14 years, "1 to 3" has no obvious impact on the channel most of the time, and the several leaps and declines of the bancassurance channel are not directly related to this policy.
Looking at it this way, there is a high probability that this time the limit will not have the kind of big impact that many professional interpretations imagine.
What's more, most of the seemingly good small and medium-sized companies are in a hurry with capital and solvency, and even if they sign a contract, what can they do? In fact, a considerable number of bancassurance employees of small and medium-sized companies have been lying down secretly for a long time when they asked the leaders to draw a pie report. The situation that has been operating under the "1-to-3" pattern for many years will not fundamentally change the struggling period of insurance companies in this channel because of "1-to-many".
It is understood that under the new policy, many bank outlets will only open up cooperation to "1 to 4" or "1 to 5", obviously Party A has not taken a big step; And in this process, based on the bank's right to speak, if you want to cooperate, you have to look at resources.
An industry tycoon wrote:
More than 20 years ago, when the restriction that bank outlets could only act for one insurance company was relaxed, the result was that the handling fee was rolled up on the spot, and the rate was quickly increased from the general 2 per 1,000 to 2 or 3 percent.
In today's pattern of newspaper and bank integration, it should be impossible to roll up the handling fee, so what else can be rolled?
Is it possible to switch from a war of fees to a war of services, but is there a lack of services for banks? It is true that a series of so-called bank empowerment and branch services can be cited before, but behind the service, isn't it a fee? At least for grassroots outlets and bank sales staff, adding money is the best service.
2 Liao turned into a pioneer in the dividend insurance, and he still wanted to speculate and stop selling
In a certain period of time, how to give benefits to outlets may also be an important competitiveness of various companies in bancassurance. Of course, the "integration of newspapers and banks" is the cure for this stubborn disease, so what should insurance companies, especially do to win the favor of banks?
If you look around, there may only be products. Let the product sell better, more direct, and more able to achieve a situation of small profits and quick turnover, in addition to the suffering solvency, can temporarily usher in great joy.
This is true for the previous increase in whole life, and the same is true for the current participating insurance; This was true in the previous "3.5%" era, and the current "3.0%" and possibly "2.5%" era in the future will also be the same.
It should be admitted that the "3.0%" series of products with adjusted pricing interest rates represented by participating insurance are not only the main force of the bancassurance channel, but also in the personal insurance, intermediary and other channels.
Theoretically, the participating insurance products are more complex than the previous increased whole life insurance products, but the underlying logic is basically copied, and the biggest difference is that it has changed from "3.5%" to "3.0%", and from the five tiger generals to Liaohua.
Although the risk of interest rate loss in the industry is gradually obvious, this is also the reason why "non-guaranteed return" products such as dividend insurance have become the main force in the market. But a little observation reveals that:
Most participating insurance is nothing more than a guaranteed life insurance, with a part that may have floating income, which is essentially very similar to the form of "life insurance + universal" that prevails in the industry. The guaranteed income is often dominated by a 2.5% increase in the sum insured, which is basically still the product logic of a whole life like an increase in the amount.
Under the above-mentioned product ideas, insurance companies should not only advertise the interests of locking in the future, but also play a large dividend rate of return, so the land separation around the dividend insurance has become a new landscape for various marketing:
Some companies' products claim to be returned to capital in 2 years; Some companies will make amazing profits in 2024 after huge losses in the previous year, so as to support their main dividend products that are about to stop recording orders, with a historical dividend return of up to 125%-179%; Some companies that have been losing money year after year still give a 100% dividend return.
Behind this seeming heat is the best efforts of insurance companies.
After all, above the so-called guaranteed 2.5%, the rate of return of insurance companies is actually about 3%, and there is still a lot of uncertainty. Insurance companies have made great efforts to achieve this, but in the eyes of customers, is this "advantage" of income felt and seen? After a lot of effort and a long period of fund closure, can the final account reflect the original promise? This is a constant pressure on insurers.
As a result, the drama of relying on the downward trend of porcelain interest rates is staged almost every week, but this kind of porcelain touching is obviously not enough to pull the market's anxiety. Subsequently, the traditional skills had to be sacrificed again. This makes "6.30 further downgrade" an urban legend in the spreading industry.
From the "national brand" of a self-proclaimed large company to a small and medium-sized company struggling to survive, the hot-selling products in the market have been stopped from time to time and the quota has been sold out, the pricing interest rate has been lowered again, and some people even do not hesitate to falsify the news of a well-known financial media......
From traditional agents, bancassurance people, to all kinds of "planners" who claim to be senior professionals and draw a line with old insurance, are all crazy in the circle of friends, and there are many people who know that they are fake, but they will be wrong, or deliberately lose a lot of communication.
Of course, it is true that many insurance companies may also want to stop selling and reduce the price under solvency pressure. But this does not hinder the actual sale, which sells very jubilantly.
3 Nha Trang: Give Vietnam a little shock from China's life insurance industry
While fighting for yields and always looking for opportunities to speculate on a wave of sales, it cannot be said that the industry has no service at all.
The life insurance industry has also had its own tradition of serving customers for many years, for example, tourism, especially overseas travel for all kinds of VIP customers, was once to create its own lofty moves in the hearts of customers.
It's just that compared with destinations such as Europe, America, Australia and New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, almost a large number of industries in 2024 will choose to meet in Nha Trang in southern Vietnam.
Although the scenery of Nha Trang is undoubted and famous for tourism, its limited popularity in China, coupled with Vietnam's stumbling development status, is not at least the top echelon of Chinese overseas tourism. So why are insurance companies gathered here?
The reason, cheap. Judging from what we have learned so far, the price of a 5-7 day trip to Nha Trang has been generally compressed to less than 1,000 yuan per person, and some companies have even received more than 500 offers. Whether it is to give away VIP or organize a "sticky" activity to charge customers, it is a relatively ideal choice in the current environment of general cost embarrassment and reduced budget of insurance companies. In particular, the actual operators of many of these activities are at the institutional level of the central branch or even lower.
This also made Nha Trang poke the nest of insurance companies for a while, and groups of insurance companies came with customers, and some insurance companies regarded it as a destination for living and pensioning. Local hotels are filled with a variety of large banners that say "XX Insurance VIP customers are welcome", while on social media such as Xiaohongshu, Nha Trang travel notes are almost always from customers traveling from insurance companies.
One thing to say, Nha Trang's seaside scenery and local food and customs have indeed been recognized and praised by many people, and at this pace, they will also shout spontaneously as the insurance company imagined, "It's good to be a customer of XX Insurance Company!" "It makes people feel like the model looks okay.
However, there will always be a reason to be cheap, and the insurance company's itineraries are outsourced by local travel agencies, and the low quotations of travel agencies naturally need to be retrieved in the "way that the wool of the Internet comes out of the pigs".
It can also be seen that almost all the customers who travel to Nha Trang with insurance companies on Xiaohongshu complain about various fixed-point shopping arrangements: from jade to souvenirs, many times it is really a group that does not let go without completing the consumption, and almost dreams of returning to the mainland in the 90s.
Coupled with all kinds of unspoken rules that are not on the table, from entry to various services, to the local "enthusiastic" folk customs for Chinese tourists, it seems that it is difficult to distinguish for a while: who is the customer in the whole process? Who's serving? Is it a service? Who shook whom?
Insurance of Nha Trang, insurance of Nha Trang?