'10,000 설계사' Insurance Corporate Agencies Increase to 4... Insurance Companies 'Overtaken'

Increase in Designer Turnover Due to GA Expansion
GA Korea Recorded 15,049 People Last Year

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] Last year, the number of corporate insurance agencies (GA) with more than 10,000 affiliated planners increased to four. This is an overwhelming scale that surpasses the exclusive channels of most small and medium-sized insurance companies. The growth of large GAs is also accelerating the departure of exclusive planners.

The increase in planners moving to GAs is due to the advantage of being able to receive incentives based on insurance contracts and the ability to sell all products regardless of the insurance company.

According to the integrated disclosure inquiry of corporate insurance agencies on the 6th, GA Korea secured 15,049 planners last year, the highest number among GAs. This is an increase of about 400 planners (3%) compared to 14,620 the previous year.

Following are Global Financial Sales with 13,965 planners, Inka Financial Services with 10,296, and Prime Asset with 10,179. Inka Financial, which had only 9,236 planners last year, newly secured about 1,060 planners, increasing the number of GAs with over 10,000 planners to four.

On the other hand, the number of exclusive planners for insurance companies is poor. As of November last year, Samsung Life Insurance had the most exclusive planners at 24,475. Hanwha Life Insurance had 17,922, and Kyobo Life Insurance had 14,261. However, the other life insurance companies remained below 6,000.

The situation is similar for non-life insurers. Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance has the most exclusive planners at 24,087. Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance has 19,640, DB Insurance and Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance have 16,032 and 11,643 respectively. This is interpreted as the effect of exclusive planners rapidly changing jobs as the center of insurance sales channels shifts to GAs along with the expansion of non-face-to-face channels.

The problem is that the more planners GAs secure, the greater their bargaining power in sales contract negotiations with insurance companies, and small and medium-sized insurers inevitably become more dependent on large GAs.

Even excluding the mega GAs, GAs are increasingly growing in size. Leaders Financial Sales has 8,653 planners, KGA Asset has 8,595, and Mega has 8,167, making three GAs with more than 8,000 planners. M Financial Services has 6,579, and Korea Insurance Finance and People Life have 4,871 and 4,538 planners respectively. All of these have significantly increased their number of planners, with some increasing by more than 1,000. The market expects the trend of GA enlargement to continue this year as well.

The retention rate of planners in large GAs is also increasing. GA Korea's planner retention rate rose from 62.2% in 2017 to 64.8% in 2018, and further increased to 66.4% last year. Global Financial Sales increased from 52.9% to 53.2%, Inka Financial Services from 44.3% to 48.1%, and Prime Asset also rose from 44.5% to 49.8%. The longer planners work at a GA, the more they pay attention to customer and contract management.

On the other hand, the rate of incomplete sales decreased compared to last year. GA Korea's incomplete sales rate dropped from 0.48% to 0.23% for life insurance and from 0.08% to 0.06% for non-life insurance. Global Financial Sales decreased from 0.61% to 0.47% for life insurance and from 0.15% to 0.04% for non-life insurance. Inka Financial also reduced from 0.52% to 0.18% for life insurance and from 0.09% to 0.05% for non-life insurance respectively.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.