Salesmen Losing Ground... Insurance Agents and Card Recruiters Disappearing

This Year, 20,000 Exclusive Life and Non-Life Insurance Agents Drastically Decrease
Due to Major Impact of Separation of Sales and Underwriting
Card Recruiters Also Decrease by About 500
Influence of Non-Face-to-Face Sales Environment and Financial Consumer Protection Act

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki Ha-young] The number of insurance planners and card solicitors, who are at the forefront of financial sales, has sharply decreased this year. This is interpreted as being influenced by changes in the sales environment centered on non-face-to-face interactions after COVID-19 and strengthened regulations by financial authorities following the enforcement of the Financial Consumer Protection Act.

According to the Life and Non-life Insurance Association on the 12th, as of May this year, the number of exclusive life and non-life insurance planners (including cross planners) was 179,971, about 10% less compared to 199,877 at the end of last year. Nearly 20,000 exclusive planners have disappeared since the beginning of this year.

This was mainly due to the separation of manufacturing and sales (제판분리) by Hanwha Life and Mirae Asset Life, which separated their planner organizations. In the case of Hanwha Life, the number of exclusive planners as of May was 2,421, a decrease of 16,799 compared to the same period last year. During the same period, Mirae Asset Life also recorded a sharp drop of 3,373, with only 114 exclusive planners remaining. Although the number of exclusive non-life insurance planners increased by 2,704 this year, the overall number of planners decreased due to the impact of the separation of manufacturing and sales and the decline in exclusive life insurance planners.

The number of card solicitors also decreased by 544 this year. According to the Credit Finance Association, the number of card solicitors for the seven full-time card companies (Shinhan, Samsung, KB Kookmin, Hyundai, Lotte, Woori, Hana Card) was 8,673 as of the end of July this year. This is a 5.9% decrease compared to 9,217 at the end of last year. Since falling below the 10,000 mark last year, the number has been continuously decreasing. The number of card solicitors, which reached 20,289 in 2015, was recorded as 16,658 in 2017, 12,607 in 2018, 11,382 in 2019, and 9,217 in 2020, shrinking to about one-third over six years. The industry expects that if this trend continues, the number of card solicitors will fall below 8,000 in the second half of this year.

The sharp decline in the number of planners and card solicitors is largely attributed to changes in the sales environment. As non-face-to-face sales channels expanded due to COVID-19, the space for face-to-face channels has gradually diminished. In the case of credit cards, the online channel application rate for credit cards was 37.9% in the first half of last year, an increase of 11.3 percentage points compared to the end of the previous year. The strengthened supervision by financial authorities after the Financial Consumer Protection Act also affected the decrease in the number of planners and card solicitors. As concerns grew that their aggressive sales activities might violate the Act, there has been a cautious atmosphere regarding active sales orders.

The outlook is not optimistic. The change in sales channels is accelerating, and the regulatory environment remains challenging. Since last month, employment insurance enrollment for special employment types such as insurance planners and card solicitors has become mandatory, and there is a possibility of restructuring sales channels due to the associated cost burden.

An industry official said, "As the sales channels rapidly shift to non-face-to-face due to COVID-19, the space for card solicitors and insurance planners centered on face-to-face recruitment is narrowing," adding, "Since this trend is irreversible, their position is expected to become even narrower in the future."

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