[Becoming an Insurance Insider] The Number of Elderly People Enrolling in Insurance Is Increasing

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[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] NH Nonghyup Life Insurance has launched the 'Two Questions Only NH Health Insurance,' which allows even elderly people to enroll if they do not fall under two questions: ▲ whether there has been a doctor's hospitalization, surgery, or additional examination recommendation within the last 3 months ▲ whether there has been a diagnosis, hospitalization, or surgery for cancer, cirrhosis, angina, myocardial infarction, or stroke within the last 5 years.

Kyobo Life Insurance also offers products targeting not only the elderly but also those with pre-existing conditions, including the 'Kyobo Practical Easy Enrollment Health Plus Whole Life Insurance' and the 'Kyobo Practical Ultra-Easy Enrollment Whole Life Insurance,' which require answering only three and two questions respectively to enroll.

As insurance companies continue to launch policies with relaxed underwriting standards for the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions, life insurance subscriptions among people aged 60 and over are increasing.

While focusing on the elderly as a new insurance market, there are concerns that consumer disputes will increase as complaints rise. Due to cognitive decline associated with aging, elderly consumers are also experiencing damages during financial transactions. There are calls to establish measures to reduce incomplete sales related to insurance for the elderly.

According to the Korea Insurance Research Institute on the 17th, the number of new life insurance contracts for those aged 60 and over increased by an average of 19.8% annually over the past 10 years from 2010 to 2019.

Amid growing interest in health coverage, sales of disease insurance (32.4%) increased significantly, and sales of whole life insurance (13.4%) also rose.

Notably, during the same period, new contracts for those under 60 decreased by 2.8%, indicating that new contracts are centered on the elderly. Accordingly, the proportion of contracts held by those aged 60 and over increased from 7.6% in 2010 to 21.2% in 2019.

As insurance subscriptions among the elderly increase, consumer complaints and incomplete sales cases raised by the elderly are also rising accordingly.

As of last year, the total number of converted complaints in the insurance sector was 91.8 cases, an increase of 1.03 times compared to the previous year, of which the number of converted complaints from those aged 60 and over was 45.0 cases, a 3.49-fold increase from the previous year.

Although the number of incomplete sales complaints in the insurance sector decreased compared to the previous year, the number of incomplete sales complaints from those aged 60 and over surged by 2.64 times compared to the previous year.

Accordingly, there is a call for insurance companies to establish mechanisms to minimize dispute risks with elderly policyholders from the product design stage to prevent conflicts.

Kim Dong-gyeol, a research fellow at the Korea Insurance Research Institute, said, "The causes of incomplete sales of financial products vary somewhat by industry and country, but incomplete sales mainly occur in products with complex profit and risk structures inherent in financial products," adding, "It is necessary to prepare for the future increase in elderly insurance policyholders through a thorough analysis and review of the types of complaints occurring among the elderly and their characteristics compared to other age groups."

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