[1mm Financial Talk] "Are Financial Planners Scammers?" Insurance Planners Angry at TV Program

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] "This broadcast distorts the entire industry by highlighting only the negative aspects of some insurance planners, making it seem as if all of them are like that. The program should be canceled."

Insurance planners are outraged over the SBS broadcast on the 26th of last month titled ‘Secrets Tutoring for Suckers, Insurance Edition.’ They argue that the program exaggerated the misconduct of a few insurance planners, causing viewers to misunderstand that most insurance planners are fraudsters.

The show covered excessive insurance marketing by planners and the risks of whole life insurance. It revealed that some planners purchase customers' personal information (DB) at prices ranging from as low as 50,000 KRW to over 100,000 KRW per person to conduct abnormal sales activities.

It emphasized that because planners buy customer information at high prices, they try to recoup their costs by recommending unnecessary products to customers and pushing contracts that are difficult to cancel.

An insurance planner affiliated with a corporate insurance agency (GA) featured in the broadcast said, "Since the number of customers insurance planners can meet is limited, there are cases where they buy customer DBs."

The program also discussed whole life insurance. Since the insurance payout is made only upon the policyholder's death, and the period can span several decades, there is a risk that the cash value significantly decreases during that time.

It explained that because the commissions for whole life insurance are very high, planners sometimes push customers to sign up aggressively, so consumers should be aware of this in advance.

In response to these contents, insurance planners criticized the broadcast and even launched a petition. On the internet community ‘Boheomin’ where insurance planners gather, a petition titled ‘Opposing the Secrets Tutoring for Suckers Insurance Edition Broadcast’ started on the 27th of last month, the day after the broadcast.

They claimed, "Unverified participants appeared as if representing the industry, causing consumers to misunderstand," and "Even now, honest insurance planners are suffering damage, so the program’s cancellation is urgent."

Insurance specialist YouTuber Ddalgiappa said, "They generalized based on only a very small number of cases," adding, "Because of broadcasts like this, consumers’ perception of honest insurance planners can worsen."

There were also criticisms directed at insurance companies that created such a culture. Kim Minseok, CEO of FP Korea, emphasized, "There are insurance companies that make planners conduct sales in this way," and "It is necessary to properly establish a culture of insurance sales."

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