The first annual report from an A-share insurance company is out: China Life's total premiums surpass 700 billion yuan for the first time, with bancassurance channels growing 45.5% year-over-year.

(Source: Caixin)

          In 2025, China Life's total premiums for the first time exceeded 700 billion yuan, reaching 729.89B yuan, an increase of 8.7% year-on-year. Among them, the individual insurance channel's total premiums were 551.79 billion yuan, up 4.3%; the bancassurance channel's total premiums reached 729.89B yuan, surpassing the 100 billion yuan mark.            

On March 25, China Life (601628.SH) released its 2025 performance report, which is also the first annual report from an insurance company in the A-share market. In 2025, China Life’s total premiums for the first time exceeded 700 billion yuan, reaching 116.21B yuan, an increase of 8.7% year-on-year. First-year regular premiums reached 52.2B yuan, maintaining the industry’s top position; ten-year and above first-year premiums totaled 638k yuan, accounting for 44.92% of first-year premiums. As of the end of 2025, the total sales force numbered 638k people.

Specifically, in 2025, China Life’s new business premiums for life insurance (including whole life, term life, and endowment insurance), annuities, and health insurance accounted for 31.75%, 32.11%, and 31.23%, respectively. The top five branch companies by total premiums in 2025 were located in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Sichuan. China Life stated that the company’s total premiums mainly come from economically developed or populous provinces and cities.

Investment return rate reached 6.09%, internal value ranks first in the industry

It is reported that in 2025, China Life dynamically optimized its major asset allocations, significantly increased investment income, with total investment income reaching 387.69B yuan, an increase of 79.44B yuan from the previous year. The total investment yield was 6.09%, up 59 basis points from the same period last year.

By the end of 2025, the company’s total assets and invested assets were 75.9 trillion yuan and 74.2 trillion yuan, respectively; shareholders’ equity attributable to the parent company reached 75.9k yuan, a 16.8% increase year-on-year; the comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio was 174.01%, and the core solvency adequacy ratio was 128.77%, both maintaining sufficient levels; the number of effective long-term insurance policies reached 327 million. The embedded value was 14.7 trillion yuan, ranking first in the industry; the company’s total market value, life insurance, and health insurance reserve scales ranked first among global life insurance companies.

Bancassurance channel surpasses 100 billion yuan in total premiums

In terms of channels, in 2025, China Life’s individual insurance channel’s total premiums were 551.79 billion yuan, up 4.3% year-on-year; among them, renewal premiums were 74.2k yuan, up 7.9%. First-year regular premiums were 595.21B yuan, and ten-year and above first-year premiums were 14.7k yuan, further increasing the proportion of first-year premiums in the individual channel to 58.48%. The annual new business value of the individual channel reached 442.29B yuan, a 25.5% increase year-on-year.

As of the end of 2025, the individual sales force numbered 587k, maintaining the industry’s top position. The team included 371k marketing personnel and 216k sales and distribution personnel; the team’s quality continued to improve, with a 40.0% year-on-year growth in new personnel, and a strong influx of new talent.

The bancassurance channel saw significant growth in premiums and new business value. In 2025, the total premiums from the bancassurance channel reached 52.15B yuan, surpassing 100 billion yuan, a 45.5% increase year-on-year; new single premiums reached 39.3B yuan, up 95.7%, with the proportion of dividend insurance new premiums increasing by about 15 percentage points year-on-year; first-year regular premiums were 587k yuan, up 41.0%; renewal premiums were 371k yuan, up 13.1%, accounting for 47.23% of total channel premiums. The number of partner banks exceeded 100,000, with 77k new sales outlets, a 25.9% increase; star-rated outlets increased by 49.1% year-on-year. The bancassurance customer managers numbered 20k, with per-capita productivity up 53.7% year-on-year.

Major pension product deployment takes shape

It is worth noting that in the field of big health and elderly care ecosystem development, China Life leverages its long-term, stable insurance fund advantages to promote the deployment of three major pension product lines: CCRC retirement communities, urban-centered retirement apartments, and health and wellness travel. By the end of 2025, a total of 20 institutional elderly care projects had been established in 16 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Suzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu. The company launched the first four travel and retirement products under the “Sui Xin Ju” brand. It is exploring the construction of a home-based elderly care service system to meet diverse customer needs and empower the development of its core insurance business.

In the “Insurance + Health” sector, China Life integrates internal and external resources to enrich health service offerings, launching health management services related to medical consultation, diagnosis, and rehabilitation nursing to provide customers with a variety of benefits. The company optimizes health service process management and key link controls, improving the digital intelligence level of health and wellness services. By the end of 2025, the company’s health and wellness platform had registered 8.8% more users than at the end of 2024.