Listed insurance companies' new "channel management": individual insurance maintains the "core foundation" through deep cultivation, while multi-channel approaches like bancassurance break out and create breakthroughs externally

(Picture source: Visual China)

Blue Whale News, April 8th (Reporter Shi Yu) In recent years, listed insurance companies’ life insurance sales channels have entered a deep adjustment period. Observers note that traditional strong channels, individual agent teams, have been continuously “clearing虚” for many years and have now entered a bottoming phase; the bancassurance channel is rising rapidly, becoming an important engine driving market and value growth. Meanwhile, multi-channel growth such as community grids, comprehensive finance, and cross-selling is accelerating. It is evident that insurance companies are writing a new “channel story” amid industry transformation.

Individual insurance “fundamentals” shift from “quantity shrinking” to “quality increasing”

Looking at the long-term trend, as the core sales channel of leading life insurance companies, since 2020, individual insurance channels have been continuously optimized, promoting both clearing虚 and improving quality.

In recent two years, the scale of individual agent manpower has significantly stabilized, entering a bottoming phase. According to Blue Whale News statistics, by the end of 2025, the total number of individual insurance agents across the five major listed insurance companies in A-shares will be 1.3334 million, a decrease of 52k from the end of 2024, about a 3.7% decline. Among them, excluding the larger China Life and Ping An Life, the other three life insurers have reduced their manpower by less than 10,000, with Taibao Life’s individual agent manpower decreasing by only 1.6%.

(Graph: Blue Whale News)

However, the adjustment in numbers is not simply layoffs. Behind the gradual bottoming of individual agent manpower, leading insurers are continuously optimizing their team structures through quality enhancement, platform empowerment, and digital recruitment.

For example, China Life mentioned in its annual report that by 2025, it will deepen the transformation toward professionalization, specialization, and youthfulness of its team, continuously improving team quality, with a 40.0% year-over-year increase in quality-enhanced manpower; Ping An Life stated that it is deepening the “Three Excellence” platform for agents—“doing well, increasing well, nurturing well.” By the end of 2025, the proportion of college degree or higher among individual agents increased by 1.4 percentage points compared to 2024; New China Insurance launched the “New China Good Life Partner” new media recruitment campaign, actively exploring pathways to attract younger talent through online platforms.

The effectiveness of strategic adjustments is reflected in performance data. According to annual reports, in 2025, China Life’s individual insurance channel’s total premium income increased by 4.3% year-over-year, with a new business value of 52k yuan, up 25.5% year-over-year; Ping An Life’s new business value from its agent channel increased by 10.4% year-over-year, with per capita new business value up 17.2%; Taibao Life’s agent channel premium scale grew by 4.5% year-over-year, with core manpower’s first-year scale premium per month reaching 63,605 yuan, up 17.1%; PICC Life’s personal insurance channel’s original premium income was 54 billion yuan, up 5.4%, with new business value reaching 39.3B yuan, up 30.4%; New China Insurance’s individual channel’s new business value increased by 19.4% year-over-year.

Looking at the empowerment actions behind these figures, insurers mainly focus on optimizing fundamental policies, training, and service support. For example, Ping An Life launched the “Enjoy Ping An” customer rights system and the Ping An Family Office brand to assist customer management; New China Insurance proposed to optimize and improve organizational development structures and staffing, building a normalized organizational development policy system supported by fundamental policies, talent cultivation projects, “Longteng Fengwu,” and WLP entrepreneurial support plans; and providing detailed management support through the “Xinzhineng” system.

Overall, although the scale of individual agent manpower continues to decline and its growth rate is slower than bancassurance, the value of the “fundamentals” of life insurance sales has not been weakened.

As China Life’s Assistant President Lan Yonghong recently stated at the earnings release, “Individual insurance is the company’s core channel, accounting for 85% of the company’s new business value, and is the fundamental part of the company’s business development.”

Gong Xingfeng, President and CFO of New China Insurance, emphasized that the individual agent team has inherent advantages and strong customer loyalty, and possesses irreplaceable advantages in selling complex products with long-term periodic guarantees. It is also the company’s core pillar for navigating medium- and long-term economic cycles. “The individual insurance channel remains the company’s most important core channel.”

Multi-channel collaboration to build new growth poles

During the critical period of deep transformation of the individual insurance channel, a “multi” and “collaborative” channel system is a strategic direction for listed insurers to jointly exert efforts.

For example, Guo Xiaotao, Co-CEO of Ping An, stated at the earnings presentation, “In terms of life insurance channel structure, it is a balanced channel structure. The company has agents, bancassurance, and community finance channels. Such a balanced structure allows the company to effectively resist market fluctuations’ impact on performance when the market is volatile. The future growth drivers are inexhaustible, and growth will not be limited once a channel reaches a certain stage or faces growth constraints; instead, growth will come wave after wave.”

Among these, bancassurance is rising strongly and has become the core engine for premium scale and value growth in recent two years.

In 2025, China Life’s bancassurance channel’s total premiums exceeded 100 billion yuan, a 45.5% increase year-over-year; new single premiums reached 58.5 billion yuan, up 95.7%. The annual report revealed that currently, cooperation with over 100 banks, with 77k new single issuance outlets, increased by 25.9% year-over-year, including a 49.1% increase in star-rated outlets. The bancassurance customer managers numbered 20k, with per capita productivity up 53.7% year-over-year.

Ping An Life’s bancassurance new business value was 3.51B yuan, up 138.0%. In bank cooperation, the emphasis is on diversified deployment, focusing on deepening cooperation with state-owned banks and leading joint-stock banks, and expanding quality channels in city commercial banks.

Taibao Life’s “2+N” multi-channel strategy mainly involves agents and bancassurance. By 2025, its bancassurance premium scale reached 77k yuan, up 46.4%, with new premium period payments at 20k yuan, up 43.2%.

PICC Life’s bancassurance premium income in 2025 surpassed individual insurance, reaching 54.2%, with new business value of 9.41B yuan, a 102.3% increase under comparable standards.

New China Insurance’s long-term insurance first-year premiums in 2025 hit 61.62B yuan, with new business value of 16.96B yuan, both setting records. The annual report mentioned seizing the opportunity of the “reporting and banking integration” policy to enhance bancassurance strategic positioning; focusing on health segments, effective outlets, and effective staffing.

Notably, besides bancassurance, insurers are leveraging their own strategies and advantages across multiple channels such as comprehensive finance, group policies, and internet channels for targeted efforts.

Ping An Life’s community financial services channel is an innovative channel for its comprehensive finance, prioritizing “farmer-style” cultivation of existing customers. In terms of value, the continued rate of full payment among existing customers in 2025 increased by 0.8 percentage points year-over-year; in outlets, 333 outlets have been established in 198 cities, an increase of 105 cities and 202 outlets from the beginning of the year; the team has been built with over 40k elite members.

PICC Life’s comprehensive finance channel leverages property insurance outlets and customer resources, aiming for “property and life linkage, outlet operation.” In 2025, personal pension premiums increased by 375.0% year-over-year; first-year premiums for ten-year and longer-term policies increased by 27.8%; short-term insurance premiums increased by 11.7%; monthly active manpower increased by 23.5%.

Taibao Life’s group and government channels emphasize a strategy of “leveraging strengths and compensating weaknesses,” focusing on key industry benchmark projects and enhancing the overall value of individual customers under corporate projects. The group insurance business promotes a matrix-style detailed management model to improve independent channel operation capabilities. In 2025, the group and government channels achieved a scale premium of 4.67B yuan, up 10.7%.

New China Insurance’s group channels focus on optimizing team structure and capabilities, and expanding key state-owned enterprise clients. In 2025, per capita productivity increased by 19%, with improved operational efficiency.

China Life’s internet insurance business’s total premiums in 2025 reached 37.93B yuan, up 38.9% year-over-year. Among them, the exclusive internet channel business is developing rapidly.

Overall, after experiencing pain and transformation, the “new channel economy” of listed insurers has taken shape: maintaining the core of individual insurance, breaking through bancassurance, and fostering multi-channel coexistence. Under the new interest rate environment and product structure adjustments, how each company’s channel strategies will evolve in 2026 remains a topic of ongoing attention.