Research On The Development Of Individual Agent Of Life Insurance In China

In the early1990s, the branch office of American International Insurance Co., LTD wasfounded in Shanghai. It introduced the individual agent system which was soon adopted andextended by life insurance corporations for the time. Thereafter, the new life insurancemarketing mode based on individual agent has gained a mushroom growth in China, breakingthe traditional marketing patterns and boosting the speed and scale of life insurancedevelopment. As the main driving force of life insurance development, individual agent hasplayed a significant role in exploring the demands on the insurance of the consumers andexpanding businesses for life insurance companies. Yet the China’s insurance industry wasstill in recovery in80’s. Disadvantages of individual agent system were gradually revealed onaccount of inadequate development of life insurance market and the unsound administrativelaws and regulations due to its late start in China, resulting in serious impact on thesustainable development of life insurance companies in our country and even getting thestable development of the entire life insurance industry in stuck. Hence, the primary taskcurrently is to seek out suitable methods for individual agent system transformation so as toaccommodate the development of life insurance market in China.The dissertation starts with the analysis on current situation of life insurance personalagents in our country and external environment of them, sets forth problems existing inindividual agent system, including low credibility, difficult recruitment and low retention rateof individual agents, resulting from ambiguous legal status, pre-commission system,insufficient professional qualities and doubling taxation as well as imperfectsupervision system, and then making deep analysis of the reasons behind these problems bymeans of game model and labor supply model. The current development of life insurancemarket in our country is blocked, faced with the increasingly fierce competition, thetransformation and improvement of individual agents are imperative to promote the stable andsustainable development of life insurance market. The paper is composed of five parts.Chapter one analyzes the current situation of individual agents in life insurance businesses inthe aspects of insurance industry and agents, and uses PEST analysis tools to analyze the external environment for the development of life insurance individual agents. Chaptertwo presents the problems existing in life insurance individual agents andrelated influencing factors, and utilizes the game model to analyze difficulties in lifeinsurance industry and labor supply. Chapter three makes comparative analysis on thedevelopment of personal marketing channel agents in America and Japan, concluding theirexperience to seek better development for domestic individual life insurance agents. Chapterfour puts forward transformation strategies from the perspectives of life insurance company,market and supervision. Chapter five proposes the transformation paths on the basis of theabove analyses: dual-track system, staff system, personal independence agency,exclusive insurance agency and labor dispatch system.The author aims to arouse deeper social thinking about individual agent mode by thispaper. Since the theoretical level of the author is limited, the paper’s study on personal agenttransformation needs to be tested and perfected in future study. And the author hopes to raisemore suitable ideas for the revolution and transformation of China’s individual agent systemthus contributes strengths to the development of China’s life insurance industry.