Recently, with the release of first-half results from major listed life insurance companies, bancassurance business has surged ahead, once again overtaking individual insurance to become the largest distribution channel by new business market share. Meanwhile, the individual insurance channel, traditionally the core value driver, has shown relatively subdued performance with lackluster premium growth and some companies experiencing contraction. The structure of individual insurance premiums has also undergone new changes, with listed insurers' individual insurance new business universally under pressure, while renewal business has become the "ballast" stabilizing overall performance.

At the same time, dividend insurance has gained widespread support as a key tool to address interest rate spread risk. Senior executives at listed insurers have all expressed their commitment to continue strengthening dividend insurance offerings. However, different companies adopted varying strategies and intensities in developing dividend insurance during the first half. Some companies, particularly during the first quarter's "good start" period, still primarily focused on traditional products. During the same period, companies like Taiping Life, China Life, and CPIC Life saw dividend insurance account for over 50% of their individual insurance channel's new single premium business, with product structure transformation deeply reshaping the business logic and profitability of individual insurance.

**Individual Insurance Sluggish: Five Major A-Share Listed Insurers Show 1.01% YoY Growth in Individual Insurance Premiums, with New Business Decline Dragging Channel Growth**

In the first half of this year, listed insurers' individual insurance channels were generally under pressure. Compared to the robust double-digit growth of bancassurance channels, individual insurance channel premium growth was limited, with some insurers' individual insurance metrics even contracting.

According to half-year reports from listed insurers, the five major A-share listed insurers' individual insurance channels collectively achieved premiums of 962.814 billion yuan, up 1.01% year-on-year, showing weak growth. Specifically, China Life's individual insurance channel achieved premiums of 404.448 billion yuan, up 2.64% year-on-year; Ping An's life and health insurance business agent channel achieved scale premiums of 313.046 billion yuan, down 3.3% year-on-year; CPIC Life's agent channel achieved premiums of 137.38 billion yuan, up 0.9% year-on-year; New China Life's individual insurance channel achieved premiums of 72.526 billion yuan, up 5.5% year-on-year; PICC Life's individual insurance channel achieved premiums of 35.414 billion yuan, up 3% year-on-year.

**New Business Under Pressure, Renewal Business Shows Significant Pull Effect**

From a business type perspective, most listed insurers' individual insurance premium growth pressure mainly stemmed from negative growth in new business, with total channel premiums maintaining positive growth primarily supported by larger-scale renewal business. In the first half, China Life's individual insurance channel long-term first-year business premiums were 64.252 billion yuan, down 24.17% year-on-year; Ping An's life and health insurance business agent channel new business premiums fell 20.67% year-on-year to 75.603 billion yuan, while renewal business premiums increased 3.63%; CPIC Life's individual insurance channel new business fell 7.7% year-on-year, while renewal business increased slightly by 2.7%; PICC Life's long-term first-year premiums were 9.826 billion yuan, down 9.8% year-on-year, while renewal business premiums rose 9.1%.

As the listed insurer with the highest individual insurance growth rate in the first half, New China Life was relatively unique, with channel growth driven by new business. The half-year report showed New China Life's individual insurance channel achieved long-term first-year premiums of 14.506 billion yuan, up significantly 70.8% year-on-year, while renewal premiums declined somewhat, falling 3.6% year-on-year to 57.462 billion yuan. However, even with individual insurance channel long-term new business growing over 70% year-on-year, it was still far below the bancassurance channel's long-term first-year premium growth of 150.3%, showing no outstanding growth advantage.

It must be noted that many factors affect individual insurance channel operating results, including team quality, channel product strategy, commission strategy, and external market environment, all of which are important influencing factors. High growth doesn't necessarily mean high quality and may just be the result of aggressive strategies, while low growth doesn't necessarily mean poor results and could be the result of insurers' high focus on cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

**New Business Value Grows Steadily, China Life Leads with 24.337 Billion Yuan**

Currently, due to the dual pressure from new accounting standards implementation and solvency pressure, some insurers have lowered their assessment of premium scale, instead focusing on net assets, profits, and other indicators, emphasizing new business value growth.

Reports show China Life's individual insurance channel achieved new business value of 24.337 billion yuan in the first half, up 9.51% year-on-year; Ping An's agent channel generated new business value of 14.397 billion yuan, up 17% year-on-year; Taiping Life's individual insurance channel achieved new business value of 4.07 billion yuan, up 22.4% year-on-year; New China Life's individual insurance channel achieved new business value of 3.105 billion yuan, up 11.69% year-on-year; PICC Life's individual insurance channel achieved new business value of 2.048 billion yuan, up 4.07% year-on-year.

As a core indicator measuring insurers' long-term profitability, compared to the industry's overall significant decline in new business value at the beginning of the year, listed insurers' individual insurance channels showed recovery in new business value performance in the first half of this year. Ping An, Taiping Life, and New China Life all recorded double-digit growth, reflecting that each insurer's individual insurance transformation has entered a new stage with certain achievements.

**Product Strategy Differentiation: Taiping Life's Individual Insurance Dividend Insurance Ratio Reaches 97.5%, While Ping An Life and PICC Life Still Dominated by Traditional Insurance**

As the life insurance industry's individual insurance channel transformation gradually enters deep waters, against the backdrop of uncertain interest rate trends, intensified market competition, and regulatory policies like "reporting and implementation integration," dividend insurance products, as key transformation tools, are rapidly becoming one of the best instruments for listed insurers to address uncertainty. However, from listed companies' half-year reports, several companies showed different attitudes and strategies toward dividend insurance.

**Taiping Life's Individual Insurance New Single Long-term Dividend Insurance Ratio Reaches 97.5%, China Life and CPIC Life's Individual Insurance First-year Premium Dividend Insurance Ratios Also Exceed 50%**

In recent years, Taiping Life's dividend insurance transformation has attracted market attention. Previously, when many market participants were still hesitant about product transformation direction, Taiping Life started product transformation earlier than the market, clearly positioning dividend insurance sales as the main transformation direction. In the first half of this year, Taiping Life stated that dividend insurance transformation had "achieved phased results," with dividend insurance accounting for 91.3% of all-channel new single long-term business, and individual insurance new single long-term dividend insurance ratio reaching as high as 97.5%.

Due to higher new business value rates, dividend insurance is becoming an important source of insurers' new business value. It is precisely due to the spread of dividend insurance products in individual insurance new business that Taiping Life's individual insurance channel new business value growth could exceed 20%, leading other life insurance giants.

China Life is also promoting individual insurance development toward floating return products. The half-year report mentioned that China Life's individual insurance channel dividend insurance achieved rapid growth, accounting for over 50% of individual insurance channel first-year premium business. CPIC Life's new single premium dividend insurance premiums surged 1380.7% year-on-year in the first half, with the ratio rising to 42.5%. The agent channel's new premium business dividend insurance ratio reached 51%. However, CPIC Life's overall dividend insurance premium ratio fell 3% year-on-year, while traditional insurance overall premium ratio increased 15.1%, with renewal business influence still dominant.

**Ping An Life and PICC Life Express Support for Dividend Insurance, New China Life Begins Focusing on Dividend Insurance in Q2**

Ping An did not directly mention individual insurance channel dividend insurance transformation, but overall, in the first half of 2025, Ping An's dividend insurance premium ratio just broke through 10%, reaching 12.79%, with product structure still dominated by traditional life insurance. However, according to Ping An co-CEO and Deputy General Manager Guo Xiaotao, dividend insurance already accounted for about 40% of new single value in the first half. Guo Xiaotao also stated: "After the upcoming predetermined interest rate reduction this year, dividend insurance ratio will continue to rise in the second half."

PICC Life also did not directly mention specific individual insurance dividend insurance transformation situations. However, unlike most market participants, while individual insurance new business shrank and shifted to bancassurance, PICC Life's dividend insurance ratio significantly decreased in the first half, falling from 36.4% in the same period last year to 12.6%, with premiums down 60.3% year-on-year, likely due to large amounts of existing dividend insurance business expiring. China PICC Deputy General Manager and PICC Life General Manager Xiao Jianyou also publicly stated that in the second half, PICC Life will optimize product structure, comprehensively focus on high-value products like annuity insurance and whole life insurance, while accelerating dividend insurance product transformation to prevent interest rate spread risk.

New China Life stated in its half-year report that it would "focus on promoting dividend insurance transformation, especially promoting ten-year dividend insurance sales." At New China Life's interim results conference, New China Life President Gong Feng mentioned: "From cumulative premiums, individual insurance channel April-July dividend insurance premium business accounted for over 70%... With predetermined interest rate reductions, dividend insurance ratios are expected to gradually increase, and the company will treat dividend products as mainstream products."

It can be seen that several listed insurers have different progress and attitudes toward individual insurance channel dividend insurance transformation, reflecting different development approaches among life insurance giants facing industry transformation. Some insurers start with product structure, promoting dividend insurance transformation in individual insurance channels, establishing refined management mechanisms including risk control, portfolio management, and long-term strategic investment; some insurers take advantage of "reporting and implementation integration" not yet being implemented in individual insurance, providing large short-term subsidies to individual insurance agents, extensively developing short-payment, quick-return products to establish short-term relative advantages over other insurers; some insurers simply shift focus to bancassurance, reducing human resources, product, and expense investments in individual insurance channels.

**Listed Insurers' Individual Insurance Workforce Development Deepens Specialization and Stabilization, Focusing on Workforce Effectiveness, High-Performance Rates, and Activity Rates**

In recent years, betting on bancassurance channels has gradually become consensus in the life insurance industry. However, as the most controllable channel for insurers, the importance of individual insurance channels cannot be underestimated. Individual insurance transformation is not just about switching a few products. Having a high-quality, professional individual insurance agent team, replacing scale workforce with indicators like effective workforce, high-performing workforce, and per-capita productivity, will become important factors supporting stable value improvement in individual insurance channels under pressure from premium growth.

In the first half, listed insurers promoted structural transformation of individual insurance teams from "quantity" to "quality." Against the backdrop of overall industry workforce scale stabilization, indicators like "effective workforce," "high-performing workforce," and "average monthly productivity" became new standards for measuring individual insurance team health. Although companies' strategies differed, all showed development paths shifting from crowd tactics to elite, professional, and productivity-driven approaches.

• China Life strengthened the individual insurance workforce management concept of "building teams with customer resources," insisting on quality recruitment and development. First-half individual insurance sales workforce remained stable at 592,000 people. Although total numbers didn't grow significantly, quality recruitment workforce increased 27.6% year-on-year, with team structure continuously optimizing.

• Taiping Life's individual insurance team productivity was further enhanced. In the first half, "million workforce" exceeded 3,000 people, up 5.1% year-on-year. Management-level active workforce monthly per-capita productivity was 813,000 yuan, up 4.2% year-on-year; monthly per-capita new business value reached 19,200 yuan, up 23.1% year-on-year. Current year new recruits' active workforce monthly per-capita productivity was 282,000 yuan, up 16.1% year-on-year; monthly per-capita new business value was 8,031 yuan, up 9.9% year-on-year.

• New China Life proposed "focusing on marketing around teams" for individual insurance team building, comprehensively improving channel professional management capabilities through five main measures: improving management systems, strengthening team building, enhancing product promotion, deepening customer management, and intelligent tool empowerment.

In the first half, New China Life's individual insurance agents' scale workforce was 133,000 people, with monthly average per-capita comprehensive productivity of 16,700 yuan, up significantly 74% year-on-year. Monthly average qualified workforce was 25,000 people, with a qualification rate of 18.6%; monthly average high-performing workforce was 17,900 people, with monthly average high-performance rate of 13.3%; monthly average ten-thousand-C workforce was 4,300 people, with monthly average ratio of 3.2%.

• CPIC Life focused on key regions, key managers and high-performing agents, strengthened quality team recruitment, implemented solid team management, strengthened team training, and promoted team quality improvement. In the first half, CPIC Life's monthly average marketers were 183,000 people, with end-period workforce increasing to 186,000 people, up 1.6% year-on-year. New workforce additions were 39,000 people, up 19.8% year-on-year. In terms of productivity, CPIC Life's core workforce monthly per-capita first-year scale premiums were 72,870 yuan, up 12.7% year-on-year. However, affected by "reporting and implementation integration," CPIC Life's core workforce monthly per-capita first-year commission income decreased 13.4% to 7,120 yuan.

• PICC Life emphasized individual insurance workforce "effectiveness." In the first half, PICC Life's marketer scale workforce was 79,218 people, with monthly average effective workforce of 21,030 people. New army channel ten-year and above premium income increased 19.9% year-on-year, with effective workforce up 17.5% year-on-year; comprehensive finance channel ten-year and above first-year premium income increased 64.2% year-on-year, with first-year premiums up 4.3% year-on-year.

Overall, current individual insurance team development at listed insurers can be summarized into two common trends:

First, shifting from emphasizing scale to emphasizing quality. The industry universally abandons traditional "large in, large out" crowd models, instead focusing on quality indicators like effective workforce, activity rates, and high-performance rates, emphasizing team professionalism and stability.

Second, deep integration of team transformation with product transformation. Promotion of complex, high-value products like dividend insurance requires agents to have higher professional capabilities and long-term service abilities, also forcing insurers to optimize team structure, strengthen professional training, and improve incentive mechanisms.