The company's legal mandatory training or free lectures featuring celebrities such as entertainers is actively recruiting numerous consumers and encouraging them to sign up for insurance through 'briefing sales.' Though briefing sales are not illegal, there is a high potential for incomplete sales due to the nature of having to sign contracts in a short time with dozens of people, so caution is advised. Recently, the 'short premium whole life insurance,' which is whole life insurance, is being disguised as a savings insurance financial technology tool.
The Financial Supervisory Service noted, 'As a result of a clandestine inspection, briefing sales primarily emphasize the advantages of insurance products in a short period, raising concerns about consumer harm,' and issued a consumer alert at the 'caution' level on Feb. 2.
Briefing sales start by attracting consumers under the pretense of inviting them to free lectures hosted by parenting experts, star instructors, EBS instructors, comedians, and sex education instructors. The sales organization sends a notification message to the winners two to three days later, but only mentions that 'sponsor promotion time' is included without revealing that insurance sales are taking place. The FSS explained, 'Most of the time, they inform attendees that only women can participate and that men and minors are not allowed to attend.'
After the free lecture begins, the insurance planner appears to introduce insurance products under the guise of financial technology education and financial consulting. Recently, it has become common to promote whole life insurance, which has a simple product structure and is easy to explain. Despite being a guarantee product that provides death benefits, it is emphasized as a savings product for financial technology.
In this process, participants are collectively encouraged to sign up for insurance, leading to claims that business costs are reduced, and to hide the briefing sales, the use of mobile phones is prohibited, with event staff regularly checking phone usage.
If there are individuals willing to sign up, contracts are finalized in a separate location, where all insurance contract procedures, including the completion of the application form and personal information consent form, take place within approximately 20 minutes. Particularly, they are instructed to inaccurately fill in mandatory disclosure items such as height, weight, and occupation, and during the follow-up call to confirm if a complete sale was made, they are led to answer 'no' to the question about 'briefing.'
The FSS emphasized once again that the product primarily sold in briefing sales is short premium whole life insurance, and that whole life insurance is not a savings product. The FSS stated, 'Whole life insurance requires the payment and maintenance of premiums over a long period,' and advised, 'Do not be swayed by sensational wording that urges you to sign up.'
Regarding the promotion of the idea that signing up collectively in briefing sales reduces business costs, the FSS stated, 'Individuals are signing up for insurance products individually, not collectively.' They added, 'Do not rely solely on the information heard at the briefing sales site; carefully check the contents of the insurance terms and product descriptions.'
The FSS also noted, 'If you do not answer truthfully to the questions on the application form, you may face disadvantages,' and 'Because follow-up calls can be used as evidence in case of future disputes, take enough time to make your own judgment and respond.'
The FSS plans to form a 'joint clandestine inspection team' in collaboration with the Life Insurance Association and insurance companies in the future to conduct surprise checks on briefing sales activities.