Kim Cheol-ju, head of the Korea Life Insurance Association, said in a New Year's message on the 31st that "we will make 2026 the year when protection of insurance consumers is substantively implemented in the industry field."
Kim said, "Member companies and the association will run a 'consumer-centered insurance task force (TF)' to reexamine the entire insurance value chain from product development and underwriting to sales and claims payment," adding, "We will strengthen sales responsibility across distribution channels to minimize misselling, and we will also reorganize the association to align it with consumer protection."
Kim also set out a plan to support the life insurance sector's entry into new markets. Kim said, "life insurance must leap beyond traditional life insurance to become a life care industry that looks after all aspects of life," adding, "To ease the financial burden on families affected by dementia, we will strengthen linkages between trusts and insurance products and promote the revitalization of the life insurance industry's trust business, including expanding products eligible for trust of insurance claim rights."
Kim also pledged to focus on a shift to productive finance. Kim said, "To expand investment capacity for productive finance and reasonably ease the burden of prudential management, we will continue to propose improvements to capital regulations and asset-liability management (ALM) rules," adding, "We will support the practical use in the field of diverse asset management and ALM tools so that the life insurance industry can fully perform its role as an institutional investor."
Kim said he would also prepare measures to strengthen core insurance competitiveness. He said, "We will support expanding the use of artificial intelligence (AI), which had been used in a limited way, across core insurance operations such as risk analysis, actuarial work, customer management, and sales activities," adding, "To further strengthen the life insurance industry's competitiveness and role in the annuity market, we will actively review proposals to improve the regulatory framework, including a dual-track approach to regulations for annuity insurance and savings-type insurance."