Analysis of the current situation of insurance agency industry

-Original title: Will insurance agents lose their jobs? Through this article, we will know the current situation and development trend of China insurance market in 20021year.

In 2020, a sudden epidemic made people in uncertainty realize the role of insurance in dealing with emergencies and increasing their ability to resist risks in life. The good policy of insurance companies has become a thing of the past, and the traditional business operation mode relying on the scale advantage of agents has been far from meeting the needs of users, and major insurance companies have laid off employees. At the same time, the application of highly convenient and flexible insurance technology has rapidly brought into play the process of users' insurance and participation, and various traditional insurance companies have accelerated their digital transformation under the epidemic situation.

With the help of digitalization and Internet, traditional insurance companies are reshaping their structures, in which the cost structure will undergo earth-shaking changes and the manpower for repetitive work will be replaced by technology. With the joining of the Internet, insurance companies have broadened the channels of obtaining customers, reduced the cost of obtaining customers, and also reduced the operating costs to a certain extent. At present, the technical input cost of head insurance companies is increasing year by year, aiming at speeding up the digitalization process, reconstructing the cost structure and striving for the first difference in fees.

Major listed companies in the insurance industry: Ping An of China (60 13 18), PICC of China (601319), Xinhua Life Insurance (60 1336), Taiping of China (00966.HK) and China Life Insurance.

1, the sea of people tactics has become a thing of the past, and the epidemic has accelerated the downsizing of insurance companies.

The entry of 1992 AIA has brought the agency system to the insurance industry in China, and formed the mainstream pyramid agency structure in China at present. After this system was introduced into various insurance companies, it gradually solidified the division of sales expenses and the system of rewards and punishments, and formed the "basic law" of various companies at present.

According to the results of combing the development history of insurance in China, this "golden tower" agent system actually gradually stabilized in 2005 and became the supporting force of insurance companies' premium income. In the early stage of China's insurance development, the number of insurance agents determines the premium income, so all insurance companies need to increase personnel.

Before the transformation, all insurance companies were increasing the number of employees and expanding the number of agents, especially in 20 15, when the agent qualification examination was cancelled, and the number of agents increased from 20 19 in 20 14 to 9 12, but after 20 15 years. Major insurance companies have changed from "quantity growth" to "quality growth", focusing on improving per capita production capacity. Crowd tactics, It will eventually become a thing of the past..

According to the breakdown of insurance companies, the increase in the number of agents has slowed down to varying degrees. Judging from the public information of some head insurance companies, head insurance companies tend to downplay the good start and improve the quality of agents (the number of agents is growing slowly). From 20 18 to 2020, the number of agents in China Ping An, China Pacific Insurance and China Taiping will all decrease to varying degrees. The number of China Ping An's agents has decreased from14200 in 20 18 to10500 in 2020, a decrease of 26 1% in just three years, which shows the strength of downsizing.

2. The traditional core system can no longer meet the current demand, and the epidemic has forced the insurance industry to speed up the digital transformation.

The traditional core system has gradually failed to meet the current business development needs, and business processes have gradually changed to customer needs in the era of big data; Due to the long product development cycle, complex business and large amount of data in the operation process of traditional insurance companies, it also brings high load to the core system of traditional insurance companies, and the processing of high-frequency data gradually becomes insufficient, resulting in low information exchange rate and low efficiency in the operation process of insurance companies, which is a drag on the development of business. Therefore, the core system of traditional insurance companies needs to adapt to the changes of business needs, realize product diversification and optimize user experience on the basis of Internet traffic.

In 2020, a sudden epidemic made people in uncertainty realize the role of insurance in dealing with emergencies and increasing their ability to resist risks in life. However, due to the need for home isolation during the epidemic, the prospect of returning to work is far away, and problems such as the difficulty of agent exhibition and reaching customers have begun to plague traditional insurance companies, which to some extent forced these insurance companies with relatively backward technology to accelerate their transformation.

Three-dimensional service forms such as full journey, omni-channel and full scene for digital users around the mobile terminal will also maximize user value. Since 2020, especially during the period of limited offline services, the number of digital users in the field of insurance services has been increasing, and the monthly active users have reached an all-time high of 47.565 million.

Judging from the user activity and industry penetration rate of APP in the insurance service field, the emerging Internet insurance field has great development potential. Among them, the advantages of Internet insurance companies such as Zhongan Insurance are more prominent. In June 2020, 5438+ 10, Zhongan Insurance ranked first with 2.325 million active users, and its penetration rate in the insurance service industry was the highest, reaching 5.3%.

In 2020, "double 1 1", insurance companies will also take APP as the main battlefield of marketing services, while Zhongan Insurance reached 827,000 daily users during the peak period of activities, and the number of insured users increased by 247% year-on-year.

Judging from the degree of active users of the APP in the whole insurance service field, China Ping An, China Life Insurance, CPIC, Zhongan and PICC are in the first camp in the insurance service field, with the monthly total active users of the corresponding insurance service APP exceeding 6.5438+0 million.

3. Insurance technology greatly optimizes the experience of insurance users.

Under the epidemic situation, various traditional insurance companies have accelerated the layout of insurance technology, which has penetrated into many links such as product design, sales, insurance underwriting, claims settlement and so on. , and greatly shorten the process of insurance and compensation for users, and greatly optimize the experience of insurance users.

Among them, in terms of product design, insurance technology can achieve accurate differentiated pricing. For example, auto insurance collects big data on driving habits and accurately evaluates the risk level of drivers' driving behavior, thus determining different premium levels and improving risk pricing ability;

In terms of channels, through big data and artificial intelligence as the main technologies, we can make 360-degree accurate portraits of customers, realize accurate positioning of customer groups, arm agents' skills and provide customized insurance solutions.

In the process of insurance and underwriting, the application of intelligent process, electronic insurance policy and automatic underwriting is helpful to reduce costs and increase efficiency; Claims and after-sales, through artificial intelligence and big data technology, insurance companies can significantly improve the efficiency of claims, achieve anti-fraud claims, and enhance customer experience.

4. Digital upgrade promotes insurance companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

High cost has always been an unavoidable pain point for insurance companies. The insurance industry belongs to personnel-intensive industry to a certain extent, and the labor cost of insurance companies in China accounts for about 30% of the total cost. Secondly, the high channel fees of insurance companies, the high commission of agents and the high commission rate of intermediary distribution channels also lead to the soaring operating costs of insurance companies to some extent; Finally, the insurance company's own risk control link. Operational risks such as claims caused by external fraud have also made insurance companies with weak risk control worse.

From the perspective of cost reduction, digital transformation can replace some unnecessary repetitive work in the background to some extent, save labor costs and improve the internal operation efficiency of insurance enterprises; Secondly, through the blessing of digitalization and other technologies, the per capita production capacity of agents will also have room for improvement, and the relative cost will also be reduced. With the help of digital transformation, insurance companies can also make channel operations more professional, optimize processes and business structures, and greatly improve operational efficiency; Through big data analysis in risk control, potential risks are identified in time and early warning is made.

5. Marketing innovation is the most valuable direction.

Marketing cost is the biggest cost besides compensation cost. Regardless of the initial stage of development or the mature stage, the sales link is always the lifeblood of the insurance company, and the business ability is strong, and the cost of the insurance company's investment in the sales end is very high. In 20 19, the sales cost of life insurance is the biggest cost item except compensation expenses, and the sales cost is as high as 81400 million RMB, accounting for 14.53% of the earned premium. The high cost of sales leads to the decline of the profitability of insurance companies, the increase of the bundled yield and the increase of the pressure on the asset side.

For property insurance, this phenomenon is more obvious. In recent years, the competition of property insurance has gradually intensified, and the price war has intensified. The sales expense of 20 19 of property insurance is also the biggest one besides the compensation expense. The sales cost of property insurance in 20 19 is RMB 77.9 billion, accounting for 20.47% of the earned premium.

It can be seen that for property insurance and life insurance, the cost of sales is still the biggest cost item except compensation expenses. Therefore, the importance of digitalization is self-evident on the way for insurance companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency and obtain sustainable product capabilities.

6. The investment in science and technology of insurance companies continued to increase, and the transformation and upgrading of the industry accelerated.

On the other hand, with the blessing of emerging technologies and the support of policies, domestic insurance companies began to actively carry out information technology innovation, and various insurance companies increased their investment in insurance technology and enterprise IT.

According to the public data released by the China Banking Regulatory Commission, in 2020, the direct investment in information technology of major insurance institutions was 35.62 billion yuan, a substantial increase from 26.8 billion yuan in 20 18. The proportion of insurance technology in premium income has also increased year by year, indicating that insurance companies pay more attention to the investment in technology. Conversely, the original premium income has also increased from 3.8 trillion in 20 18 to 2020. The technical upgrading of insurance institutions has entered a stage of rapid growth, and insurance companies in internet insurance channels have increased their investment in science and technology and further digitized, which has accelerated the progress of the whole industry.

For more industry-related data, please refer to China Insurance Industry Market Foresight and Investment Planning Analysis Report of Forward-looking Industry Research Institute.