South Korea: Majority of life insurance planners fail to survive their first year

| 14 Dec 2021

Nearly 60% (specifically, 58.5%) of life insurance planners quit the sector or have negligible sales performance before the end of their first year in business, amid a prolonged COVID-19 crisis.

The planners hired by the nation’s 20 major life insurance companies showed an average registered settlement rate of 41.5% (based on the period from January to June) for their 13th month in business, reported Korea Bizwire citing data from the Financial Supervisory Service. The registered settlement rate for the 13th month in business refers to the ratio of those who remain in business for more than one year.

In the non-life sector, the registered settlement rate of the financial planners employed by the nation’s 12 general insurers averaged 57.6%.

This proportion is higher than that of life insurance planners but still indicates that more than 40% have quit or have negligible sales.

“There are many people who became insurance planners after losing their jobs due to the pandemic, but eventually quit due to sluggish sales performance,” an industry official said.