Prop up the third pillar of pension insurance
A few days ago, the "Opinions on Strengthening Work on the Elderly in the New Era" issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council proposed to vigorously develop enterprise (occupation) annuities and promote and standardize the development of the third-pillar endowment insurance.
The development of the third pillar endowment insurance is an important measure to promote the reform of my country's endowment insurance system, and it also puts forward new requirements for commercial insurance to participate in the construction of the third pillar.
The reporter learned during the interview that, at present, the framework of my country's multi-level social security system has basically taken shape, and the basic lives of urban and rural residents have been effectively guaranteed.
However, the overall development of the endowment insurance system is not yet balanced. It relies more on the basic endowment insurance system of the first pillar. The second pillar enterprise annuity and other supplementary endowment insurance covers a limited number of people and the scale of accumulation is limited. The development of the third pillar is still in its infancy.
Annuity insurance is developing rapidly
From the perspective of fund attributes, pensions have the characteristics of long-term, security, profitability, and receiving constraints.
Annuity insurance is considered to be the most suitable commercial insurance product that has pension functions and is most suitable for participating in the construction of the third pillar.
In recent years, pension annuity insurance has developed rapidly.
In 2020, pension annuity insurance premium income was 71.2 billion yuan, and insurance liability reserves of more than 580 billion yuan were accumulated, an increase of 22% from the beginning of the year.
Zhao Yang, the chief researcher of the Beijing branch of Jianke Insurance Brokers, believes that because the amount of annuity insurance has been written into the contract at the time of purchase, the funds entered into the annuity insurance account cannot be withdrawn at any time, sacrificing part of the liquidity.
In May 2018, the pilot of personal tax deferred pension insurance was launched, marking my country's beginning to explore the use of tax incentives to guide individuals to carry out pension accumulation.
Since the pilot, the operation has been generally stable and the process has been continuously optimized.
As of the end of 2020, a total of 23 insurance companies have participated in the pilot program, 19 companies have issued orders, and accumulated insurance premium income of 426 million yuan, with 48,800 people participating in insurance.
However, industry insiders believe that due to some reasons, the appeal of tax-deferred pension insurance to consumers is still relatively limited.
Wei Chenyang, director of the China Insurance and Pension Research Center of the National Institute of Finance of Tsinghua University, believes that the current third pillar still accounts for a relatively low proportion of the entire pension system.
From the perspective of the construction of the third pillar, some short- and medium-term financial products need to be guided to long-term investment.
As an investment pension insurance product, it must not only outperform price increases, but also maintain and increase the value of assets.
The "China Insurance Industry Development Report 2021" proposes that the life insurance industry should give full play to its advantages in diversifying risks and compensating losses, actively participate in the construction of the third pillar, provide more products, meet the people's growing demand for elderly care, and promote high-quality development of the industry .
Stable advancement of exclusive commercial pension insurance
In May of this year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Notice on Launching Exclusive Commercial Pension Insurance Pilots", clarifying that starting from June 1st, pilots will be launched in Zhejiang Province (including Ningbo City) and Chongqing City.
The trial period is tentatively set for one year.
In view of the problems of limited old-age security measures and insufficient reserves for employees in new industries, new business types, and various flexible employees, relevant departments of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission guided pilot insurance companies to innovate and develop commercial pension products that are simple to insure, flexible in payment, and stable in return. To achieve long-term and stable income on the basis of ensuring the safety of funds; highlight the pension function, link the product period to the pension and provide flexible pension receiving methods; allow relevant enterprises and institutions to provide insurance for employees in accordance with laws and regulations in an appropriate manner Payment support.
Since the launch of the exclusive commercial pension insurance pilot program, as of the end of November 2021, a total of 270 million yuan in premiums have been achieved, and more than 21,000 people have insured.
In October this year, a large online car-hailing platform cooperated with a pilot insurance company to launch a driver-only commercial pension insurance plan ("driver plan") to establish supplementary pension insurance for online car-hailing drivers.
After obtaining the driver's consent in advance, the platform will provide a certain percentage of payment support for qualified drivers to insure exclusive commercial pension insurance as agreed.
The platform pays and enters the driver’s personal insurance policy account, and all rights and interests belong to the individual.
The "Driver Plan" has been piloted in Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Chongqing, and there are currently about 7,000 drivers insured.
According to the relevant person in charge of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the main goal of the exclusive commercial pension insurance pilot is to further leverage the role of commercial insurance in long-term pension savings and risk protection, and through innovative products and services, to get closer and better meet new industries and new industries. Various types of people such as business type employees and flexible employees have diversified elderly care needs.
In the next step, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission will also orderly expand the scope of participation of insurance institutions, and promote the exclusive commercial pension insurance business to the whole country.
Pension finance still needs to work harder
Judging from the practice of other countries, the third pillar includes not only insurance products, but also public funds and bank wealth management products.
In my country, the public fund industry began to issue pension target funds in 2018.
As of the end of 2020, there are 117 pension target funds with a scale of 52.677 billion yuan.
However, compared with the overall scale of public funds exceeding 20 trillion yuan in the same period, the issuance of pension target funds is still very limited.
The reporter learned that the regulatory authorities are adopting a "walking on two legs" approach.
On the one hand, rectify the market order and clean up short-term financial products that are gimmicks of "elderly care"; on the other hand, select some financial institutions and franchised institutions to carry out pension financial pilot projects in some areas first, and vigorously develop pension financial products that truly have long-term pension functions , Including pension savings deposits, pension financing, exclusive pension insurance, commercial pension plans, etc., for consumers with different risk preferences to choose.
Wei Chenyang believes that the "cake" in my country's pension insurance market is gradually expanding, and banks, wealth management subsidiaries, fund companies, and insurance companies should all actively participate.
With the continuous development of the pension financial market, the public's concept of pensions must also be continuously upgraded, and the money previously used for short- and medium-term financial products must be re-allocated according to the needs of pensions.
The relevant person in charge of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission said that the next step will be to do a good job in three aspects.
One is to promote the pilot pension finance in a steady and orderly manner.
Under the premise of prudential supervision, support relevant institutions to innovate, develop and launch various types of pension financial products.
Strengthen business supervision and carry out the construction of related supervision systems.
The second is to give play to the role of commercial pension insurance in the construction of the third pillar.
Insist on strengthening the protection function of commercial endowment insurance, and support the development of endowment insurance that is simple to insure, flexible in payment, and stable in return.
The third is to cooperate with relevant departments to carry out the third pillar related system construction, and do a good job in supporting work.
Many industry insiders said that the pension business is an important direction for the transformation and high-quality development of China's life insurance industry, and it is also a key area for the industry to play its long-term savings function.
Strengthen the participation of commercial insurance in the construction of the third pillar, encourage insurance institutions to develop diversified endowment insurance products that meet consumers’ lifetime and long-term receiving needs, and shift from being accustomed to comparing benefits with traditional products to highlighting and exerting protection functions, which can promote the extension of life insurance business Expansion is shifting to connotative development.
Yu Yong
Yu Yong