China Life's Liming Guang Discusses Channel Development Strategy: Multi-Polar Growth Engines Collaborate to Drive Growth, with Individual Insurance Channels Fully Leveraging Their Role as the Core Main Channel

Beijing Business Daily (Reporter Hu Yongxin) — On March 26, China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “China Life”) held its 2025 annual performance release conference simultaneously in Beijing and Hong Kong. During the event, President Li Mingguang provided an overview of the company’s business and operations.

Regarding channel development, Li Mingguang stated that China Life fully leverages its omnichannel management advantages, with individual insurance as the core, and multiple channels such as bancassurance and group insurance flourishing. The company continues to improve the professionalism of its channels, enhance product and service offerings, and comprehensively meet the diversified insurance needs of customers for annuities, life insurance, and health insurance, creating a well-balanced, multi-driven structure.

Li Mingguang emphasized that among all sales channels, the individual insurance channel plays a leading role and maintains sustainable development capabilities. Data shows that in 2025, the overall development of the individual insurance channel remains steady with continuous improvement in key indicators. The channel is also accelerating its transformation and upgrading, resulting in a more diversified business structure. In terms of scale, the total premium income reached 551.79 billion yuan, a 4.3% increase year-over-year. Renewal premiums totaled 442.29 billion yuan, up 7.9%. In terms of value, new business value for individual insurance was 39.3 billion yuan, a 25.5% increase, contributing 85.9% to overall value, fully demonstrating the channel’s primary role in value contribution. Structurally, the proportion of first-year premiums with a ten-year or longer payment period increased to 58.5%, reinforcing sustainable growth and strengthening long-term competitive advantages. The proportion of flexible premium payment types in first-year premiums surged to nearly 60%, indicating significant transformation results. Additionally, the individual insurance channel steadily advances its marketing system reform, focusing on quality and stability, enhancing premium growth and talent development, optimizing team structure, and continuously improving team strength. The team’s professionalism, specialization, and youthfulness are accelerating. The quality of the team continues to improve, with new personnel increasing by 40% year-over-year, a 2.2 percentage point increase in 13-month retention rate, and personnel aged 45 and below accounting for an additional 2.3 percentage points.

Regarding the development of the bancassurance channel, Li Mingguang noted that over the past year, the channel effectively played a strategic role, continuously enriching its product portfolio to meet diverse customer needs, resulting in leapfrog growth in business and a significant increase in premium scale. In 2025, the total premiums for this channel reached 110.87 billion yuan, a 45.5% increase year-over-year; new single premiums totaled 58.51 billion yuan, up 95.7%, contributing 25% to the company’s new single premiums. Meanwhile, the bancassurance channel persisted in comprehensive channel deployment, expanding and improving branch operations, with double-digit growth in new and star-rated branches. Focused on professional development, the channel promoted steady growth in team size and quality, with customer managers’ first-year premium capacity increasing by 53.7% year-over-year. He stated that moving forward, the bancassurance channel will focus on deepening channel cultivation and boosting branch capacity as key breakthroughs, supported by strengthening team capabilities, upgrading professional skills, deepening cooperative ecosystems, and continuously enhancing channel contribution.