Five years after its sales arm’s spin-off, Hanwha Life showcases Hanwha Life Financial Services as a successful example of separating insurance manufacturing and distribution. The subsidiary has become a prominent player in the Korean general agency (GA) market, demonstrating substantial growth in scale, profitability, and sales quality.
Hanwha Life announced on Thursday that Hanwha Life Financial Services, the first insurer-owned sales-only subsidiary in the industry, has expanded its agent network to over 27,000. This represents an approximate 50% increase since its inception. Including agents from affiliated general agencies, the total agent count approaches 35,000, with a target of reaching 40,000 within the current year.
The company has also experienced robust earnings growth, with revenue increasing more than sevenfold from 328 billion won in 2021 to nearly 2.5 trillion won ($1.7 billion) last year. Since achieving profitability in 2023, the annual net profit has consistently exceeded 100 billion won.
Hanwha Life stated that the separation has positively impacted the parent insurer’s performance. The annualized premium equivalent (APE) for new business has more than doubled during the same period, rising from 1.57 trillion won to 3.65 trillion won.
The company also highlighted improvements in sales quality. Its misselling ratio decreased to 0.02 percent last year, a significant reduction from 0.05 percent in 2021. According to Hanwha Life, this figure is considerably lower than the 0.07 percent average among Korea’s top 30 GAs.
Agent earnings have also seen a significant upswing, with average annual pay doubling from 42.21 million won to 84.4 million won. This is significantly higher than the industry average of 55.6 million won, based on data from the Korea Life Insurance Association. The number of agents earning over 100 million won annually reached 5,600 last year.
Hanwha Life Financial Services credits its growth in both scale and quality for its achievement as the first GA in Korea to receive an A+ corporate credit rating with a stable outlook in December 2024. The company also emphasized consistently positive assessments in the Financial Supervisory Service’s internal control evaluations.
Looking forward, the company plans to enhance consumer protection and further refine its “complete sales” process, shifting its focus from competition based solely on scale to a trust-based platform model.
“We will continue to set a new standard for consumer protection and ethical management as a leading company in the GA industry,” said Chief Executive Choi Seung-young.
jwc
