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securities times reporter yang zhuoqing

after a long period of "clearing out", the number of agents of listed insurance companies has finally stopped falling and stabilized.

according to statistics from the securities times, as of the end of june 2024, the total number of agents of the six major listed life insurance companies, china life, ping an life, taiping life, cpic life, new china life, and picc life, reached 1.6006 million. in half a year, the number has been reduced by 57,900. for comparison, the number of insurance agents of the above six major insurance companies decreased by 380,000 in 2023.

specifically, the first to stabilize was china life, the "big brother of life insurance". in the first half of the year, its individual insurance sales force decreased from 634,000 to 629,000, a decrease of only 5,000 in 6 months, a reduction of 0.8%; as of the end of june, the number of individual life insurance sales agents of ping an life insurance was 340,000, a decrease of 7,000 in half a year, a proportion of about 2%. the number of agents of taiping life, picc life insurance and tai ping life insurance decreased by 3.03%, 7.66% and 8.04% respectively in half a year. the reduction of xinhua insurance was even greater, with 16,000 agents lost in the first half of the year, a reduction of 10.32%.

the data also supports the slowdown in the reduction of insurance agents in the entire industry. industry observation data shows that as of the end of june 2024, the number of individual insurance sales agents of life insurance companies was 2.6203 million, a year-on-year decrease of 12.86%, and the decline was narrowed by 9.65 percentage points compared with the same period last year. in addition, the quality of the agent sales team is also continuously improving. the per capita new order capacity of the individual insurance channel is 101,600 yuan/person, an increase of 15,700 yuan/person year-on-year.

through the samples of listed insurance companies, we can see clearer data indicators of agent quality and efficiency improvement. according to china ping an, in terms of personal channels, the proportion of "excellent +" in ping an life insurance's new manpower in the first half of 2024 increased by 10.2 percentage points year-on-year. in addition, the average monthly income of ping an agents reached 11,962 yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 9.9% year-on-year. among them, the average monthly income of life insurance per capita was 9,608 yuan, an increase of 10.8% year-on-year, the new business value of the agent channel increased by 10.8%, and the average new business value per capita increased by 36% year-on-year.

according to china taiping insurance's semiannual report, in the first half of the year, the average monthly performance rate of taiping life insurance sales agents was 73.8%, an increase of 4.1 percentage points year-on-year; the average monthly core manpower was 60,000, a year-on-year increase of 0.8%; the average monthly first-year premium of the core manpower was 64,600 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.6%; the average monthly first-year commission income of the core manpower was 8,219 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%.

in addition, the new business value of taiping life's agent channel in the first half of the year was 18.106 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.8%; the average new business value per agent increased by 36.0% year-on-year; the average monthly income of life insurance agents was 9,608 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.8%.

at present, some industry insiders are still cautious about whether the insurance agent team has stabilized. from the industry's perspective, the expected interest rate of life insurance products continues to adjust, and the "integration of insurance and insurance companies" is comprehensively deepened. the individual insurance channel will also be affected, and agents may face certain pressure. from an external perspective, the insurance market demand is more diversified and personalized, and higher professional requirements are placed on agents.

in fact, the number of insurance agents has been declining year by year since it reached a high of 9.1 million in 2019, and the total number is now less than 3 million. in the past five years, many insurance companies have spared no effort to promote various agent reforms, optimize the team structure, create "elite tactics", and actively guide the breakthrough and reshaping of the agent ecosystem.

today, the insurance agent team welcomes more and more high-quality, high-performance professionals, and "clearing the void", improving the quality and training the agents are closely linked. as zhao yonggang, president of china pacific insurance group, said, core manpower is the benchmark for the normal operation and management of the agent team, and the quality and stability of the core manpower is the key factor in the stability of the agent team base.

insurance agents who have survived several years of trials and tribulations have greater potential and resilience to face challenges and promote the further high-quality development of the individual insurance channel. in this process, the agents' sense of self-realization and professional honor will also gradually increase.