China Life, Tokio Marine team up for cross-marketing – 台北時報

By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter

China Life Insurance Co (中國人壽) and Tokio Marine Newa Insurance Co (新安東京海上產險) yesterday said they have formed a partnership to jointly promote and expand their insurance product offerings and market.

Property insurer Tokio Marine Newa is to train China Life’s about 15,000 sales agents, including helping them pass licensure tests to be able to register as Tokio Marine’s sales agents, the two companies told a joint news conference in Taipei.

The sales agents can then sell both China Life’s life insurance policies and Tokio Marine’s property insurance policies, including car, fire and travel insurance, the companies said.

Photo courtesy of China Life Insurance Co via CNA

Tokio Marine, which has only 300 sales agents, hopes to improve the visibility of its products with the help of China Life’s sales agents, while China Life hopes to satisfy the needs of its consumers for property insurance, they said.

China Life is a unit of China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控), while Tokio Marine is a joint investment between Yulon Group (裕隆集團) and Japan-based Tokio Marine Group.

Asked why China Development Financial did not consider setting up its own property insurance unit, China Life president Stephanie Hwang (黃淑芬) said that cultivating talent and establishing a network would take a lot of time and resources, but “our clients have a need for property insurance right now.”

Given Tokio Marine’s expertise in the field of property insurance and as it shares the same business concepts as China Life, the collaboration makes sense and should create a win-win situation, she said, adding that both companies expect the partnership to boost their sales this year.

Although the Financial Supervisory Commission allows insurers with different parent companies to share consumers’ data for marketing if they have obtained consumers’ consent, most local insurers prefer to cooperate with affiliated firms.

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