[THE INVESTOR] The total assets under management of Korean insurers will reach 1,000 trillion won (US$868 billion) later this year on growing demand for post-retirement products, industry data showed July 4.

As of the end of April, domestic life and non-life insurers held a combined 977.59 trillion won in assets, up 2.9 percent from the 950.1 trillion won at the end of December, according to data offered by local insurers.

“People are more concerned about life after retirement as Korea is one of the most rapidly aging countries. So they buy more insurance products such as individual pension accounts to help financially support themselves after retirement,” an industry official said. 



But the domestic insurance market has reached a saturation point. Moreover, low growth and low interest rates remain major obstacles for local insurers in making profits from their asset management, he warned.

With the country’s base rate at an all-time low of 1.25 percent, rates of investment return fell to the lowest of 3.9 percent for life insurance companies with that for non-life insurers also plunging to 3.63 percent at the end of March, the data showed.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)