Where will insurance funds be invested, and how will health management companies plan their business strategies... The PICC management team responds.

Every reporter｜Yuan Yuan Every editor｜Yang Jun

On March 27, China Life Insurance held its 2025 annual performance conference, where the management responded to hot issues of market concern.

“2025 marks the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the first year of China Life Insurance’s ‘building a first-class’ strategy implementation. Facing a complex development environment and arduous reform tasks, China Life Group continues to deepen reforms and steadily promote high-quality development, making solid progress on the journey to build a world-class insurance financial group,” said Ding Xiangqun, Chairman of China Life Insurance, during his speech at the conference.

According to data, in 2025, China Life Insurance achieved original insurance premium income of 738.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%; insurance service income of 570.72 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%; and net profit of 63.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.0%.

China Life Insurance’s total assets have exceeded 2 trillion yuan

The annual report shows that in 2025, China Life Insurance achieved a net profit of 63.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.0%; net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company was 46.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.8%. By the end of 2025, the total assets of China Life Insurance exceeded 2 trillion yuan, reaching 202.7683 billion yuan, an increase of 14.8% compared to the end of the previous year; the investment asset scale exceeded 1.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.8% compared to the beginning of the year.

By segment, in property insurance, in 2025, China Property Insurance achieved insurance service income of 511.594 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%; achieved underwriting profit of 12.535 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 119.4%; comprehensive cost ratio of 97.5%, a year-on-year decrease of 1.3 percentage points; comprehensive loss ratio of 73.9%, a year-on-year increase of 0.9 percentage points; comprehensive expense ratio of 23.6%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.2 percentage points; and achieved net profit of 40.377 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.5%.

In 2025, China Life Insurance achieved insurance service income of 25.337 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%; original insurance premium income increased by 18.8% year-on-year, and periodic premium income increased by 21.0% year-on-year; achieved new business value of 8.229 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 64.5% on a comparable basis; achieved net profit of 11.774 billion yuan.

In health insurance, in 2025, China Health Insurance achieved insurance service income of 30.433 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.8%, and achieved net profit of 8.182 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.8%. New business value amounted to 7.387 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.5% on a comparable basis. Notably, in 2025, China Health Insurance was approved to establish a wholly-owned health management company. According to the annual report, its health management business achieved service income of 509 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.2%, providing various health management services to over 9.52 million customers, with total service volume increasing by 16.9% year-on-year, and the scale and service level of health management business continuously improving.

“The establishment of a health management subsidiary is a core part of China Life Insurance’s construction of a large health and elderly care ecosystem, and a key measure for professional health insurance companies to realize ‘managed care’,” said Shao Liduo, President of China Health Insurance. In the future, China Health Insurance will leverage the professional health management company to better play the dual functions of ‘health protection + health promotion’, focusing on strengthening the layout in three major areas: medical care, pharmaceuticals, and rehabilitation nursing, further promoting the transformation of the health insurance business model from traditional expense reimbursement to managed care.

In 2025, total investment income reached 92.987 billion yuan

On the investment side, in 2025, China Life Insurance achieved total investment income of 92.987 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%; net investment income of 59.411 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.7%; total investment yield of 5.6%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2 percentage points on a restated basis; and net investment yield of 3.5%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2 percentage points on a restated basis, with a three-year average total investment yield of 4.9%.

China Life Insurance stated that the investment sector fully implements the requirements for medium and long-term capital entering the market, actively participates in the pilot reforms of long-term investment for insurance funds, and continuously optimizes the secondary equity investment structure. By using asset securitization as a breakthrough, it increases the efforts in alternative investment transformation and innovation. In 2025, the inter-institutional issuance scale of the China Life Group ranked first among peers in the insurance industry, promoting the landing of the first orders and benchmark projects in multiple industries, effectively integrating the revitalization of existing assets, optimizing corporate financing structure, and meeting the needs of insurance fund allocation with a multi-level securitization product system.

“Insurance funds have long terms, large volumes, and rich investment strategies and diversified tools, making them an important source of long-term patient capital,” said Cai Zhiwei, Vice President of China Life Insurance. In 2026, China Life Insurance will adhere to the concept of ‘long-term investment and value investment’, focusing on four principles: ‘stability, growth, diversification, and innovation’, further optimizing asset allocation and constructing a long-term, stable, and balanced investment portfolio.

From the perspective of major asset investment strategies, fixed income investment is an important measure to achieve asset-liability matching and prevent interest rate risk. In 2026, China Life Insurance will further refine differentiated allocation and precise management based on the different liability funding attributes of property insurance and life insurance; equity investment is the key to stabilizing and enhancing investment performance, and it will insist on steady progress while continuously focusing on high-dividend stock allocations in OCI (other comprehensive income) while concentrating on growth opportunities implied in the 14th Five-Year Plan, strengthening research on key industries and key fields, and reasonably planning TPL stock allocations to construct a long-term performance-stable, market-competitive, and more balanced equity investment portfolio; in alternative investments, in 2025, the China Life Group will use asset securitization and physical asset investment as breakthroughs, actively promoting alternative investment innovation transformation, with the annual exchange ABS issuance scale ranking first in the insurance asset management industry, constructing a business model integrating issuance, management, and investment, effectively achieving compliance with central revitalization of existing assets and meeting the needs for capital allocation.

Opportunities and Challenges in the Insurance Industry

When asked how he views the current opportunities and challenges faced by the insurance industry, Ding Xiangqun stated that under the current international and domestic situation, there are three profound changes: first, the international situation is increasingly complex and variable, with more uncertainties and unpredictable factors; second, a new round of technological revolution, especially the opportunities and challenges brought by artificial intelligence, deepening industrial transformation, and profound changes in lifestyle and business models; third, profound changes in population structure, as China has entered a deeply aging society.

Based on the analysis and understanding of these three aspects, China Life Insurance is committed to leveraging the economic stabilizer and social stabilizer functions of the insurance industry to welcome and respond to future opportunities and challenges: first, new opportunities brought by the switching growth momentum; second, new opportunities brought by leaps in industrial development; third, new opportunities brought by wealth allocation transfer; fourth, new opportunities brought by changes in regional structures.

At the same time, Ding Xiangqun stated that the insurance industry also faces some challenges. “From the perspective of industry development, the supply of insurance products faces matching challenges with risk management needs in economic and social transformation. From the perspective of the financial market, low interest rates may persist for a long time, and volatility may further increase, posing challenges to asset-liability management and financial stability. From the perspective of the technological environment, artificial intelligence may bring disruptive challenges to the traditional insurance industry.”

Ding Xiangqun also stated that most of these difficulties and challenges are problems that can be solved through efforts in development and transformation. China Life Insurance will firmly maintain confidence in victory, take proactive actions, seek certainty from uncertainty, and continuously shape new momentum and advantages for high-quality development. It should be said that challenges also serve as motivation; the company will face opportunities and challenges head-on and turn them into a winning advantage for its development.

Cover image source: Every Media Asset Library