China Life Insurance aims to achieve nearly 600 billion yuan in shareholders' equity attributable to the parent company by 2025, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%.

(Source: Lianyungang Media Network)

Reposted from: Lianyungang Media Network

On the evening of March 25, China Life Insurance Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as “China Life,” stock code: 601628.SH, 2628.HK) released its 2025 annual report.

In 2025, facing increasingly complex internal and external environments, China Life deeply practiced long-termism, adhered to the core ideas of “Three Persistences,” “Three Improvements,” and “Three Breakthroughs,” continuously strengthened asset-liability management, deepened omni-channel business collaboration, accelerated reforms in key areas, and achieved multiple record-high core indicators. The company maintained its leading position in both scale and value, delivering a report card of balanced speed and quality, optimized structure and benefits, and coordinated development of growth and safety, successfully concluding the “14th Five-Year Plan.” In 2025, the company achieved a net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company of 154.078 billion yuan, a strong increase of 44.1% on a high base; embedded value reached 14.7 trillion yuan, remaining the industry leader.

Business development reached new heights. In 2025, China Life’s total premiums first exceeded 700 billion yuan, reaching 729.8 billion yuan, an 8.7% year-on-year increase, surpassing the first year of the “14th Five-Year Plan” by over 100 billion yuan. First-year regular premiums reached 116.2 billion yuan, maintaining the industry’s top position; long-term competitive advantages remained solid, with first-year premiums for ten years or more totaling 52.2 billion yuan, accounting for 44.92% of total first-year premiums. Among individual insurance channels, premiums for ten years or more accounted for over 58%. The company continued to promote marketing system reforms, channel transformation released vitality, and as of December 31, 2025, total sales personnel numbered 638,000, maintaining industry-leading scale, with ongoing improvements in professionalism, specialization, and youthfulness of the sales force.

Business structure became more diversified and balanced. The company built a strong strategic depth, promoted omni-channel synergy, and deepened product supply and business forms with multiple dimensions—term, cost, and type. In 2025, new business premiums for life insurance, annuities, and health insurance were 31.75%, 32.11%, and 31.23% respectively, achieving balanced development and strengthening market competitiveness and resilience. In response to changing market interest rate environments, the company effectively implemented policies, with rigid costs of new business liabilities decreasing steadily for three consecutive years. The business structure transformation advanced smoothly, with floating-yield products growing strongly, accounting for nearly 50% of first-year premiums, supporting the shift in business structure.

Operational efficiency steadily improved. Emphasizing value and benefits, new business value grew rapidly in 2025, increasing by 35.7% year-on-year to 45.752 billion yuan, leading the industry. Cost reduction and efficiency enhancement were strengthened, with refined management significantly improving cost-to-output ratios. Asset allocation was dynamically optimized, investment returns increased substantially, achieving the best investment performance in recent years. Total investment income reached 387.694 billion yuan, up 79.443 billion yuan from the previous year, a 25.8% increase year-on-year, with a total investment yield of 6.09%, up 59 basis points from the same period last year.

Comprehensive strength continued to grow. As of December 31, 2025, China Life’s total assets and investment assets were 75.9 trillion yuan and 74.2 trillion yuan respectively, surpassing the 70 trillion yuan mark for three consecutive periods during the “14th Five-Year Plan.” Shareholders’ equity attributable to the parent company reached 595.2 billion yuan, a 16.8% increase. The company’s comprehensive solvency adequacy ratio was 174.01%, with a core solvency ratio of 128.77%, both maintaining sufficient levels. The effective policies resulted in 327 million long-term insurance policies. Its total market value, life insurance, and health insurance reserves ranked first among global life insurers.

China Life integrates asset-liability management throughout its operations, with continuous deepening of asset-liability linkage.

Additionally, China Life’s omni-channel business collaboration formed a multi-polar development pattern, further strengthening core competitive advantages. The individual insurance channel maintained its fundamental development, continuing to serve as the main driver of value creation; bancassurance channels effectively played strategic roles, with strong growth in scale and value; group insurance channels focused on quality and efficiency, with operational benefits significantly improved; policy-based health insurance business reached a record high in scale and participation in city-specific commercial medical insurance underwriting; internet insurance business grew rapidly.

Over the past year, the company received awards such as the 15th China Securities “Golden Bauhinia Award” for outstanding listed companies; ranked first among S&P’s “Global Top 50 Life Insurers”; maintained an A-level risk rating for 30 consecutive quarters, with the last 8 quarters at the AAA highest rating; MSCI ESG rating rose to AA, placing it among the world’s leading sustainable management levels. The company also values sharing high-quality development results with investors; the board proposed a final cash dividend of 6.18 yuan per 10 shares (tax included) for 2025, and combined with the interim dividend paid, the total annual dividend per 10 shares reached 8.56 yuan (tax included), totaling 24.195 billion yuan, a 31.7% increase year-on-year.

Strengthening core channels

Individual insurance channel maintains positive momentum

Deeply practicing high-quality development, the individual insurance channel consistently adheres to value-led growth, with steady progress across indicators. The channel accelerates transformation and upgrades, with a more diversified business structure.

In 2025, China Life’s individual insurance premiums totaled 551.79 billion yuan, a 4.3% increase; renewal premiums were 442.285 billion yuan, up 7.9%. First-year premiums for new policies reached 89.171 billion yuan, with ten years or more accounting for 52.148 billion yuan, further increasing the proportion to 58.48%. The business structure continued to improve, and sustainable development capacity was enhanced. The company promoted floating-yield products, with dividend insurance new premiums growing rapidly, accounting for nearly 60% of first-year premiums, becoming a key support for new business premiums. Main products increasingly emphasized medium- and long-term sales, with more diversified payment and policy terms. The first-year premiums and business structure of individual insurance are more balanced and diversified. The new business value for individual insurance reached 39.299 billion yuan, a 25.5% increase year-on-year.

The company’s individual insurance channel adheres to high-quality development, steadily advancing marketing system reforms, maintaining normal operations of the sales team, and strengthening team management, talent development, and structure optimization. As of December 31, 2025, the sales force numbered 587,000, remaining the largest in the industry, including 371,000 in marketing and 216,000 in distribution teams; team quality improved, with a 40.0% YoY increase in new personnel, continuously strengthening.

Effective strategic role

Bancassurance new business value surges

The bancassurance channel proactively meets customer needs for retirement and wealth transfer, while also controlling costs and increasing efficiency, leading to significant growth in premiums and new business value. The company maintains a comprehensive channel layout, expanding and improving branch operations. Focused on professional development, it promotes team quality and stability. The product system is enriched to meet diverse customer needs, with floating-yield products seeing notable sales increases.

In 2025, China Life’s bancassurance total premiums reached 110.87 billion yuan, surpassing 100 billion yuan for the first time, a 45.5% increase; new single premiums were 58.506 billion yuan, up 95.7%, with dividend insurance’s share increasing about 15 percentage points; first-year premiums for new policies were 26.478 billion yuan, up 41.0%; renewal premiums were 52.368 billion yuan, up 13.1%, accounting for 47.23% of total channel premiums. The number of partner banks exceeded 100, with 77,000 new outlets, a 25.9% increase; star-rated outlets grew by 49.1%. The bancassurance customer manager team reached 20,000, with per capita productivity up 53.7%.

Expanding multi-channel customer protection

Actively broadening insurance coverage

Focusing on efficiency, the group insurance channel promotes steady business growth, strengthening specialization and refined management to improve quality and efficiency. In 2025, total premiums from group insurance reached 26.23 billion yuan; short-term insurance premiums were 23.7 billion yuan. The combined cost ratio for short-term group insurance significantly declined, greatly improving profitability. The company also actively implements the “Five Articles” of financial regulation, providing over 12 trillion yuan in coverage for more than 200,000 small and micro enterprises. As of December 31, 2025, the sales team numbered 31,000, with a 6.9% increase in per capita productivity, steadily improving.

The company actively develops various policy-based health insurance products, participating in multi-layered medical security systems. In 2025, total premiums from other channels reached 40.993 billion yuan, a 6.2% increase. By year-end, it participated in over 200 critical illness insurance projects, more than 70 long-term care insurance projects, and over 140 city commercial medical insurance projects.

Continuing to grow internet insurance business. In 2025, total internet insurance premiums reached 114.789 billion yuan, a 38.9% increase. The company continuously enriches products, enhances services, and optimizes experiences to improve online customer management.

Investment expertise continues to improve

Portfolio stability steadily enhanced

Upholding the mission of serving the real economy, the company directs insurance funds precisely into key areas and weak links of the real economy, supporting new productive forces and high-level technological independence.

In 2025, bond yields fluctuated slightly at low levels, with long-term spreads widening; the stock market performed strongly with clear sector differentiation.

Adhering to asset-liability linkage management and long-term, value, and prudent investment philosophies, China Life continuously improves investment professionalism, dynamically optimizes asset allocation, and enhances portfolio return stability and long-term growth potential. In fixed income, it flexibly adjusts allocation pace and strategies, maintaining a solid core position. Equity investments focus on medium- and long-term capital entry, seizing market opportunities, and actively deploying in new productive fields, with high-dividend stocks steadily allocated. The total equity investment exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, an increase of over 450 billion yuan from the start of the year. Alternative investments focus on quality entities and core assets, innovating investment models and strengthening forward-looking deployment. The company’s asset allocation remains prudent, with overall asset quality excellent.

As of December 31, 2025, China Life’s investment assets totaled 74.237 trillion yuan, a 12.3% increase from the end of 2024. The proportions of bonds, fixed deposits, and debt-type financial products remained stable; stock and fund allocations (excluding money market funds) rose from 12.18% at the end of 2024 to 16.89%, mainly due to increased equity investments driven by market opportunities.

In 2025, China Life’s total investment income was 387.694 billion yuan, up 79.443 billion yuan from 2024; the total investment yield was 6.09%, an increase of 59 basis points year-on-year.

Agile sensing of market product demands

Expanding the connotation of “diversity” in supply

Focusing on product innovation and diversified supply under new development patterns, the company swiftly perceives evolving market needs, optimizes product supply structure, and continuously improves product and service systems. In 2025, over 170 new products were launched to meet the growing insurance needs of economic and social development and the public.

Implementing national strategic deployment to improve people’s livelihood. China Life actively implements the new “National Ten Articles,” focusing on financial “Five Articles,” serving national economic and social development. For commercial pension insurance, it increases supply of pension annuities, other annuities, and whole-life insurance tailored to the elderly and pre-elderly, enriching the personal pension system and providing comprehensive retirement coverage across life cycles. In health insurance, coverage is expanded, with targeted products for different groups, integrating health protection and services, including long-term disability income loss, nursing care, maternal and child health, fracture and accident medical products for seniors, and other innovative health insurance offerings. The scope of coverage and services is continuously expanded, incorporating new medicines and devices. For inclusive insurance, the company serves rural populations, urban newcomers, small micro enterprises, the elderly, students, and key areas like the Belt and Road Initiative, launching specialized products such as rural revitalization, domestic helpers, Silver Age health, and Belt and Road series, to meet diverse and personalized social needs.

Strengthening multi-product supply and effective asset-liability coordination. The company maintains a strategic direction of diversified product supply, expanding the connotation of “diversity,” and reinforcing asset-liability linkage management. As insurance needs become more diverse and segmented across different groups and regions, products are embedded in wealth management, retirement, education, and medical scenarios, ensuring precise coverage and improving accessibility and adaptability of protection functions. Asset-liability management is adhered to, with mechanisms linking guaranteed interest rates to market rates, continuously enriching dividend and floating-yield products, upgrading and optimizing product structures, and developing a multi-dimensional, multi-term, and multi-cost product system to better meet customer needs.

In 2025, China Life’s commercial insurance annuity business remained industry-leading, with personal pension business ranking among the top, contributing to the protection of Silver Age happiness. Health insurance premiums reached 120.221 billion yuan, a 0.9% increase. The company actively supports rural revitalization, insuring over 242 million rural residents and providing risk coverage of 30 trillion yuan.

Building a comprehensive financial ecosystem

Constructing a distinctive health and wellness service ecosystem

Following the “customer-centric” philosophy, China Life vigorously promotes the “Insurance + Service” ecosystem, empowering core business development.

Leveraging the synergy of its insurance, investment, and banking sectors, the company continues to enrich its integrated financial product and service system, offering insurance collaboration, bancassurance, and insurance-investment cooperation, providing customers with comprehensive, full-life-cycle financial and insurance services including protection, wealth management, and health retirement.

In 2025, the company’s collaboration with China Life Property & Casualty Insurance generated premiums of 25.534 billion yuan, with policies increasing by 12.3%, forming a “life + property” product combination. It expanded multi-channel marketing scenarios through products like “Xin Xu Bao” and “An Xin Fu,” and partnered with Guangfa Bank for customer activities such as “Little Financial Expert” and “Guangfa Open Day.” The scale of China Life’s pension insurance business continued to grow steadily. The company deepened cooperation with China Life Asset Management and China Life Investment, leveraging insurance and investment advantages to promote integrated development.

Advancing the construction of a large health and elderly care ecosystem. In 2025, China Life steadily advanced its health and elderly care services, focusing on institutional, home-based, and health service product lines, enriching diverse offerings, and building a distinctive health and elderly care ecosystem.

In “Insurance + Elderly Care,” the company adheres to the concept of “making the elderly安心, making children放心,” leveraging the long-term, stable advantages of insurance funds, and actively deploying CCRC elderly communities, urban elderly apartments, and health tourism products. By the end of 2025, it had established 20 elderly care projects across 16 cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, Suzhou, Shenzhen, and Chengdu, launching four initial “Sui Xin Ju” travel and elderly care products. It also explores home-based elderly care services to meet diverse needs and support core business growth. In “Insurance + Health,” the company integrates internal and external resources, continuously enriches health services, and offers health management services related to medical consultation, rehabilitation, and more, providing customers with diverse rights. It optimizes health service processes and key control points, improving digital health and elderly care services; by the end of 2025, registered users on the elderly care platform increased by 8.8% compared to 2024.

Building a digital intelligence closed-loop system

Digital and intelligent dual engines energize high-quality development

Upholding the core orientation of technology serving the insurance main business, China Life has built a comprehensive digital and intelligent closed-loop empowerment system, focusing on data governance, fully unleashing data element potential, continuously expanding computing power, and applying large models across multiple dimensions—knowledge bases, intelligent agents, AI robots—to inject strong momentum into high-quality development. Fully aligned with national "AI + " initiatives, it has established an AI capability system covering all management and operational areas; created a data space of “hundreds of millions of data points, thousands of features, and hundreds of labels,” and was selected as a pilot unit for trusted data space innovation by the National Data Bureau in 2025; achieved excellent results in the “Data Elements ×” competition for two consecutive years, actively participating in setting industry standards, continuously contributing to technological innovation, and demonstrating industry influence through technological strength.

Enhancing service capabilities. The customer-centric digital and intelligent service ecosystem is being upgraded, with more accurate intelligent recommendations and smoother voice interactions. Intelligent claims processing is continuously iterated, with over 75% of claims handled digitally, maintaining industry-leading claim efficiency; in 2025, over 5.3 million claims were paid directly through one-stop digital processes, with 680,000 claims identified and prompted for customer application; direct data connections support fast claims with instant payments.

Driving efficiency and quality. AI-powered R&D models are reshaping workflows, with AI-assisted coding accounting for 30%. Large models empower agents’ professional and personalized sales efforts, increasing customer contact efficiency, with annual customer visits up over 15%. Intelligent technology is being used to overhaul group and bancassurance underwriting processes, promoting scale and quality improvements. AI-assisted manual operations are advancing, with digital underwriters exceeding 24% in 2025, and 99% of policy servicing being handled by intelligent review, with some regions achieving over 60% fully automated processes.

Strengthening risk prevention. AI anti-fraud, anti-money laundering, anti-mis-selling, and consumer protection systems conduct comprehensive risk monitoring, accurately identifying and blocking risks in real-time. Digital auditors and multi-scenario intelligent applications enhance audit supervision. Customer data protection is reinforced, establishing trusted data circulation barriers, and achieving ISO27701 privacy management certification, with data security reaching international standards.

“GuoShou Good Service” becomes more tangible

“Big Consumer Protection” enhances consumer confidence

Adhering to a people-centered value orientation, the company improves all touchpoint services, innovates service models, and effectively protects consumer rights. In 2025, China Life served over 3 billion people, striving to build the “GuoShou Good Service” brand characterized by simplicity, quality, and warmth. Consumer protection evaluations consistently rank among the top in the industry, providing solid support for high-quality development.

Enhanced touchpoint convenience. The digital service matrix combining online and offline channels continues to expand. The China Life insurance APP was upgraded, optimizing the “one-click online service” experience, with 170 million users; “Cloud Counter” virtual customer service responds efficiently, maintaining high connection rates. The APP’s elder-friendly mode was further optimized, with “zero-input” voice reporting becoming more convenient, and customer service lines and AI capabilities significantly improved, boosting service efficiency. Nearly 2,500 offline outlets nationwide make services more perceptible and accessible.

Warm service reflects the original intention. Tailored service scenarios are created based on customer groups. For critical illness clients needing urgent funds, a “Critical Illness One-Day Payout” green channel was launched, serving 230,000 customers; themed service activities for parents, self-care, health, and VIP clients engaged 58.31 million participants; the “Art Return to the Mountain” youth arts公益 project reached 20 provinces, supporting rural cultural revitalization; barrier-free services for the elderly were provided 27.78 million times. As a main drafting unit, the company participated in formulating the industry standard “Elderly Customer Service Norms,” contributing to service standards.

Consumer protection work bears responsibility. The “Big Consumer Protection” framework is continuously deepened, with proper management, product classification, and sales qualification management strengthened. Over 20 million “voices of customers” were listened to annually, with service quality indices remaining industry-leading. A new financial education ecosystem was created, with innovative offline “Elderly Companionship Classes” and themed videos, making publicity more scenario-based and engaging. In 2025, outreach activities reached consumers 31.4% more than the previous year.

Advancing into the “14th Five-Year” new journey

Accelerating to build a world-class Chinese life insurance company with Chinese characteristics

During the “14th Five-Year Plan,” under the guidance of the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and subsequent plenary sessions, and the Central Financial Work Conference, the insurance industry’s role as an economic “shock absorber” and social “stabilizer” has strengthened. The first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan” will see more proactive macro policies, continued expansion of domestic demand, optimized supply, better incremental growth, revitalization of stock assets, and development of new productive forces, deepening the construction of a unified national market, and promoting high-quality economic growth to solidify the industry’s economic foundation.

Meanwhile, “risk prevention, strengthened regulation, and high-quality development” remain the main themes. Regulatory policies around the “Five Articles,” high-quality development, asset-liability management, and standardized operations will be continuously improved. Reforms in personal marketing systems, the “reporting and operation integration” policy, and dynamic adjustment of guaranteed interest rates will be further advanced, guiding industry reform and laying a solid foundation for sustainable development.

China Life states that in 2026, it will adhere to the theme of high-quality development, maintain the general tone of steady progress, and focus on the core ideas of “Three Persistences,” “Three Improvements,” and “Three Breakthroughs.” It will promote comprehensive reforms in digital transformation, management model upgrades, omni-channel collaboration, customer management, and investment capabilities, striving for breakthroughs, serving the national strategy, further consolidating its leading position, ensuring steady growth in scale and value, optimizing business structure, cultivating new drivers and growth poles, building a solid safety barrier, and accelerating to become a “modern governance, prominent functions, outstanding development, advanced management, and innovation-driven” world-class Chinese life insurer, making new achievements in the modernization of China.

Preliminary review: Chen Si

Re-review: Gao Jin

Final review: Tong Daying

Source: China Life Lianyungang Branch