Where is "Patience Capital" investing? The latest insurance asset management survey reveals strategic signals

Every reporter｜Yuan Yuan Every editor｜Huang Bowen

As an important representative of “patient capital” in the A-share market, the allocation trends of insurance capital have always drawn significant market attention. The first quarter is a crucial window for insurance fund layouts throughout the year, and the research trends of insurance institutions (including insurance companies and insurance asset management companies) have traditionally been viewed as an important indicator for gauging annual investment direction.

On March 23, a reporter from “Daily Economic News” discovered, based on Tonghuashun iFinD data, that from the beginning of this year until now, insurance institutions have conducted over 1,900 research visits to A-share listed companies. In terms of research fields, insurance capital mainly focuses on industries such as industrial machinery, electronic components, electronic equipment and instruments, automotive parts and equipment, integrated circuits, western medicine, and finance.

“The research conducted by insurance capital follows the core principles of prudence, safety, and asset-liability matching outlined in the ‘Measures for the Administration of Investment of Insurance Funds.’ As a typical long-term liability-type fund, the research logic of insurance capital does not pursue short-term market hotspots but instead focuses on areas that align with national strategic transformation, possess technological barriers, and have stable cash flow expectations,” an industry insider analyzed. The electronics and semiconductor industries benefit from domestic substitution and technological innovation policies, the pharmaceutical industry has rigid demand characteristics, and automotive parts align with the in-depth development of the new energy and intelligent industry chain. This allocation essentially aims to achieve long-term returns that cover rigid liability costs by selectively investing in growth industries with the ability to traverse economic cycles in a low-interest-rate environment.

Several insurance institutions have conducted research visits over 50 times this year.

According to Tonghuashun iFinD data, as of March 23 at 6:30 PM, insurance companies and insurance asset management companies have conducted a total of 1,981 research visits to A-share listed companies this year.

In terms of insurance companies, the average number of research visits for specialized pension insurance companies is higher than that of ordinary life insurance companies and property insurance companies. For example, Changjiang Pension Insurance Co., Ltd. conducted 78 visits, Taiping Pension Insurance Co., Ltd. 66 visits, and Ping An Pension Insurance Co., Ltd. 54 visits. Among insurance asset management companies, Taikang Asset Management Co., Ltd., Huatai Asset Management Co., Ltd., and Xinhua Asset Management Co., Ltd. have higher research frequencies, with 162 visits, 129 visits, and 98 visits respectively.

From the perspective of research fields by insurance capital institutions, they mainly focus on industries such as industrial machinery, electronic components, electronic equipment and instruments, automotive parts and equipment, integrated circuits, western medicine, and finance.

Regarding the research style and preferences of insurance capital, Yuan Shuai, deputy director of the Investment Department of the China Urban Development Research Institute, told the reporter from “Daily Economic News” that insurance capital’s focus on industrial machinery, electronic components, integrated circuits, western medicine, and finance reflects its dual anchoring on technological self-reliance and the essential needs of people’s livelihoods as “patient capital.”

“Logically, industries related to industrial and electronic equipment are at the intersection of global industrial chain restructuring and domestic industrial upgrading, possessing strong performance elasticity and technological barriers, which meet the demand for medium- to long-term growth value exploration by insurance capital; the financial and pharmaceutical sectors exhibit typical defensive attributes, with the former providing stable dividend income and valuation recovery space, while the latter is supported by rigid medical consumption in the context of aging, effectively hedging against macroeconomic fluctuations,” Yuan Shuai stated. Strategically, insurance capital is transitioning from traditional ‘interest rate spread loss’ defense to ‘high-quality asset enhancement,’ aiming to find cost-effective targets with new productive characteristics through in-depth research on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board and the Growth Enterprise Market, thereby replacing mere secondary market speculation with industrial empowerment logic, and constructing a diversified portfolio that balances dividend income and growth premium on the asset side.

Wang Peng, an associate researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, shares the same view. In his opinion, the intensive research by insurance capital in industries such as industrial, semiconductor, and finance reflects a core logic of “dividend support + technological offense.” “Industries like finance and pharmaceuticals provide stable cash flow and high dividends to hedge against liability costs in a low-interest-rate environment; emerging technologies represented by integrated circuits and automotive components are not only key directions of national strategy but also crucial for achieving long-term asset appreciation and obtaining excess returns.”

The future equity allocation of insurance capital will unfold along “two main lines.”

The aforementioned research directions also align with the insurance institutions’ survey results published in the “2026 Outlook for Asset Allocation in the Banking and Insurance Asset Management Sector” by the China Banking and Insurance Asset Management Association.

According to these survey results, “hard technology” remains the main line of investment for insurance capital. Insurance institutions focus on investment themes such as chip semiconductors, defense and military industry, AI (artificial intelligence) computing power, robotics, energy metals, commercial aerospace, high dividends, pharmaceuticals and innovative drugs, and corporate globalization, believing that corporate profit recovery and liquidity conditions are the main factors affecting the A-share market. In terms of asset allocation, most insurance institutions plan to slightly increase their allocation to A-shares.

Wang Guojun, a professor at the School of Insurance at the University of International Business and Economics, previously analyzed for “Daily Economic News” that the asset allocation trends of insurance capital in 2026 are relatively clear. In 2025, insurance funds achieved substantial returns in the stock market, and it is expected that the A-share market will continue to improve in 2026. Therefore, stocks and securities investment funds will be the domestic investment assets most favored by insurance capital in 2026.

According to data from the National Financial Regulatory Administration, as of the end of 2025, the total balance of insurance company fund utilization reached 38.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.7% compared to the end of 2024. Among them, the balance of equity funds invested in stocks and funds is approximately 5.7 trillion yuan, an increase of about 39% compared to the end of 2024.

Regarding the future direction of equity asset allocation for insurance capital, Gao Chengyuan, deputy secretary-general of the Guangdong Provincial Social Policy Research Association, believes that the future equity allocation of insurance capital will unfold along “two main lines”: first, the dividend defense line, where high dividend assets like banks, public utilities, and white goods remain the ballast, providing stable cash flow and defensive attributes; second, the technology growth line, where the AI industry chain (such as computing power, storage, applications), semiconductor equipment and materials, innovative drugs, humanoid robots, and commercial aerospace are core layout directions. Additionally, cornerstone investments in Hong Kong stocks’ “specialized technologies” and pharmaceutical IPOs, as well as allocations to gold and other safe-haven assets, are also receiving significant attention.

“Insurance capital is building a full-cycle investment and financing system through a diversified toolkit of ‘stocks, bonds, funds, and alternatives,’ transitioning from purely financial investment to ‘patient capital + industrial empowerment,’ while supporting the upgrading of the real economy and obtaining long-term excess returns,” Gao Chengyuan stated.

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

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