우리나라 생명보험 판매채널의 보험계약특성별 유지율기준 적합성분석 – 독립채널과 전속채널을 중심으로 -

This study analyzes the suitability of Korean life insurers' marketing channels for insurance contracts with different characteristics. Specifically, the study tests whether the exclusive or the independent agency channel is more suitable for each type of insurance contracts. The empirical analysis utilizes 2,254,633 new policies signed during 2012, which is the first year that the information on the specific channels were reported. For the new policies, we collect information on the status of each contract, i.e., maintaining, death, maturity, lapse, or surrender, as of December 31, 2015. We investigate the effectiveness of each marketing channel for different insurance products, level of insured amounts, and the level of insurance premium. We utilize frequency analyses, cross analyses, and chi-square analyses to investigate the question. The empirical results vary for each classification criteria. First, we find that contracts from independent agency channels have a higher persistency rate than those from exclusive agency channels for most types of insurance products, including protection, savings, and annuities, but not for health insurance. Second, the bancassurance channel which is one example of an independent agency channel generally maintains a higher persistency rate than exclusive agency channels for different levels of insured amounts. Lastly, the independent agency channel is more suitable than exclusive agency channels for different levels of insurance premium. These results suggest that insurance companies should strategically choose their marketing channels based on their main insurance product and the wealth of their targeted policyholders.