Starting with a bachelor's degree, is an annual salary of 400,000 yuan just the threshold? Insurance companies are competing for talent in "new life insurance," where expertise in finance, healthcare, and elderly care has become standard.

As China’s population continues to age rapidly, residents’ needs for health management and elder care planning are becoming increasingly diverse. The traditional agent model, which focuses solely on policy sales, can no longer adapt to market changes. Insurance companies are beginning to recruit and develop diversified insurance sales talent.

Recently, Ping An Life held the “Good Development with Ping An” Insurance and Elderly Care Advisor Anniversary and Talent Plan Launch Event in Shenzhen, officially announcing the full launch of the “Top Talent Plan.” Through a professional and specialized talent development system, the goal is to build a top-tier insurance and elder care advisory team with the triple value of “financial advisor, family doctor, and elder care manager.”

It is understood that the “Top Talent Plan” focuses more on the role of “Elder Care Advisor” within the sales team. This also means that insurance agents in the plan will no longer be limited to traditional marketing and management paths but will become stewards capable of providing comprehensive solutions for family wealth, elder care, and medical needs.

This initiative is not an isolated case. As the era of longevity continues, the demand for elder care and health management among the public keeps rising. Driven by this demand, insurance institutions are exploring deeper integration of “insurance” and “elder care.” A review by the Daily Economic News found that TaiKang Life’s “Health Wealth Planner (HWP),” Taiping Life’s “S Plan,” and AIA’s “HEA (Elite Wealth Planner) Recruitment Program” all focus on recruiting and developing versatile professionals. By reshaping the insurance agent workforce, they aim to meet the increasingly diverse health and wealth management needs of high-net-worth clients.

Role Shift: From Sales to Full Lifecycle Service

By 2025, Ping An Life will first introduce the “Insurance Elder Care Advisor” program, positioning agents as “financial advisors + family doctors + elder care managers”—multi-skilled professionals who not only sell insurance but also connect with medical and elder care resources. Recently, based on the “Insurance Elder Care Advisor” concept, Ping An Life upgraded and launched the “Top Talent Plan.”

As the top-level design of Ping An Life’s “Insurance Elder Care Advisor” talent strategy, the “Top Talent Plan” targets elites with a bachelor’s degree or higher, aged 28 to 55, with previous annual income exceeding 400,000 yuan. The aim is to build a top-tier team to serve high-net-worth clients in depth. Tao Ben, Deputy General Manager of the Human Resources Development Team at Ping An Life, stated that since pilot testing began in June 2025, over 800 high-caliber professionals from banking, financial management, and technology fields have joined, with more than 80% holding a bachelor’s degree or higher, nearly 10% with a master’s degree, and nearly 30% earning over one million yuan annually before joining.

From the positioning and recruitment of the “Top Talent Plan,” it is clear that these agents are no longer traditional insurance salespeople. Instead, they are assigned three roles: financial advisor, family doctor, and elder care manager. This means agents must deeply meet clients’ full lifecycle needs in wealth, health, and elder care.

It is worth noting that Ping An Life’s move is not unique. Similar role transformations are happening at other insurance companies, each with different focuses: some emphasize health management by collaborating with medical institutions for professional training; some focus on elder care scenarios by integrating elder care community resources to cultivate professionals with elder care planning and care coordination skills; others strengthen the integration of finance and elder care, requiring advisors to have skills in insurance planning, wealth management, and elder care services.

For example, TaiKang Life’s Health Wealth Planner (HWP) combines functions of insurance, medical elder care, and financial advising; AIA’s “HEA Talent Program” positions marketers as lifelong “health and wealth management partners” and “insurance entrepreneurs” with leadership qualities.

Overall, the development of high-end agents and elder care advisors shows three clear features: first, the talent threshold continues to rise, with high education levels and cross-disciplinary elites becoming key recruits; second, training systems are becoming more comprehensive, covering financial, health, and elder care knowledge through integrated guidance models; third, career development paths are clearer, with most insurers restructuring dual-track channels of “individual sales + organizational development,” providing ladder-like promotion opportunities and competitive reward systems.

Behind the Transformation: Shifting Demands Drive the “New Life Insurance” Model

From the recruitment and training directions of these institutions, it is evident that insurance agents are no longer just salespeople but providers of full-lifecycle services and one-stop solutions. This means that becoming an insurance agent in the past might have only required understanding basic insurance terms and sales scripts, with low educational and professional knowledge requirements. Now, to join these elite teams, one may need to master complex knowledge in insurance, finance, medical health, elder care planning, taxation, and law, while playing multiple roles such as financial advisor, family doctor, and elder care manager.

The core reason for insurance companies focusing on cultivating elder care advisors and recruiting high-end talent is closely related to the evolving industry landscape.

At the turn of the millennium, consumers’ understanding of insurance was limited to policies and claims. At that time, consumers only needed to purchase policies with relevant coverage based on their needs, and agents only needed to sell appropriate products. The relationship and service often ended after the policy transaction, with contact only reestablished during claims.

However, with economic development and increasing life expectancy, consumer needs have shifted. Insurance no longer only addresses protection but also encompasses wealth planning, medical care, and elder care. Under this concept, policies are no longer just contracts between insurers and clients but become bonds that enable clients to access health management services, elder care community admission, and retirement experiences provided by insurance companies.

This is called the “New Life Insurance” model. Chen Dongsheng, founder, chairman, and CEO of TaiKang Insurance Group, once stated that traditional life insurance only covers life and investment, while “New Life Insurance” adds medical and elder care services, forming a structure supported by insurance payments, investment assets, and medical-elder care services.

To meet these evolving needs and provide personalized services, insurance agents must enhance their skills accordingly.

According to Tao Junqing, Deputy General Manager of TaiKang Life’s Health Wealth Management Division and national head of the HWP project, the core of “New Life Insurance” is adding medical and elder care services on top of the existing two pillars. Since these services often need to be communicated to clients through agents, agents must not only understand insurance but also possess some medical and elder care knowledge.

Future Development: Reshaping Individual Channel Personnel Continues

With continuous improvement of training systems and active recruitment efforts by insurance companies, the growth rate of elder care advisors and specialized agents is quite notable.

“TaiKang’s HWP growth rate exceeds that of regular agents because the dropout rate for regular agents is high,” Tao Junqing told the Daily Economic News. In first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, TaiKang has almost no regular agents left; all business is conducted by HWPs. In markets like Ningbo, 80% to 90% of newly recruited personnel are HWPs.

However, Tao also pointed out that in terms of overall numbers, HWPs still account for a smaller proportion than regular agents. “In less developed markets or third- and fourth-tier cities, there is still a need for a certain number of regular agents: on one hand, they lack the extensive resources that HWPs in big cities have; on the other hand, clients in these areas have insurance needs that require regular agents’ services.” Tao said that in terms of agent development, it is difficult for all regions in the country to follow a uniform approach, even for TaiKang.

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that in an increasingly complex and changing market environment, with more diverse and personalized client needs, the professional skills and continuous learning ability of insurance agents will become crucial to coping with the market. In this context, many insurance companies are actively promoting and improving relevant training systems to build high-quality talent pools.

Postdoctoral fellow and professor at Peking University’s School of Applied Economics, Zhu Junsheng, pointed out that marketers are shifting from traditional “network-driven” approaches to “professional and service-driven” models. By leveraging digital tools, they improve customer acquisition and management efficiency through social fission, private domain operations, and customer tagging, expanding service coverage. Marketers are gradually transforming from simple product sellers into “family risk management advisors,” providing systematic, customized protection plans around family life cycles, extending to health management, elder care planning, and wealth inheritance—strengthening customer loyalty and creating a positive cycle of referrals based on professionalism, trust, and personalized service.