À̹ÌÁö È®´ë South Korea¡¯s Prudential Life Insurance Company of Korea generated the highest rate of return for variable life insurance products among 21 local life insurers, data showed on Tuesday.
According to the Korea Life Insurance Association, Prudential Life as of the end of last year raised a cumulative return of 52.66 percent for its variable insurance products over the last decade, followed by MetLife Insurance of Korea Co. with 47.66 percent return rate, Kyobo Life Insurance Co. with 47.10 percent and Hanwha Life Insurance Co. with 44.43 percent. The local life insurers¡¯ average rate of return on their variable life insurance policies stood at 39.35 percent.
Variable insurance policies offer not only life insurance coverage but also some investment return to their policy holders as they invest part of the premiums in certain funds. They were first launched in Korea in 2001 and gained popularity in the mid-2000s. Last year, they once again attracted many investors with the boom in the local stock markets. Prudential Life said it could achieve the high return as it cherry-picked the best fund operator.
As for 7-year cumulative return on variable insurance products, MetLife ranked first with a 28.66 percent return rate. Mirae Asset Life Insurance Co. topped the list with a 25.16 percent return on variable insurance products over the past five years, and KDB Life Insurance Co. achieved the highest cumulative return of 17.88 percent for the last three years.
By Kim Tae-sung and Choi Mira
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