Chairman Lee Soo-chang of the Korea Life Insurance Association.

Primary school students are  gathered around a table where many things on life insurance are on display at the Life Insurance Education Center in Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul.(Photos:KLIA)

The Life Insurance Social Contribution Committee opened the Life Insurance Education Cultural Center at the Gwanghwamun Center Point Building in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, on June 17. The Life Insurance Social Contribution Committee worked on the establishment of the center from April 2013. The center is equipped with high-tech equipment, including tablet personal computers so that the center can offer a modern insurance education experience reflecting the needs of contemporary financial education whose importance is growing globally, the committee said.

The center will admit primary school students and adults so that they can educate themselves with all kinds of high-tech educational equipment. The center will surely be a room for sharing knowledge and expansion of “healthy insurance culture” to the public as a multiple cultural space, the committee said.

Providing diverse educational contents, the center has a space for learning experience, a publicity exhibition hall, 3D Screening Hall and Education Conference Hall. 

Chairman Lee Soo-chang of the Korea Life Insurance Association (KLIA) said recently that life insurance policies should be the means to ensure a stable life for everyone after retirement, as not enough people are entitled to the national pension.

During a media meeting on July 14, the KLIA chairman said he will do his best to make the entire society understand that life insurance policies are the main means to ensure the lives of the elderly, and therefore, people should prepare for their retired lives with insurance policies before their retirement.

He said 2017 will make Korea a “senior-aged society” and in 2026, it will be considered a “super old-aged society.” He added that he has a lot to do to prepare for the situation, and the country is far from ready for this eventuality. He said it’s his mission to let everyone in the country know that every working person should prepare for his life after retirement by getting insurance.

Judging by current population trends, the elderly’s numbers will increase explosively, boosting welfare payouts exponentially.

He questioned how the country could take care of old people while the number of people paying taxes because of retirement  is falling year after year.

The chairman noted that Greece’s excessive welfare measures brought it to the brink of national default. He also noted his national mission to ease the county’s welfare burden to brighten the national future.

Lee launched a task force in the KLIA across the nation on July 3 to prepare for life after retirement. He said life insurance firms should develop effective life insurance products and the government, too, should provide better official support to the people to prepare for their retired lives, such as tax incentives.

He cited as an example how Germany subsidizes low-income people to buy after-retirement insurance policies, while the U.S. cuts taxes for people over 50 if they buy insurance policies to help sustain their retired lives.

People should not put off preparing for their retired lives, Lee said. 

Momentum for the growth of the life insurance industry in Korea took root in the 1960s, when the Insurance Business Law was enacted and savings campaigns for Korean citizens were implemented. Steps to deregulate the insurance industry were taken in the mid-1980s, allowing new companies into the Korean market. In the 1990s, the World Trade Organization was formed and Korea joined the OECD, accelerating the nation's globalization and deregulation. 

Korea Life Insurance Association (KLIA) was established in 1950 as a non-profit corporation and has remained committed to promoting common benefits for member companies and maintaining market discipline. In addition, it has contributed to the development of the life insurance culture. KLIA has 22 life insurers as full members and two associate members, Korean Re and IBK Pension Insurance.