President Sung Dae-kyu of Shinhan Life Insurance Co. delivers his inaugural speech at a ceremony on March 26 held at the auditorium at the Shinhan Financial Group building located near South Gate in Seoul. (Photos: Shinhan Life)

President Sung Dae-kyu of Shinhan Life Insurance Co.

Shinhan Life Insurance Co. will be a leading life insurance company in the life insurance industry, said President Sung Dae-kyu at his first news conference following his inauguration as the CEO of the life insurance firm on March 26.

Sung said he will strengthen communication and cooperation with Orange Life to combine the strengths of the two life insurance companies to lead the life insurance industry so the “One Shinhan strategy” will continue to play a key role in the growth of Shinhan Financial Group.

He urged the company’s employees at all levels to make efforts to create a reformed corporate culture, and at the same, make the company a leader in the insure-tech sector in the life insurance industry.

He said the life insurance industry will go through great changes down the road in that people and technology will take center stage - replacing the people and documents which occupied the center for a long time.

The insure-tech will take over such key functions as product design, marketing and insurance money checks to reform its major areas of the operation. He also said the company should not forget its main business of helping the people in crises and be faithful to its main areas of operation.

Shinhan Life Insurance recommended Korea Insurance Development Institute head Sung Dae-kyu as its new CEO, according to the firm's holding company.

Known as an expert in the insurance industry, Sung has 22 years of experience as a Financial Services Commission (FSC) official specializing in a wide range of insurance-related matters.

“Sung is expected to be a great asset for the group which is in need of an expert following a merger between the life insurance subsidiary and Orange Life.” a Shinhan Financial Group official said.

He will play a vital role to strengthen our life insurance sector with his years of experience as a high-ranking public official. His contribution will help created synergy between the two separate entities that need a smooth transition period.

The recent trend in the financial market is improving brand management. In order to actively respond to this trend, Shinhan Life Insurance developed a new brand for improving its efficiency in communication and its brand value.

As a part of this effort, Shinhan started conducting brand diagnosis, company-wide surveys, and interviews with brand experts since January 2014.

Through this, it has developed a new brand that has the core concept of “World Worth Living” which manifests core competency of Shinhan Life Insurance, the core value of life insurance, and Compassionate Finance, Your Companion for the Future, etc.

The company has come up with the slogan of, “Life Worth Living, Shinhan Life Insurance.” The phrase “World Worth Living” contains various meanings, such as the happiness, smoothness, assurance, and trust. After the development of values, it held a proclamation ceremony after which promotions that focus on the phrase, “World Worth Living” began.

The World Worth Living campaign was performed for employees and insurance planners. The compassionate image of Shinhan Life Insurance was conveyed to customers through the Life Worth Living Photo Competition and advertising the World Worth Living brand on cable broadcasting companies.

Shinhan Life Insurance is making preparations for the retirement market, which is growing rapidly due to the aging population, and making an entry into the pension society. In order to practice compassionate finance for customers, it integrated the existing Retirement Planning Center (analysis and research on retirement market) and the BigLife Center (financial planning) in June 2014 and renamed it the Future Design Center.

As such, Shinhan Life Insurance became more fitting to the characteristics of the insurance industry by providing information on retirement planning.