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 aging population continues to accelerate, residents’ needs for health management and eldercare 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 Conference 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 elderly care advisor team with the triple value of “financial advisor, family doctor, and eldercare manager.”

It is understood that the “Top Talent Plan” focuses more on the role of “elderly 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, eldercare, and medical needs.

This initiative is not an isolated case. As the era of longevity progresses, the public’s demand for eldercare and health management continues to rise. Driven by these needs, insurance institutions are exploring deeper integration of “insurance” and “elderly 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) High-End Talent 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.

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

As the top-level design of Ping An Life’s “Insurance Elderly 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 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 the pilot started 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% holding 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 but are instead assigned three roles: financial advisor, family doctor, and eldercare manager. This means agents need to deeply meet clients’ needs across their entire lifecycle for wealth, health, and eldercare.

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 eldercare scenarios by integrating eldercare community resources to cultivate professionals with eldercare planning and care coordination skills; others strengthen the integration of finance and eldercare, requiring advisors to have knowledge in insurance planning, wealth management, and eldercare services.

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

Overall, the cultivation of high-end agents and eldercare advisors in the industry shows three distinct 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 eldercare knowledge through an integrated guidance model from basic understanding to advanced skills; third, career development paths are clear, with most insurance companies restructuring “individual sales + organizational development” dual-track channels, providing laddered promotion opportunities and competitive reward systems.

From the recruitment and training directions of these institutions, it is evident that insurance agents in the HWP and eldercare advisor training systems are no longer just simple salespeople but providers of full-lifecycle services and one-stop solutions. This means that, previously, becoming an insurance agent might only require understanding basic insurance terms and sales scripts; the educational and professional knowledge requirements were relatively low. Now, to join these elite teams, one may need to be proficient in insurance, financial planning, healthcare, eldercare planning, taxation, and law—covering multiple roles such as financial advisor, family doctor, and eldercare manager.

The core reason driving insurance companies to focus on developing eldercare advisors and actively recruit and cultivate 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 appropriate coverage based on their needs, and agents only needed to sell relevant insurance products. The engagement and service relationship generally ended after the policy transaction, with many agents only contacting clients again when claims were needed.

However, with economic development and increasing average lifespan, consumer needs have shifted. Insurance no longer only addresses protection but also encompasses wealth planning, medical care, and eldercare. Under this concept, policies are no longer just proof of a contract between insurer and client but become a bond that connects the two. Through policies, clients can access health management services, eldercare community admission, and retirement travel 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 includes life and investment components, while “New Life Insurance” adds medical and eldercare services, forming a structure supported by insurance payments, investment assets, and medical-eldercare services.

To meet consumer needs and provide personalized services under this model, insurance agents must enhance their skills.

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 the addition of medical and eldercare services on top of the existing two components. Since these services often need to be conveyed to clients through agents, agents must not only understand insurance but also possess some medical and eldercare knowledge.

With continuous improvements in training systems and active recruitment efforts by insurance companies, the growth rate of eldercare advisors is also very notable.

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

However, Tao Junqing also pointed out that in terms of overall numbers, HWP agents still account for a smaller proportion compared to regular agents. “In less developed insurance 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 HWP agents in big cities have; on the other hand, clients in these areas have insurance needs that require regular agents’ services.” He added that, regarding agent development, it is difficult for all regions in China to follow a uniform standard, even for TaiKang.

Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that under increasingly complex market environments and more diverse, personalized customer demands, 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 a high-quality talent pool.

Jushen, a postdoctoral fellow in applied economics at Peking University and a professor, pointed out that marketers are shifting from traditional “network-driven” approaches to “professional and service-driven” models. They are leveraging digital tools to improve customer acquisition and management efficiency, using social media growth, private domain operations, and customer tagging to expand service coverage. Marketers are gradually transforming from simple product sellers into “family risk management consultants,” providing systematic, customized protection plans around family life cycles, and extending to health management, eldercare planning, and wealth inheritance—enhancing customer loyalty and creating a positive cycle of referrals based on professionalism, trust, and personalized service.