YOUR child throws a tantrum and smashes something? Take out “naughty child insurance”.
Similarly, you can buy cover against your bride becoming pregnant before the honeymoon, your team being knocked out of the soccer World Cup, burning your tongue eating hotpot or if smog ruins your holiday.
Quirky, maybe, but China’s insurers are turning to ever more creative ways to drum up business in a market where growth has stalled and penetration rates of abound 3 percent, half the global average, are little changed from a decade ago. Premiums in China are less than $278 billion (R2.96bn) a year, way below the $1.3 trillion paid in the US, according to Munich Re and Swiss Re data.
“It’s consumer acquisition, a way to engage new customers,” said Joseph Ngai, who heads the Greater China financial institutions practice at McKinsey. “It’s primarily marketing.”
While most of the policies are short-term promotions, they offer insight into Chinese concerns.
Ping An Insurance Group Company of China, the world’s second-biggest life insurer by market value, has offered an “Accidental Pregnancy Before Honeymoon” policy to cover the cost of having to unexpectedly cancel a honeymoon.
It also offered a payout just to wives in the case of divorce, and another policy, akin to an investment plan, that paid out, after a certain period, if a couple stayed together. – Reuters