Thailand has fully entered an aging society. Retirees must prepare enough money for living, but if insufficient, their children—mostly Gen Y—may need to provide care. Yet Gen Y individuals, who are building their careers and families, have many expenses including children and self-development for work. If anything happens, this Sandwich Generation’s lives could be easily disrupted.
Nusara (Assakul) Banyatpiyapoj, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Thai Life Insurance Public Company Limited. She explained that in Thailand, over 3.4 million households, or 19.49 million people aged 31-50, belong to the Sandwich Generation—key family pillars responsible for household expenses, cars, children's tuition, parents' medical costs, and family life planning.
However, this group may neglect self-care. Most are Gen Y, and Thai statistics show 33.9% suffer from NCDs (non-communicable diseases), higher than the national average of around 23%. Moreover, over one in four faces mental health problems.
During family-building years, reducing "worries" to fully spend time on oneself and loved ones is crucial. Thus, the company has designed diverse insurance products that are simple and straightforward, with an emphasis on improving service quality. While products among companies may be similar, service is the key to adapting to changing customer behaviors.
Importantly, the company focuses on higher quality underwriting to maintain renewal rates, ensuring premiums remain affordable. This is achieved by expanding a team of young advisors and leveraging AI to enhance company and agent efficiency, including AI-based predictive modeling and boosting agents’ digital skills.
"People now understand the necessity of life insurance, but the challenge is making it easy and affordable, while building trust in the insurer. We have begun increasing Thai Life Insurance’s presence on TikTok," Nusara said.
Currently, the company has a customer base of 1.6 million policies and total assets of 105,273 million baht. While renewal premiums in the first half of the year may be weak due to adjustment periods, first-year premiums and group insurance are growing.
The aging society presents both opportunities and risks. Rising medical costs drive interest in insurance purchases, but claims may increase due to emerging diseases. This raises risks beyond previous estimates, requiring the company to manage them carefully to keep premiums accessible and control medically unnecessary expenses.
Overall, the main sales channel remains through agents, followed by bank channels. Digital channels are growing rapidly but still account for less than 1% of total premiums. This is a time to deeply study consumer behavior—customers may consult online but still buy through agents, as they seek understanding to choose insurance that fits their life needs.
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