Microstrust

The prospects of accumulative insurance remains a foggy business for another year for a promising life insurance market. And again these prospects were unrealized. The only result of this year was to get rid of the market from schemes. The next stage - the transformation of the current market into the present - experts expect no earlier than five years later. Investors are ready for this.

Life insurance is an important sector of the economy of developed countries, but for Russia it is still a business of the future, the onset of which insurers have long been waiting with great impatience. This impatience is explained by another very important circumstance - long -term life insurance is the most favorable type of activity for insurance companies.

The growth of the case does not change

This is not to say that the life insurance market in Russia stagnates. Quite the contrary - it grows, and quite rapidly. According to the expert RA rating agency, the annual training camps on classical life insurance increased by 36%. Unfortunately, with the total microscopic size of the Russian market, such a pace almost does not change the overall picture. Moreover, according to experts, the current growth rate is explained by the problem of "low start". According to the expert RA, the contributions for real life insurance (excluding schemes) in 2005 amounted to only 5.6 billion rubles (22% of official fees for this type of insurance). Five years later, the market should grow four to five times.

“According to our forecasts, this type of insurance will be very popular in the next two to three years. This will be facilitated by the stabilization of the economic situation, and the surplus budget for several years in a row, and an increase in the standard of living of people, ”says Lyudmila Khaidarova, head of the life insurance company Rosno Life Insurance Company.

Events of recent years

Over the past two or three years, significant structural changes have occurred in the Russian life insurance market. Firstly, the era of the so-called salary schemes practically went into history. Secondly, almost all major insurers organized subsidiaries in life insurance companies and began active advancement in this segment of the insurance market in order to occupy their market share. Thirdly, in connection with the boom of bank lending in the country, of course, insurance of the life of credit borrowers began to develop dynamically. “Well, in connection with the increasing interest from Western insurers in Russia, subsidiaries of large foreign companies for life insurance began to be registered,” says Konstantin Tarasov, First Deputy General Director of the Rossiya Rossiya.

The braking mechanism

There are enough reasons for the slow development of Russian long -term life insurance. The market participants themselves constantly complain about the lack of tax benefits, which significantly inhibits the development of life insurance in Russia. “Life insurance in developed countries has become a popular product mainly due to the preferential taxation of bonuses and payments, especially in terms of transferring the inheritance. Life insurance allows you to avoid or significantly reduce inheritance taxes, and it is on this circumstance that many companies promoting funded insurance are the main emphasis, ”says Alexei Zubets, head of the Rosgosstrakh Center for Strategic Research.

“If citizens take care of the future, without transferring the costs of the state’s shoulders, then the state should somehow take this into account and encourage. That would be fair. This is especially important for pension savings. Tax benefits can push citizens to this type of insurance. After all, if a person himself begins to secure a pension, then it will be logical not to tax his income or tax, but in a smaller amount, ”said Tamash Rainai, general director of Alfastrakhovanie Life.

In Russia, there are no benefits for corporate insurers, no high taxes on inheritance, income tax is small. Therefore, accumulative insurance plays practically no role in optimizing taxation of the population and enterprises. According to Rosgosstrakh, the introduction of tax benefits similar to that they exist in Europe could raise training camps on long-term life insurance by at least three to five times.

“A positive effect on the development of life insurance in Russia will also have a decrease in inflation rate, which will favorably affect the yield of insurance products on life insurance and will largely contribute to the growth of the market, and vice versa,” adds Konstantin Tarasov.

According to Alila Kurbanova, General Director of the MRSS-VITA insurance company, the development of funded insurance in Russia is primarily prevented by the lack of classical life insurance and negative Soviet life insurance experience after the collapse of the USSR.

Distrust of the population

In addition to the lack of tax benefits, the factors that restrain the development of funded life insurance in Russia are disbelief in the long -term reliability of the Russian financial system and the lower profitability of storage insurance in comparison with other investment instruments, especially by bank deposits.

Distrust of the long -term reliability of the financial system has its own reason. The last of the significant events, which questioned the possibility of forming long -term savings, was the rapid devaluation of the dollar in relation to the ruble: if in 2002 the average annual dollar exchange rate was 31.4 rubles, then for 10 months of 2006 - 27.3 rubles. “Thus, people who formed long -term accumulations in dollars until 2002 lost 15% of the funds of the American currency in four years. The 1998 crisis remains in the memory of the Russians, as well as the recent shocks in the real estate market, where tens of thousands of investors (according to the press - up to 80 thousand) lost their funds as a result of fraud by developers and realtors, ”says Alexei Zubets.

The feeling of unpredictability of the Russian economy narrows the planning horizon of the average Russian consumer. Studies show that, as a rule, it does not exceed five years, which complicates the purchase of a policy by which you will have to pay bonuses for 10 or more years. In this regard, the most demand in the investment market of the population of the population continues to be used for relatively short terms. So, according to the Central Bank on September 1, deposits for a period of one to three years in the country's banks were 1.8 trillion rubles, and at deposits for a period of more than three years - 229 billion rubles, i.e. Almost eight times less.

The financial side of the issue

However, justifying all problems only by the lack of tax benefits and insurance culture would be stupid. Partly wine for the current state of affairs in this sector lies on the shoulders of the insurers themselves. Life insurance is a victim of improper positioning. The consumer compares it with Pyphones and deposits - of course, the first long -term life insurance with the investment component loses in profitability, the second - in the reliability and simplicity of work. “But such comparisons are fundamentally incorrect: deposits and PEFs are instruments, if not short -term, then medium -term. And life insurance, by definition, should not be considered in the period in one or two years, ”says Pavel Samiev, an analyst at the expert RA.

If we talk about the profitability of cumulative life insurance, today the guaranteed income that insurers promise to consumers is significantly inferior to the profitability of bank deposits. The presence of a risky component in the policy that guarantees the payment of the entire insurance amount or its large part, regardless of the amount of funds actually accumulated by the consumer, with the death or occurrence of the disability, cannot always compensate for low profitability.

Rosgosstrakh calculations show that rapprochement between bank deposits and accumulative insurance rates to a level where the difference between them will not play a significant role for the consumer, if, of course, the government will not take special measures to increase the profitability of storage insurance (for example, due to the release of special investment instruments), will occur no earlier than 7-10 years. After that, you can expect a jerk in the development of the long -term storage insurance market. The long -term nature of reserves investments can also work to increase the profitability of funded insurance. Due to this, in a number of developed countries, the profitability of funded insurance is higher than that of bank deposits.

Russian specifics

Another important point applies to sales of insurance of such a specific sphere as life and health. “The mentality of Russians here differs very much from many others - the American can calmly talk about how much he can get money in case of serious injury or calculate compensation to relatives after his own death. In the best case, the Russian will not talk about this with the insurance agent, in the worst - he doesn’t even think, ”says Pavel Samiev. Pension insurance is also incomprehensible to people - they do not believe either the state or financial companies.

Another market problem is the lack of professional consultants and other effective sales channels. The need for a detailed explanation of the essence of the insurance product to consumers makes the effectiveness of attracting customers dependent on professional consultants. And due to the fact that life insurance is not developed in Russia, the Institute for Life Insurance Conscription consultants did not receive its development. According to the analyst of the expert RA, one of the most promoted life insurance sales in southern Europe (Spain, France, Italy) is banks. Typically, this situation is characteristic of countries where the level of development of the banking sector was initially higher than the insurance. And since in Russia it is the banking sector who is more developed, the use of such cooperation of banks with insurers (BancassURANCE) here would be justified.

Western experience

Life insurance is one of the most socially significant tools for financial support for the population. “In the West, long-term life insurance takes a special business niche, as it is an element of human socio-economic protection,” says Alexander Varentsov, deputy general director of the Interregiongarant insurance company. And even more important - this is the basic element of the mechanism of transformation of savings in investment (along with other forms of collective investments, including pension funds). According to expert RA, long -term life insurance in Western Europe and the United States accounts for 40 to 80% of the total insurance market, which makes up a noticeable share in GDP. And the values of the per capita life insurance premiums exceed $ 1.5 thousand a year. The LIFE -insistialist sector in their assets is either comparable, or surpasses the banking industry - we cannot even compare them.

Currently, Russia is significantly behind in all indicators. So, the share of the official volume of life insurance premiums in the total market structure in 2005 amounted to 5.2%, its share in GDP is 0.1%. And the per capita life insurance premiums in 2005 amounted to $ 6.3. Well, the key difference is, of course, a completely different perception from the population. People, as a rule, understand why they have a car or compulsory motor liability insurance policy, even VHI or apartment insurance. But long -term life insurance is clearly knocked out here. “In many ways, also because the financial planning horizon of the average Russian is a maximum of a few years. Often even less than a year. And he is already offered a service for 15, 20, 30 years. This goes beyond his coordinate system - this is the main reason, ”says Pavel Samiev.

A few numbers

According to the Sigma Research Center, life insurance contributions in 2005 staged $ 1.97 trillion against $ 1.87 trillion a year earlier. Excluding inflation, growth was 3.9%. The largest life insurance fees in 2005 are in the USA, Japan and the UK. The "champions" for annual expenses for life insurance per capita are the UK, Switzerland and Belgium.

“In Russia, according to optimistic estimates, the volume of life insurance market in 2006 will not exceed 12 billion rubles ($ 400 million),” says Alexei Zubets. In per capita, the Russians on average spent on average in 2005 a little more than 50 rubles ($ 2) in 2005. According to the studies of Rosgosstrakh in large and medium -sized cities, 2% of families have covered life insurance. In recent years, the penetration of accumulative life insurance has grown slightly. Today, only 1% of families express their intention to take advantage of storage insurance in the future. It should be borne in mind that in the volumes of the Russian life insurance market, short and risky agreements dominate without a funded component, and for “long” storage life insurance contracts a period of five years or more in 2006 is unlikely to have more than 5 billion rubles. Meanwhile, in developed countries, it is precisely for “long” storage agreements that the bulk of the assembled premium is accounted for.

Summarizing all of the above, we can safely say that long -term life insurance in Russia, of course, has certain prospects, but for a long time they will remain prospects. Only after 5-10 years, insurers will begin to reap their first fruits in this form. But, obviously, most investors understood this when it invested significant funds in life insurance.

"In my opinion, the vast majority of companies specializing in this type of insurance have not paid off their investments in this business. This is normal - it should take another five years, but for now, the shareholders are in the red," says Pavel Samiev.

11/27/2006 / Marina Kadykova, the material was published in the newspaper No. 218 dated November 28, 2006.