Chairman Shin Chang-jae of Kyobo Life Insurance Co. (Photos: Kyobo Life)

Kyobo Life Insurance Co. has been offering a new lifetime insurance policy for sufferers of dementia, gradually reducing the premiums and preparing for a guarantee for the treatment of the disease.

What’s special about the insurance policy is that it guarantees life-time care, including death and treatment at a low insurance premium. This is the first time that a large life insurer has put on the market such a life insurance policy for sufferers of dementia.

At the time of diagnosis for the disease, the policyholder should get 100 percent of the insurance money and later, at the time of death, receive an additional 20 percent of the signing premium.

This particular life insurance policy is available for those between the age of 15 to 75 years, and policies contracted for more than 100 million won can get a discount on the premium worth as much as 3 percent.

The life insurer provides medical care for policyholders for medical expenses connected with alzheimer’s including medical checkups for alzheimer’s, medical consultations for treatment of alzheimer’s, and psychological treatment for family of the patient.

The insurance policy allows the holder to turn all of the insurance money into daily living expenses for 20 years after retirement, minus around 10 percent for funeral expenses. For insurance polices worth more than 100 million won, policyholders are entitled to the “Kyobo Healthcare Service.”

The average insurance premium for the policy, and the policyholders 40 years old or more, are payable for 20 years at 50 percent, or 243,000 won per month, for the Standard A type, and 30 percent for Standard 2 type of 228,000 won.

A model holding an ad for the life-time insurance policy for Alzheimer disease offered by Kyobo Life Insurance Co.

Kyobo Life Insurance has begun working with startups to expand its services into healthcare and ultimately create a platform offering various services.

The move comes as financial authorities pledged to allow insurers to expand their businesses into the healthcare sector.
Kyobo said that it has selected five startups and is set to select five more next month to come up with a business model offering healthcare services by the end of this year.

The insurer plans to start with offering services such as one that aids dental care through smart toothbrushes or a service that analyzes and helps improve eating habits through big data-based food recognition functions.

Kyobo will cover program development costs for the selected startups, and provide an open API. The insurer plans to launch two or three new projects through its healthcare app next year. In the long-term, Kyobo plans to launch a platform where it offers various healthcare and finance services.

It also plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into processes such as reviewing claims and to launch insurance policies and services based on technology.

“Focusing on innovating the insurance business, we will push forward with the healthcare-based platform business.” said Kyobo’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) Yun Your-hyun.

“In the mid to long-term, it is our plan to become the leading finance company in digital innovation by 2025, by offering life care services to all of our customers.” he said.

Kyobo is the second largest life insurer here by total assets.