Good afternoon. Thank you very much for joining us in spite of a tight schedule, to join the IR Day for T&D Holdings. My name is T amura from Taiyo Life, and let me talk about the Taiyo Life sales strategy. In thinking our strategy, improvement of profitability comes first. Productivity has to be improved to achieve that. That is the sales strategy base. Please turn to page one. This is the table of contents. Let me go right into the main business. Page two, Taiyo Life's business model and product development. On the left-hand side, you see the business model. Conventionally, the sales staff in pairs visit households, and the household market is the main market that we focus on. Traditionally, the household customers, usually senior people, elderly people, are the ones, and we need to focus on the livelihood protection for protection-type products.
On the right-hand side, for example, customizable products for the core coverage or the dementia protection type of insurance. Back in those days, it was not so much discussed, but we launched this and those with the feeling, the health concerns, we try to meet their needs of the elderly people to develop our products. For this fiscal year for starting [in April] , we have embarked in the age of the positive interest rate. Let's go to page three. Taiyo Life. How have we evolved the business model and how are we going to change that? On the lower left, as I said earlier, our sales staff visited door-to-door, the households in pairs. More recently, we try to shift toward hybrid sales, TV commercials, and online commercials or advertisement. We get the customer information from these media to reflect in our sales approach.
Based on that, our sales staff visit the household. So direct lead information that we utilize for our sales staff to use when they visit the households. This is what we call hybrid sales. That is face-to-face plus non-face-to-face. On the upper left, you see the enhanced sales support by life counselors, LCs. It used to be that those people who were in clerical works, administrative work. We try to reduce the administrative work on the branch side, and the saved time can be diverted to the sales support. So with the appointments with the customers and that kind of information, customer information can be delivered to the sales staff from LCs and the sales staff visit the customers based on that information. Then the transformation of the branch management. There are 150 branches.
It used to be in the 150 branches, all of them have the similar approaches in responding to the calls and do the administrative work was uniform, but we try to transform that. More recently, as I said, we get the direct customer information, to be utilized by the sales staff in visiting the households, but going forward, PayPay app can be used for selling our products. That means the information strategy is getting more and more advanced, which is going to be our main pillar of sales strategy. Lower right, strengthening of the management base. In the call center, it is manually operated. People respond. We try to utilize AI here. Operational efficiency means that AI is used again for improved efficiency. AI advanced companies. There are so many AI advanced companies. SoftBank, together mainly with SoftBank, we collaborate.
From the next page onwards, I would like to go into each theme one by one. Page four, please. Hybrid style sales to be promoted. As I said, TV commercials, online advertising. These are the media from which we get the information about the customers and then the sales staff can benefit from that. On the left, you see the evolution. Infomercial started in 2016 before COVID-19. Through the COVID-19 days, utilizing that kind of information was used for sales activities and LC, life counselors. Those at the branch offices with administrative work, they used the saved time for sales support and to give information to the sales staff. Last year, we take the group insurance and the members when they retire, Taiyo Life's individual insurance can be offered. That kind of information for the sales staff, the scope is being expanded.
On the right-hand side, you see the bar graphs. The dark red bars shows the information or Suma-Hoken information, giving the direct information. The pink bars are the lead information from LCs or group market information. The volume of information is getting larger and larger. The contracts from the customers, you see the gray broken line graphs. With the increase of the volume of information, the contract successful cases is increasing as well. Page five, please. T-AI-Face is the terminal that the sales staff use on a daily basis. With this use, the productivity can be improved. For example, market to be expanded and the market ability can be strengthened, and the sales efficiency can be improved through T-AI-Face. Market expansion. This is the online consultation can be made possible. The customers use their smartphones for that type of communication.
When they are living in the remote areas, making it difficult for them to visit the branch offices, or they can shorten the time of trouble to the branch offices through the non-face-to-face sales through the terminals or devices. Digitally, a proposal can be transmitted to the smartphones of our customers. So it's a non-face-to-face sales. 137% increase of productivity was achieved because of this. In the middle, consulting tailored to customer needs. The planning of the products. AI analyze the past historical data, the family member information of the customers. These information can be input and entered. Those accumulated planning or information in Taiyo can be utilized. Compared to the time before, the T-AI-Face average premium per policy has increased by 13%. The efficiency improvement or of the efficiency.
Looking at the logging of the history of the sales activities, we can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of that sales staff for possible improvements, and there's an AI customer list. Let's say the sales staff, when they try to visit a household in adjacent areas, there may be powerful prospects. T-AI-Face can display that on the screen. So the number of proposals of the life insurance increased by 20%. This is one of the ammunition we can use for the improved efficiency or productivity. Page six, please. Transformation of branch management and expansion of sales support service through LC. LC support the sales, as I said earlier. Those who used to support the administrative work of the branch, they were eliminated by 70%, and that can be diverted to the sales support.
Education of the sales staff and the sales support in terms of quality and quantity, there has been a support. You see the broken line graphs on the lower right. 150 minutes by this fiscal year that the sales support has, and the lead referrals started to increase, and the number of contracts have been gradually increasing. On the left, transformation of branch management. Taiyo Life for several decades, all branches have the similar or the same administrative system or sales system, but we try to find the branch office dedicated to the sales promotion. There is a sales branch, but the head of the block branch office can supervise the sales activities for the enhanced operational efficiency. Per sales staff, the new contract ANP increased by 60%. LC support before and after the management change, there has been an improvement by 30% or so.
The sales branch LCs support hours increased by 30%. Page seven. As has been mentioned, in addition to direct leads, we collaborate with PayPay. Through PayPay app, we try to sell products. The customer information that is used can be more enhanced. The prospect information can be expanded through this app. Page eight. The strengthening of the management foundation, mainly we collaborate with SoftBank. AI operated call center is one example. Through AI, we try to eliminate the manual operation of the call center, and the saved human resources can be diverted to sales support. On the right-hand side, improving headquarters operation efficiency. The system under which the human and AI can collaborate, can be materialized to reduce the human part. The strengthening of the sales promotion frameworks and infrastructures. T-AI-Face can be improved through the use of AI.
Even further, on page nine, increase in sales staff and productivity improvement. Hybrid style sales approach is something we are trying to pursue under COVID-19. Sales staff number increased. On the left you see the graph. Per sales staff ANP of new business, JPY 1.1 million to JPY 1.5 million. The coverage amount increased before and after the introduction with those people with the tenure of three years or less. At the end of last year, the number went to 9,700, and now it is more than 9,900.
Page 10. This is on the sales performance. Pre-COVID, it was JPY 15.7 billion, but it is JPY 22 billion in fiscal 2025. The protection type imports ANP is JPY 171.1 billion. This is a progress compared to pre-COVID. The customer acquisition channel shown to the right, we utilize direct information, and that portion is increasing. On the right-hand side bottom, there is a challenge. This is surrender and lapse rate. The sales rep channel, there is an increase in the surrender for contracts from the days of COVID-19. Also, the agency channel, the contract that were made during the interest rate level was zero, is now the surrender is increasing. Next page. Page 11. From 2022, the single premium products premium is increasing. The JGB yield is declining. We have not done sales promotion, but the sales is increasing.
From this fiscal year, we will base on the needs of the customers to promote the savings type of product. We are going to restart the sales of the single premium products. We have been focusing on the third sector per person balance of the third sector is larger compared to the peers, and in addition to that, we are going to start to sell the savings type of product. For the savings type, the business expense margin will contribute to the ANP. Page 12, please. As I have said, this is on bank assurance. The product sold when the interest rate is zero is being switched by customers and the surrender is increasing. We have changed the products that we sell through this channel. The conventional products surrender continues to stay at high level. In 2024 and 2025, the sales was roughly JPY 30 billion.
We have switched to the product with very low assumed interest rate and that is suppressing the volume sales. We have been focusing on product that is dedicated to the nursing care needs. The principle is recovering for the product before the switch of the product lineup. Right now, the surrender is less than 1%, and we believe this is sustainable. Now, the surrender risk has been suppressed. The low cost operation, this is very easy to explain, because there is no MVA. The bank assurance has roughly 30 staff that promotes the sales. The initiative from this fiscal year is to focus on the customers of credit unions. The information is to be shared to the sales rep. We have been suppressing the bank assurance channel, so the in-force balance will decline, and we expect that the risk of surrender will go down.
Next is the trends in profit indicators. Group KPI is adjusted ROE and core profit. As shown to the left, in 2021, we ceded block policy and under each measure, these indicators are on the rise. Right-hand side, core profit in 2022, the claims payment related to COVID-19 increased, so the core profit declined, but otherwise it is on an increasing trend. Especially last fiscal year, interest rate growth and the reversal of the reserve for the retirement allowance, that was a special factor related to the core profit. Through ceding, the positive spread is on the increasing trend. Page 14, please. This is the topic that we are working on to improve the profitability. We have been repeating 11x increase in the business expense margin over the past seven years. To the right, advanced underwriting.
We are to reduce the moral risk from the underwriting to the assessment so that the claims payment will be at the appropriate level. The right-hand side, improvement of investment yield, the reduction of equity exposure, the shift of asset to alternative assets and others. The bottom, this is group collaboration to outsourcing of domestic equity management to TDAM and alternative asset management to TDIM. Page 15, structural change in the policies in force. Taiyo Life's structure includes a large amount of individual annuity sold in the past. It still makes up more than 40% of the in-force ANP. This does not contribute much to the insurance bottom line, and also it is rather difficult to generate positive spread. In the future, the payment of the annuity will be completed, and it will run off. Roughly, the proportion will go down to 30% by 2030.
The structure will change, and to replace that, we will increase the protection type of the product and savings type of product, which will generate positive spread. As shown to the right-hand side bottom within the industry, some peers have annuity 10%, but ours is half of that, and through structural change of the in-force policy structures, this will be improved. Page 16. The core profit is broken down into these elements, and one is the insurance bottom line. Mortality margin and business expense margin are the components. We analyze them, and the holdings is monitoring to identify what measures are working and what are not in order to constantly improve the measures and strategy. Last page, this is full year earnings outlook, so please have a look. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Ms. Tamura. Next up, we would like to proceed to the Daido Life sales strategy. Mr. Fujita, please.
Good afternoon. My name is Fujita from Daido Life. I'd like to present Daido Life sales strategy. Page one, table of contents. I will follow this table of contents. Page two, please. First, I'll explain our sales performance. On the left-hand side, as you can see on the bar graph, the new constructor or new insurance. During the previous medium-term management plan, a new policy amount increased steadily, reaching JPY 5.3 trillion in fiscal 2025, up approximately JPY 170 billion from the previous fiscal year. This growth was driven by our consultative sales approach, which carefully addressed customer diverse protection needs and by the expansion of a total coverage proposal, which promotes death coverage and disability benefit as a combined solution.
The total coverage proposal has helped strengthen relationship with existing customers while also expanding our customer base. As a result, the number of new corporate clients increased by approximately 300. Our customers have the business succession issues or so they discontinue their business or because of the funding shortage, they may surrender. As a result, the lost corporate clients increased, so the overall number of corporate clients remains almost flat. Page three, please. On the left, the policy amount in force increased for the second consecutive year, supported by strong new policy amount. It's an increase of approximately JPY 360 billion, reaching JPY 47 trillion, from the end of the previous fiscal year, and it's the highest year-end level. Meanwhile, the surrender and lapse amount increased by approximately JPY 60 billion from the previous year. The lapse and surrender rate remained largely unchanged year-on-year.
The increase in the surrender and lapse amount was mainly attributable to policy reviews associated with the launch of severe cancer coverage J-type into 2025. This has a wider scope of coverage, and there was a review of the existing contract. The result was broadly in line with our plans. Page four, please. In line with the growth in the new policy amount, the value of new business, which represents profitability on the economic value basis, has continued to expand steadily. In addition, as a result of the continued efforts to protect SMEs through total coverage, embedded value, which represents corporate value on an economic value basis, has also grown steadily. On a financial accounting basis, the profit is increased by JPY 9.6 billion year-on-year, reaching a record high level, as was the case with the policy amount in force. Page five, please.
Next, let me turn to the performance by sales channel. Our traditional sales channel, the sales staff channel and the tax accountant channel, have strong advantage in activities conducted in collaboration with our partner organizations. As a result, both organizational indicators such as the number of sales staff and agencies and the new policy amount have continued to grow steadily. In the sales staff channel, we have strengthened initiatives related to personnel systems, recruitment, training, and development. As a result, retention rates have shown a steady improvement and the number of sales staff returned to growth during the previous medium-term management plans or MTMPs. The tax accountant channel has also continued to perform well with steady growth in both the number of agencies and new policy amounts. We expect this channel to remain a key driver of our future growth.
The financial institution channel, which has a strong advantage in accessing mid-size companies, has certainly expanded its agency network. However, new policy amounts declined year-on-year for the second consecutive year, affected by factors such as the diversification of products promoted by agencies driven by the growing popularity of variable life insurance and the foreign currency denominated insurance products. This remains the main driver. So in addition to the protection type, we will fully leverage our strength in providing solution related to inheritance and business succession measures. Page six, please. Next, I'd like to discuss FP and inheritance consultants and channel mix strategy. The FP and inheritance consultants are a dedicated organization that provides support to branch sales staff in order to steadily capture customers' inheritance and business succession needs. The organization has expanded steadily and deployment across all regions in Japan was completed in fiscal 2024.
In addition, both number of company stock valuation consultations and the number of successful sales cases supported by these sales staff have increased steadily, making a significant contribution to improved productivity. Looking ahead, we believe that the need to address inheritance and business succession needs will continue to increase. Accordingly, we'll remain committed to further enhancing our wealth management business, including building relationship that span generations. Our channel mix initiative brings together tax accountant agencies and sales staff to provide protection proposals. Both the number of agencies and new policy amounts have shown consistent growth. In addition, the proportion of new corporate clients is higher than in solicitations conducted solely by sales staff. The initiative has also contributed to expanding our reach to customers who have not previously had access to our protection solutions. We will continue to strengthen our efforts in this area. Page seven, please.
Next, I'd like to discuss Dodai and Kenko Support Program or KSP. Since its launch in 2022, Dodai has continued to expand its membership base. It has grown into Japan's largest online community for business owners with more than 130,000 members. In particular, the number of members registering through advertisement and organic search has increased in recent years. As of the end of fiscal 2025, 47% of all members have joined without going through the sales staff channel. Next, KSP was launched in 2017 as a tool to support SMEs in implementing health management initiatives. As of the end of fiscal 2025, it had been adopted by approximately 51,000 companies and was used by around 184,000 individuals. Adoption by companies that do not currently hold Daido Life insurance policies has also been increasing gradually.
As labor shortage become increasingly severe, we've recognized that implementing health management initiatives to help employees remain healthy and productive for longer is a critical management issue for SMEs. By expanding our range of support services and solutions, we aim to contribute even more to addressing these challenges. In addition, the number of companies that have taken our insurance policies after engaging with Dodai and KSP has been increasing. We believe that both initiatives are increasingly translating into concrete business results in the form of new insurance contracts. Page eight, please. Next, I'd like to discuss the current performance trends. Looking back on the first quarter, we believe that the uncertainty surrounding SME management increased further due to factors such as the volatile situation in the Middle East, broader global developments, and changes in the interest rates and foreign exchange markets.
Turning to our performance trends, disability benefit products recorded lower sales than in previous year. In June, there was this severe cancer coverage J-type product that's introduced, reflecting the absence of positive impact from the launch of that product. However, the death coverage products outperformed the previous year. As a result, the total new policy amount remained broadly in line with the strong level of the previous year. While the lapse and surrender amount increased, policy amount in force has recorded net growth since the beginning of the fiscal year. Although there were concerns about the impact of changes in the business environment and SME management, the effect of our policy sales results has been limited so far, reflecting a strength in promoting protection-type products.
At the same time, we recognize that this is by no means a situation that warrants optimism as the impact of rising prices and others is expected to persist. We will therefore continue to provide tailored consulting services to each individual company and remain committed to proposing the protection solutions that best meet their needs. Page nine, please. Here, I'd like to explain the policy of the Medium -Term Management Plan, MTMP, that commenced this fiscal year. On this page, we have organized our view of the business environment, which formed the basis of the MTMP using the 3 C framework. With regard to customers and competitors, as mentioned earlier, we believe that uncertainties surrounding SME management will continue to increase amid ongoing changes in the business environment, and that the economic outlook will remain unclear.
In addition, the social challenges facing SMEs are becoming increasingly complex, including a shrinking working-age population and increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters. As for the competitive environment, while we continue to closely monitor developments in the corporate insurance market, we do not currently see any significant changes in the competitive landscape. Leveraging our long-standing strength in promoting protection-type products, which are less susceptible to economic fluctuations, we aim to achieve further growth by enhancing the value we provide to SMEs and by developing new customer base. In addition, by delivering value beyond insurance, we will diversify our sources of profits while building multifaceted and long-term relationship with our customers.
Please turn to page 10. Here, I will provide a little more detail on business sentiment among SMEs and the competitive landscape. Business sentiment among SMEs remains weak against the backdrop of persistent inflation, labor shortages, and an unstable international environment. The majority of SMEs are concerned about the impact of rising prices on their businesses. As for the competitive landscape, we recognize the need to continue to closely monitor other insurers, given the ongoing launch of corporate insurance products by competitors and their stated intentions to strengthen initiatives targeting the SME market. At this point, however, we have not seen any significant change in how frequently we encounter competitors when making proposals. There has also been no major change in the proportion of independent agents and new business volume is growth at both exclusive and multi-tied agencies. Please turn to the next page.
This slide provides an overview of the medium-term management plan that began this fiscal year. The key point is that we will create value through both our insurance and non-insurance businesses. By steadily executing all of these strategies, we aim to maximize the value generated by both insurance and non-insurance businesses, enhance our brand value, and achieve our vision for the future. Please turn to page 12. Here, I would like to share how we envision expanding our insurance business. As I mentioned earlier, under the previous medium-term management plan, we were able to achieve growth in in-force business. We believe this was driven by a steady increase in the number of companies which we have built strong relationships through initiatives such as the consistent implementation of our total protection proposal and efforts by our FP and inheritance consultants to address inheritance and business succession needs.
It was also supported by growth in the number of newly insured companies resulting from initiatives such as the development of the financial institution channel and channel mix. Under the new medium-term management plan, we aim to further evolve our total protection approach to increase the amount of insurance coverage per company, while also expanding the number of insured companies by developing our customer segments, thereby driving further growth in our insurance business. We will also evolve our customer data platform, which serves as the foundation for data utilization into a data and AI platform, enabling us to deepen our understanding of customers and achieve a significant improvement in productivity. Please turn to page 13. From here, I will explain our initiatives under the sales strategy.
As part of the development of our next generation system, including system migration, there will be certain periods during which we will be unable to launch new products or revise underwriting standards. However, this was already factored into the medium-term management plan when it was formulated and will not affect our ability to achieve the plan. We will continue to systematically advance our initiative toward realizing our target vision. Let me first discuss the direction of our efforts to evolve the value we provide to SMEs or further evolve our total protection approach. As the initiatives shown here are still at the stage of being developed in greater detail, I will refrain from going into specifics. One of our strategic direction is to offer value to everyone working at SMEs, which includes expanding our value proposition beyond business owners.
As the first step, we have renewed Kaisha Minnade KENCO+, a health promotion insurance product that integrates KSP with insurance coverage, including by increasing the maximum coverage amount. We believe the corporate employee market still offers significant room for further development. Since the renewal, performance has been significantly higher than in the same period of the previous year. Please turn to page 14. Next, I will discuss the development of new customer segments. I will refrain from going into the details of each initiative, but as one example, let me explain how we plan to further evolve Dodai. We will strengthen both its community function, which helps address the isolation and concerns faced by business owners, and its solutions function, which supports problem-solving and value creation.
By creating connections among the business owners across regions and industries and accelerating growth in both membership and active users, we aim to create touch points with an even broader range of SMEs and monetize Dodai. Please turn to page 15. From here, I will explain approach to initiatives in non-insurance areas. As mentioned before, the business environment and the social and management challenges facing SMEs are becoming increasingly complex. We would like to contribute to the SMEs in various aspects. We hope that we can reduce the gap between large enterprises and SMEs as much as possible. Please turn to page 16. These are still under consideration. If you could confirm what are to be released in the current fiscal year. The services will be based on the solutions that will resolve the challenges that SMEs are facing in terms of the social challenges and the management challenges.
We will develop a long-term and multifaceted relationship with customers. Lastly, page 17. This is our full-year outlook. There is no change from the figures we have already announced. This concludes the presentation on the sales strategy of Daido Life. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Mr. Fujita. We would like to proceed to the Q&A session.
Those who want to ask questions, please click the raise hand button on the lower side of the screen, and we try to send you the request to unmute your microphone. After you receive that, please unmute your mic and start asking. If you want to cancel the questions, lower hand sign has to be clicked. Two questions at a time. That's the limit. But you can take as many turns as you like. We would like to take as many questions as possible as within the time frame we have here. We will start the Q&A. Please click the raise hand button if you want to ask questions. The first question is from JP Morgan Securities, Sato-san. Please unmute your microphone and ask your question, please.
Thank you. My name is Sato from JP Morgan Securities. I have two questions. First, about PayPay's collaboration, SoftBank's collaboration. That is Taiyo Life's business tie-up. On page eight, you have shown us some examples, but if you can give us the timeframe and the granularity of the initiatives, your intent is that on a short-term basis, this can be achieved in your view. I think these initiatives have already started, and approval of the products and system has to be improved. Maybe it will take more time. There are two separate ways to look at this. If you could elucidate me on this. That is my first question.
The second question. This may concern both lives. When individual on the government bond, a NISA. If it materializes, what would be the effect or impact on your business environment if they come through? Do you say that you do not have to worry too much about this? If you could give me a food for thought, I would appreciate it very much.
My name is Moriya from T&D Holdings. Thank you, Sato-san. Mr. Tamura will answer your question, but PayPay collaboration or partnership for individuals, they have the client base and then with Taiyo Life that they were studying various possibilities. Group and the PayPay's comprehensive partnership is the way to go. The holding group as a whole is considering this partnership. Having said that, I will ask Tamura-san.
Thank you for your question. Tamura speaking. PayPay or SoftBank's collaboration with them. First, about PayPay. The insurance product sales through their app. The product lineup of Taiyo Life or new products of Taiyo Life, we are studying various possibilities at this moment with PayPay.
PayPay handles various insurance products, but the kind of products they never handled that is being sold by Taiyo Life for the senior citizens or the third sector products. The products with unique features are the ones we are thinking of on PayPay app is used for sales, but system has to be built on the side of PayPay and on the side of Taiyo Life. For example, collection of the premium or the payment of the claims. Those are the technical aspects that we have to cover going forward. For new policy, in sense of the new policy on the PayPay side, system-related subsidiaries, they have the system related companies that we are working with them. The sales, we have to agree on the sales timing. The second half of next fiscal year is our target, and we are deepening our discussion, technical discussion.
Collaboration with SoftBank. The major theme is the call center, AI-operated call center. We have to look at the cost performance, cost benefits. The call center operation, we break down the various segments of call center operations. How can AI improve the efficiency? SoftBank has a high level of expertise, and we use their expertise. When we discuss with them, in the life insurance industry, call center operation is very complicated to them. For the credit card companies, SoftBank operates a call center, but compared to them, the life insurance company's call center's operation is more complex. SoftBank, in order to improve their own call center productivity and efficiency, they have a very positive attitude on this. In November, there was a verification of the cost performance, and then after looking at that results, we will proceed. That is my answer to your first question.
About the advertisement and marketing area, well, we have also embarked on the discussion on the collaborations, but in due time or due course of time, when the time comes, we would like to announce that to you. For your second question about the government bond. Taiyo Life, the single premium whole life is being sold by us, but our market is for elderly people. That's the main market. So the products which merely increase the return is not the one. Protection has to be there in our products to the elderly. So Taiyo Life alone, well, we don't say that we are not affected, but our products are different in objective from government bonds in our efforts to meet the needs of our elderly customers. So we are not squarely facing their direct competition. Thank you.
For Daido Life, sales to the individuals by the JGBs, allow me to answer that. Our core business, the corporate market, almost no effect on the corporate market. But as Tamura-san said earlier, the single premium whole life insurance for individual business owners, that's our proposal. For this, there may be a little bit of competition. But insurance products is not the product to merely increase the asset amount. We need to give the objective of the managed assets. It's different from the products which merely looks at the return. Thank you.
This is Tamura of Taiyo Life. Another point on life insurance. The inheritance tax is one of the purpose to utilize, and this is an additional benefit that is completely different from government bond. From that perspective, rather than head-on competition with the government bond, the inheritance measures will be a major topic for the customers. So, that is the value.
The intent of my second question was related to the needs of inheritance. There are careful discussions about that. I think LDP is coming up with a proposal to reduce the inheritance tax. The protection is important. That part I understand. So, is it all right to consider that there is no risk of competition?
This is Tamura of Taiyo Life. As you mentioned, from tax perspective, various discussions are underway. If a government bond can be used for the inheritance, as I have said in the beginning, the needs is very different in terms of the product nature. I'm not saying that there is zero impact, but our market is senior market, and in that market, protection is an attractive characteristic whereby we can capture customers.
I understood quite well. Thank you very much.
Moving on to the next question. SMBC Nikko Securities, Muraki-san, please. Please unmute and ask your question.
This is Muraki of SMBC Nikko Securities. I have two questions to Mr. Tamura of Taiyo Life. First question is single premium whole life. How are you managing this product? Any ingenuity in there? You talked about the inheritance. There are many customers who are intended to use that. The average age through the sales staff channel for single premium.
What would be the average age of the male consumers, and what about the compensation to the sales staff or the executives? Any creative element in that? In your presentation, you talked about bank insurance. Since there is no MVA, there is less burden of explanation in the sales staff channel. Is the hurdle very high to attach MVA? Is it realistically difficult? Is that your judgment? That is my first question about the single premium whole life.
This is Tamura of Taiyo Life. On your first question, single premium whole life sales management. The current business promotion-wise, number-wise, compared to our intended number, it is relatively low. In the past, when we were selling such a product, we had very seasoned staff, and those staff were capable of selling such product in addition to protection type. But mid-career or younger staff, their focus had been protection.
The protection to decline is what we want to avoid from the insurance bottom line perspective. So, mid-level staff, they are not really used to selling both protection type and single premium. But when we look at the monthly performance, the sales departments are sharing the successful sales cases across Japan. So every month, the sales volume is increasing. The average age is 65 years old. Taiyo Life's main market is senior segment, and so average is 65 years old. This is quite normal. But actually, people in their 80s, they can also purchase the product. Such needs is very strong. That is what we hear from the front line. So we expanded to people in their 80s. Last month, there were 15%- 16% of people in their 80s. So in that age segment, there is strong needs to purchase such product. That is the first point.
What was the second question?
On the commission.
As I have said in the presentation, we have not done any sales promotion during the past decade. The compensation to the sales staff is very low. But still, as I have explained, from around 2022, the sales volume started to increase. The sales staff did not focus on the compensation. Rather than compensation of the sales staff, it is more of a customer's demand. From this year, as the company, we started to promote the sales. We raised the compensation for insurance product with a certain level of premium. The productivity will be higher, if we can sell the high amount product. We do not provide a special incentive to branch manager. Under the ordinary performance management, we manage the branch managers. We have not added any additional incentive to promote the sale of this product. Whether MVA is difficult for sales staff.
Speaking of difficulty, in bancassurance, product with MVA is rampant. Even when Taiyo Life introduces product with MVA, banks will not be motivated to add. In the past, we have not done so through the sales staff channel. Other companies have invested so much resources to try to sell products with MVA. That means such product is very difficult to sell. Another element is that without MVA, can we not differentiate? For bancassurance channel, MVA will become differentiation. But for our sales staff channel, it is rather difficult to think that MVA will determine the success of the sales.
Understood clearly. Thank you very much. The second point is about page 16, the restriction on the business administrative expenses. I think the priority is to improve the profitability, maintenance cost of the policy. Do you have any metric you are using or you are going to use or to be disclosed outside?
Tamura speaking. About the business expenses management, recently, we tried to break it down to subsections. More recently, system investment is encouraged. The investment in human resources, those inside the house and the sales staff included, the personnel cost is most likely to increase. The business expense is going to go up to a certain extent going forward. Those contract management work, when I talked about the management foundation, I said that those are a huge amount of work that belongs to each individual worker. With the introduction of AI, the workload can be eliminated or lightened, and the operation based on AI is the way to go. In the past, the operation is based on manual work. Going forward, we can reduce the workload or eliminate the workload with the introduction of AI.
Because if we do this, whether this works or not, we will need to manage that properly. There will be an opportunity for me to explain in more details about this for you.
Thank you very much.
Moriya from T&D Holdings. About Muraki-san's second question. Taiyo Life is improving the earnings structure, which is very important. With Daido Life too, going forward, there will be a cost increase coming from inflation. This is a challenge for the group as a whole. AI and digital transformation, it can reduce operation cost or improve the profitability. That is the challenge on the whole group, and we are working on it. About the business expense, we need to reduce cost and improve our productivity, and each company has a different business. It is difficult to have a uniform comparison, but how to look at the unit cost, the holding on a regular basis, confirming with each company.
In the briefing session of the T&D Holdings, there will be more disclosures and our explanation from us to you going forward. Thank you.
Thank you. Moving on to the next question. Daiwa Securities, Watanabe-san, please ask your question.
This is Watanabe of Daiwa Securities. I have two questions. First is related to Taiyo Life, the partnerships with PayPay to buy from PayPay app. There are 15 types already. In the first sector, you talked about the middle-age segment. Just by putting your product on the PayPay's shelf, do you think you can sell? What is the sales strategy? Second is Daido Life on page eight, it shows surrender and lapse rate. What is the reason for deterioration in April, and what is the outlook from July and onward?
This is Tamura of Taiyo Life. Thank you for the question. The PayPay app, just to list the product will not generate sales. On app, PayPay offers various types of products already. Through discussion with PayPay, we are discussing based on the past track record on PayPay. We have been discussing on the product that we are going to offer on PayPay, although we cannot communicate today on this particular product. The target is pre-senior. Taiyo Life core customer is a senior, but pre-senior is a little bit younger. To that segment, there is a strong need, and we are targeting that. The PayPay users in their daily lives, there are things that they wish to be prepared for, and the product is to cater to such needs. It is going to be sold through PayPay.
It is not a planning-based product that the sales staff channel sells, but a product that focuses directly on the needs on PayPay's users. Can we sell just by carrying on PayPay? Well, it is going to be on PayPay. We cannot do anything on that. Once we start the sale, if we cannot generate track record just by listing, we would like to consult with PayPay for additional measures. On day one, it may just be just a listing, but we are focusing all our efforts to get started. Once it is up and running, we will look at the sales record and consider additional measures.
Thank you very much. Looking forward to the new product.
About the second question about the surrender and lapse of the Daido Life. Allow me to answer. As you already said, in April, 109%, which remained relatively high. There was a unique situation. There was several cases of surrender on a large scale, so that means 9% increase over the previous year. But it is getting better, and 106% in June. August and September, it is less than average. At this moment, it has subsided. Thank you very much.
The next question from Mizuho Securities, Sakamaki-san, please proceed.
Sakamaki of Mizuho Securities. I have two questions. About the Taiyo Life first, the hybrid sales approach and the advancement of information strategy. I would like to ask your future on page four. Compared to the referral lead, it seems that the numbers here looks rather low. Maybe the first year is for the permeation, and probably you are not very much concerned about the number of successful contracts to be concluded. Or do you have any challenges in the operations with the analysis, the current situation? Please give us the explanation about the future of this information collaboration.
Thank you for your question, Tamura of Taiyo Life. On page four, the type of information, the volume of information, it has been increasing. The number of contracts has not increased accordingly. As you rightly said, as you can see here, in 2022, 81,000 contracts. This is exactly the effects of COVID-19 and the customer's needs heightened during that period. The COVID-19 pushed up the needs for 68,900 and 69,000 and 86,000. So it seems that it dropped and a little bit increased last year. Information and Suma-Hoken, those are the direct information which gave us the contract, 68,000, 69,000. 2025, but there was a slight increase because of the information from LCs, but from group insurance gave us more information. In terms of the rate of successful case from the group insurance contracts, it is not so large.
We have just started those members of the group insurance, and when they retire, they give us the information. The information itself is compared to information on Suma-Hoken, those with certain needs, that is the kind of information we want. The group insurance does not give us that kind of information. It is only they retired or not. How can we insight the needs and entice them to purchase? From our side, it is important. The type of insurance policy and planning is important. As T-AI-Face, I discussed earlier, using the T-AI-Face, we try to find a product which engages mostly a certain type of customers. Looking at the group market and from the LC's information, we would like to increase the contract rate. PayPay, taking out the insurance through app, that is an important theme. These people, they are existing policy holders.
How can we propose something extra to the existing policy holders? That is our challenge. The amount of information increased, but the successful contract has not increased accordingly, correspondingly. We have room for improvement, and we would like to take measures to increase the contract acquisition rate. Thank you.
I was able to understand clearly. Thank you. Second point is related to Daido Life. The keyword is to generate profit both from insurance and non-insurance domain. In the non-insurance domain, there are various companies working on this domain, and profit generation and scaling is yet to be visible, and the equity market is not valuing based on such expectation. What are the time frame in expecting the non-insurance domain to contribute to the bottom line? What are the challenges that you foresee in expanding this domain? Can you explain?
Thank you for the question. In terms of the time frame, we need to review and discuss further. In the first stage, we believe it is going to be difficult to monetize. At least it is going to take five years to reach profitability. That is what we are thinking. The basic concept was mentioned in the presentation. SMEs are faced with various social environment and management environment, and SMEs need to resolve various challenges. Within our domain, we are to provide solutions, and that is the main purpose in developing our business. In a way, the profit is to be generated from such business on a standalone basis. Through such initiative, SMEs can last longer. Through that, the profit base of our insurance business can survive longer. We would like to work on the expansion of our business base.
Thank you.
Next question, Nomura Securities, Sasaki-san, please ask your question.
This is Sasaki of Nomura Securities. My first question is on Daido Life. On page two, on the right-hand side, there is a graph. On page two, the number of customers, clients, are flat or slightly declining. In order to overcome this situation, what kind of measures do you have in mind? Right now, basically, the owners of corporates are the main target, and from before, you have been talking about the former business owners were the main target before, but is there a possibility on the employees of such companies? That is the first question.
Thank you for your question. You are exactly right. The number of corporate clients is flat, and that is a management challenge that Daido Life needs to resolve. I briefly touched upon this point in my presentation. SMEs, unfortunately, may not be able to survive, perhaps due to cash flow or lack of successor, or through environment business from the supply chain, they are eliminated from the business. Unfortunately, some SMEs cannot continue its business, and as a result, they need to cancel the insurance policy. That cannot be controllable by our company. What we need to do is to increase the customer base. That is the biggest point. From that perspective, through sales staff channel, we need to expand new customer. We are offering various support measures. For example, using customer data platform, we deepen understanding of customers to expand.
And also tax accountant channel, there we are developing new tax accountant office who have not been doing insurance business. That will generate a major additional business, and we would like to focus strongly in these areas. And the insurance coverage for people other than owners in the area of expansion of the protection, I mentioned the KENCO+ for the whole company. This is not just for the owner, but for the employees of the companies. It is a health support program for them, and insurance is added and offered as part of the health and welfare of the company. And we are promoting that companies adopt this as the health and welfare to their employees. And this has started to grow from this fiscal year. We would like to further focus on the promotion to the employees of SMEs.
Thank you. My second question is for Taiyo Life, page seven. I have a question. That is aside the partnership with PayPay. If you have any ideal that you would like to achieve with them, like through smartphones, existing policies certificate can be entered, and AI can give the consultations to incite the demand. And then after that, Taiyo Life's group can approach those people in the sales effort. I think if that is possible, that would be quite interesting. It is just not just listing those products on the shelf, but by adding the consulting services to give a higher added value, that may help. So that is my second question.
Thank you for the question. There was a discussion about just merely listing, showing on the shelf of PayPay, would it sell or not? Rather than PayPay, LY Corporation or SoftBank Group has a wide range of network. [LINE] Influencers Group
There are so many of them, and these influencers give much information for the consumption trend. And then at the Taiyo Life, the customer information can be combined so that we can propose the products which meet the needs of the customers. More recently, through the insurance policy sales of the PayPay app and the partnership in the advertisement. As another topic, Taiyo Life has developed the findings and expertise in the senior market, and LINE, Yahoo!, and SoftBank has their data, a huge amount of data. So if we can combine these two, that can help improve the productivity of the sales staff and come up with the products which meet the needs of the customers. So the people in charge in different departments are discussing things with SoftBank and PayPay. They have different ideas which were never thought of by life insurers.
With these, we can go beyond the envelope and then think outside the box. What you said, it gives me an idea, and with that, I would like to proceed forward. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you for your answer.
I am sorry to announce that we have to close, and the next one would be the last question from Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, Takemura-san, please.
Thank you. Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities, Takemura. I have two questions as well. First, for T amura-san about the demand forecast. Page six, life counselors, the lead referrals numbers is listed showing strong growth. In this kind of things, am I right in saying that this has run its course, or is it just at the beginning with the room for growth going forward? Also, in that case, on page nine, the sales staff number is showing upward slope. Do you think that this trend will continue going forward, or with the increase of the lead referrals, would that affect the number of sales staff going forward? Thank you. That is my first question.
Thank you for your question. Your first question about the ranks, the lead referrals LC on page six. I explained this. More recently, LCs use 150 minutes for sales support, and it is increasing still. So with increase in the hours, will that lead to the increase of the lead reform? In order to have that kind of information, life counselors have to make an appointment by making a phone call. That is the basis which is needed, but it is not infinite. We need to grow this.
But in order for their efforts to grow, one of the things we do is that in the past, we made appointments, but they did not materialize in contract. Those customers, LCs will revisit them because the needs will change with time. Back in that time, probably this customer would not listen to us, but with the change of the needs, maybe they come to us this time. So the information from the existing customers is something that we are collecting. LCs and sales staff, their hours increase. They use these hours to access those that they could not access before to increase the lead reforms. Not only the volume of the sales support, but the quality counts. Those with less experience is not good in planning the products to meet the needs of the customers. IPAS can be used, but customer planning support can be done by LCs.
Well, this is something we have already started. Those sales staffs with less than three years of experience can be greatly helped by life counselors. The amount of information is increasing, and at the same time, the quality is also improving with the improved planning. Those sales staff with the experience of less than three years, their retention rate has to be secured. That will lead the way of the veteran sales staff going forward. On page nine, on the right-hand side, you can see 8,000 before COVID-19, and last year's and 9,700. So during COVID, the sales staff increased because thanks to the hybrid type of sales approach during COVID, difficult for the sales staff, almost impossible for them to visit door- to- door. They need to make the appointments, targeting certain clientele. Because of this, during the COVID-19, they could acquire the contracts.
This kind of trend is continuing. As I said in the presentation, most recent number for the sales staff is 9,900 or more, and 250 addition this year alone. Every month, the number is increasing. When I assumed the office of the president, I talked about 10,000 sales staff. This fiscal year, by the end of this year, we would like to increase the sales staff to 10,000 to increase the touch point with the customers for expanded sales. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I understood very clearly. My second question is to Mr. Fujita. This is a follow-up question to the previous question. Right now, the number of corporate members is trending flatly. From the market environment perspective, what is your view? This market for business owners, shall we understand that the market itself is growing continuously? From product perspective, what are the promising areas with large growth potential? You talked about Minnade KENCO+, which is for employees, insurance products. Is that the area with large growth potential? What is your view on the market?
Thank you for your question. The number of SMEs itself is declining overall in the society. The SME market, whether we can say it is a growing market, from the society's perspective, the environment is tough. On the other hand, according to various statistics, the number of SMEs is said to be 2 million or 3 million. Our corporate clients is slightly above 360,000 . There are so many SMEs yet to purchase the corporate insurance. From Daido Life's SME market perspective, there are many corporate prospects that we are yet to do business with, and we would like to establish touchpoints with them.
I introduced Dodai or Kenko Support Program. The customers who do not purchase the insurance can also use the services. That is an additional touch point that is growing. The members of Dodai, registered members, their company history can be rather short for some of the corporate clients. Through the conventional touchpoints like sales staff and others or tax accountants, we are yet to reach them.
This is leading to relationship building, and we are hoping to lead this to insurance products. Product angle was another question. The disability insurance. As you know, the aging of the corporate managers is progressing. To put it conversely, the period of one person managing the company is longer. From the time of becoming the president and then until the retirement, that is becoming longer. In the past, after retirement, once they fell ill, they received treatment as an individual. Right now, while they are still serving as the president, there is a higher probability that they fall ill and cannot work. The insurance that cover the revenue or income because of that is a need that we recognize in the market, and we would like to strongly promote those needs.
Understood clearly. Thank you very much.