A participating insurance plan is one in which we share a portion of the profits earned on it and related participating insurance plans with the policy owners. It is designed to be held long term. The premiums of a participating insurance plan will be invested in a variety of assets according to our investment strategy. The cost of policy benefits (including guaranteed and non-guaranteed benefits as specified in your plan that may be payable on death, surrender or the occurrence of certain events such as hospitalization or diagnosis of a critical illness, as well as charges we make to support policy guarantees (if applicable)) and expenses will be deducted as appropriate from premiums of the participating insurance plan or from the invested assets. We aim to ensure a fair sharing of profits between policy owners and shareholders, and among different groups of policy owners.
Divisible surplus refers to profits available for distribution back to policy owners as determined by us. The divisible surplus that will be shared with policy owners will be based on the profits earned from your plan and similar plans or similar groups of policies (as determined by us from time to time by considering factors such as benefit features, policy currencies and period of policy issuance). Divisible surplus may be shared with the policy owners in the form of dividends and/or bonuses as specified in your policy.
We review and determine the dividend and bonus amounts payable to policy owners at least once per year. Divisible surplus depends on the investment performance of the assets which we invest in and the amounts of benefits and expenses we need to pay for the plan. It is therefore inherently uncertain. Nevertheless, we aim to deliver relatively stable dividend and bonus payments over time through a smoothing process by spreading out the gains and losses over a period of time. The actual dividends and bonuses declared may be different from those illustrated or projected in any insurance plan information provided (e.g. benefit illustrations) depending on whether the divisible surplus, past experience and/or outlook are different from what we expected. If dividends or bonuses are different from our last communication, this will be reflected in the policy anniversary statement.
A committee has been set up to provide independent advice on the determination of the dividend and bonus amounts to the Board of the Company. The committee is comprised of members from different control functions or departments within the organisation both at the AIA Group level as well as Hong Kong local level, such as office of the Chief Executive of the Company, legal, compliance, finance, investment and risk management. Each member of the committee will endeavour to exercise due care, diligence and skill in the performance of his or her duties as a member. The committee will utilise the knowledge, experience, and perspectives of each individual member to assist the Board in the discharge of its duty to make independent decisions and to manage the risk of conflict of interests, in order to ensure fair treatment between policy owners and shareholders, and among different groups of policy owners. The actual dividends and bonuses, which are recommended by the Appointed Actuary, will be decided upon the deliberation of the committee and finally approved by the Board of Directors of the Company, including one or more Independent Non-Executive Directors, and with written declaration by the Chairman of the Board, an Independent Non-Executive Director and the Appointed Actuary on the management of fair treatment between policy owners and shareholders.
To determine the dividends and/or bonuses of a participating policy, we consider both past experience and the future outlook of all factors including, but not limited to, the following:
Investment returns: include interest earnings, dividends and any changes in the market value of the backing assets, i.e. the assets in which we invest your premiums (after deducting the cost of policy benefits and expenses). Depending on the asset allocation adopted for the insurance plan, investment returns could be affected by fluctuations in interest income (both interest earnings and the outlook for interest rates) and various market risks, including interest rate risk, credit spread and default risk, fluctuations in listed and private equity prices, real estate prices as well as foreign exchange rates if the currency of the backing assets is different from the policy currency, etc.
Claims: include claims for death benefits, critical illness benefits (if applicable) and any other insured benefits under the insurance plan.
Surrenders: include policy surrenders, partial surrenders and policy lapses; and their corresponding impact on the backing assets.
Expenses: include both expenses directly related to the policy (e.g. commission, underwriting, issue and premium collection expenses) and indirect expenses allocated to the insurance plan (e.g. general administrative costs).
Some participating insurance plans allow the policy owners to place their annual dividends, guaranteed and non-guaranteed cash payments, guaranteed and non-guaranteed incomes, guaranteed and non-guaranteed annuity payments, and/or bonus and terminal dividend lock-in accounts with us, earning interest at a non-guaranteed interest rate. To determine such non-guaranteed interest rate, we consider the returns on the pool of assets in which these amounts are invested with reference to the past experience and future outlook. This pool of assets is segregated from other investments of the Company and may include bonds and other fixed income instruments.