Insurance Sales Tricks Run Deep, Why Are Seniors Always the Ones Getting Hurt "Focus on 3•15"

Why do AI insurance sales always target the cognitive weaknesses of the elderly?

Our reporter Li Minghui from chinatimes.net.cn Beijing reports:

“Until my mother ran out of money to pay her premiums on time, I didn’t realize she had bought so many insurance policies,” said Zhang Ning (pseudonym). She told Huaxia Times that her mother, in her sixties, was persuaded to buy insurance after participating in a free tour organized by an insurance company. Over the four years of contact with the salesperson, Zhang Ning’s mother was induced to secretly purchase nine annuity policies, with a total premium of over two million yuan. “An elderly person with a monthly pension of only 4,000 yuan simply can’t afford that.”

Huaxia Times notes that many elderly people like Zhang Ning’s mother are not uncommon. Without sufficient risk disclosure and professional explanation, some salespeople mislead them with vague statements such as high returns, steady appreciation, and equivalence to deposits. Under the premise of not understanding insurance responsibilities, payment periods, or surrender risks, they sign policies blindly, buying insurance products that do not match their needs or financial capacity.

Elderly Targeted by Predators

“These policies are basically similar; there’s no need to buy so many,” Zhang Ning told us. Her mother pays over 300,000 yuan in premiums each year, but her monthly pension is only 4,000 yuan, far exceeding her financial ability.

According to Zhang Ning, her mother’s purchase of numerous insurance policies unrelated to her needs was mainly influenced by the insurance salesperson.

“This salesperson kept persuading my mother to add more coverage to meet performance targets and join the millionaire agent circle,” Zhang Ning said. The salesperson had taken her mother on a free trip, then pressed her repeatedly, directly demanding she buy insurance, even saying “You must buy it; it’s not optional.” When her mother repeatedly refused and said she had no money, the salesperson “induced” her to take out a loan on an old policy to buy new insurance, promising to help pay the interest.

Wang Huaitao, chief lawyer at Shanghai Xingu Law Firm, told Huaxia Times that the salesperson engaged in multiple violations. “Forcing someone to buy insurance by saying ‘You must buy it; it’s not optional’ seriously violates voluntary sales principles. Inducing a loan on an old policy to buy new insurance is considered misleading sales.”

Zhang Ning noticed that her mother had purchased three policies within three months, with income figures in the three contracts varying greatly—40,000 yuan, 30,000 yuan, and 10,000 yuan. “All these figures were made up by the salesperson; my mother doesn’t understand, and she doesn’t have that much income in a year.”

“It’s unreasonable for the income entries in three insurance contracts signed within three months to differ so much,” Wang said. Income is a key factor for insurance companies to assess a policyholder’s ability to pay and risk. Such large discrepancies could lead to misjudgment of risk or indicate that the salesperson was filling in income figures arbitrarily to close the deal.

Similar incidents involving elderly people like Zhang Ning’s mother are not isolated.

Huaxia Times found on a social platform that many popular posts report elderly people being misled into purchasing insurance policies far beyond their financial means. For example, a 70-year-old retired person bought a policy with a premium of up to 5.8 million yuan, and some elderly individuals with no income, no job, no pension, and no spouse were persuaded to buy policies with annual premiums over 30,000 yuan and a payment period of up to ten years.

Multiple Measures to Protect the “Sunset Years”

Why do elderly people repeatedly fall into insurance sales traps?

Yuan Shuai, deputy director of the Investment Department at the China Urban Development Research Institute, analyzed for Huaxia Times that there are complex and intertwined reasons behind this. “From the perspective of the elderly themselves, as they age, their cognitive abilities, judgment, and information processing skills decline. When faced with carefully crafted sales pitches and complex insurance terms, they find it difficult to understand key content and potential risks accurately.”

“Some elderly people have a strong demand for health and retirement security. They hope to add a layer of protection for their later years through insurance, and this urgent desire can be exploited by unscrupulous salespeople, making them targets for induced sales,” Yuan said. Some salespeople, in pursuit of performance and commissions, resort to all means of inducement. They often exaggerate the benefits and coverage scope of insurance products, while avoiding or vaguely discussing important details like exemption clauses and surrender losses.

He believes that protecting the elderly’s retirement funds requires society to build a dual defense line of cognition and emotion.

“First, insurance institutions should strengthen internal management and regulate sales behaviors. Establish comprehensive training systems for sales staff, emphasizing not only business knowledge but also professional ethics and legal compliance, to enhance their integrity and professionalism. Additionally, improving supervision and assessment mechanisms to strictly handle violations can create effective deterrence,” Yuan said. Furthermore, government departments should intensify supervision, conduct regular inspections and special rectifications of the insurance market, and severely crack down on illegal inducement behaviors to maintain market order. Public education campaigns to raise awareness of insurance knowledge and risk recognition are also essential. Communities and families should actively care for the elderly, help them understand insurance, and provide necessary advice and guidance during purchase decisions, enabling them to make rational and cautious choices and avoid falling into sales traps.

It is worth noting that major insurance companies are increasingly using technological means to safeguard elderly financial security. Through proactive prevention, interception during sales, and post-transaction tracing, they upgrade from “person-to-person” management to “system-controlled, data-driven” precise compliance, reducing misguidance, signature forgery, and concealment.

An experienced agent from New China Insurance explained that the company’s internal system can automatically generate comprehensive insurance plans based on the applicant’s basic information, providing full coverage and effectively avoiding duplicate policies.

Recently, to enhance public financial literacy, New China Insurance launched the “Clear Financial Environment, Protect Peace of Mind” themed “3.15” financial consumer rights protection education campaign. The campaign focuses on “three focuses and three enhancements,” one of which is ensuring digital financial services support people’s livelihoods. New China Insurance stated that by increasing online educational efforts, they aim to highlight how digital finance empowers social security, boosts consumption, and benefits the public, demonstrating tangible results through big data, artificial intelligence, and other technologies to optimize services, bridge the digital divide for the elderly, support key groups precisely, and implement policies to promote financial consumption.

Editor: Feng Yingzi Chief Editor: Zhang Zhiwei