Life Insurance Trust in Japan
Possibilities of a new type of life insurance by combining insurance with something
The idea of combining insurance with something is expanding the possibilities ofinsurance. The first example is a health promotion type of insurance, which combines
insurance with health promotion. This type of insurance offers benefits such as premium
discounts and refunds to policyholders according to their health performance. Not for theevent of getting sick or death but for staying healthy---policyholders take out insurancewith the positive attitude instead of negative, and their health-conscious initiatives will
be reflected in the form of premium discounts and more, which also leads to coveragecontinuation. This is surely a revolutionary product.
As another example, there is small-amount and short-term insurance. Generally
speaking, life insurance is something you need to pay premiums that don’t come cheap
for a long time. Small-amount and short-term insurance products are developed byreversing such conventional thinking. Non-life insurance products of these kinds, forexample, bicycle insurance, golf insurance and fire insurance, do have been existed.
However, it was not until April 2006 that the revised insurance business act was enacted
and the regulation for small-amount and short-term insurance providers was finally set.
Since then, various types of products have been released to cover a niche market torespond to the diversified needs of today’s customers. Such products include legal
expenses insurance, diabetes insurance, cancer treatment insurance and funeral expenses
insurance to name a few.
The keyword to expand those possibilities of insurance is CX, or Customer
Experience. How much they can provide customers with valuable experiences---that is
all about it.
Providing valuable experiences on death protection insurance
In the case of life insurance, death protection insurance in particular makes it hardfor policyholders to experience the actual moment of “I’m glad I’ve taken it out!”
although they would be able to feel peace of mind, since in the majority of death
protection insurance contracts, the policyholder who pays the premium and thebeneficiary who receives the insurance proceed are not the same person. For that reason,
how to provide CX to customers when it comes to death protection insurance has long
been a challenging task.

Then comes Life Insurance Trust by combining life insurance and trust, drawing
much attention. In Life Insurance Trust, a company such as a trust company becomes abeneficiary of a life insurance policy. Following the death of the policyholder, life
insurance proceeds will be delivered to the designated person(s) by the trust company atthe certain timing and by the certain method, all set by the deceased while alive.
It’d be a tragedy if receiving a large sum of insurance money all at once ruins abeneficiary’s life. Also, an insurance proceed could be inherited by an heir of a beneficiary(who happens to be an unfavorable person to a policyholder) even though the proceed
was successfully delivered to this beneficiary prior to his/her death. Through Insurance
Trust, policyholders can control risks such as the poor spending habit of beneficiaries or
the secondary inheritance through which the insurance proceed would be handed toundesirable persons for the policyholder.
With the life insurance contracts so far, the insurance proceeds are generally paid tothe beneficiaries in a lump sum at the time of the insured’s death. On the contrary, the life
insurance trust enables the policyholders to have a realistic image of the flow of theinsurance money and arrange it in details hence the CX unique to Life Insurance Trust
would be provided to customers.
Life Insurance Trust makes a mandate contract for after-death tasks with a third
party more accessible
Even more possibilities are opened up for Life Insurance Trust. A mandate contract
for after-death tasks through Life Insurance Trust is it. After-death tasks indicate series offormalities which arise immediately following one’s death. They usually concern thefollowings.
<Examples of After-death Tasks>⚫ Funeral or/and memorial service arrangements and payment to each institution⚫ Burial arrangements⚫ Exit procedures for a hospital or nursing home such as picking up personal items andsettling any fees and charges⚫ Terminating a residential lease contract and managing such residence until handing
it over to realtors.
⚫ Official procedures to administrative agencies. Returning a health insurance card anda pension handbook⚫ Cancelling utilities contracts such as electricity, gas and water
Source: Hanaemi, www.hanaemi.info/shigo-jimutetsuduki/. Accessed June 14, 2023.

(Available only in Japanese)
If you need professional help to take care of the above-mentioned procedures, youhave to pay a certain amount of money at the time of signing a contract with theseprofessionals. With a service like a mandate contract for after-death tasks through Life
Insurance Trust, the insurance proceed will be used to pay off such cost, and it would bea good service for those who have financial difficulties to make the arrangement while
they are still alive.
Now that unattended deaths including a death of someone who is completely isolated
from families and societies, and unclaimed cremains have become social issues, an endof-life planning also has come to the talk among a lot of people.
After getting old, taking out insurance will be out of your options. Your children
might live somewhere far from you, your spouse or siblings whom you count on wouldbe gone first, and you might no longer have confidence in your health. Often times it is
too late to plan something after you become insecure. A mandate contract for after-deathtasks by using Life Insurance Trust will accelerate an end-of-life planning and become astrong help for those who are considering such planning while they still have an energy
to do it. There is no doubt that it will be the service which provide the CX with the death
protection insurance, surprising people how far it can go.
<Reference Information>◼ Some examples of the life insurance companies offering Life Insurance Trust
products*Inside the parentheses refers to tie-up trust companies
The Prudential Life Insurance Company, Ltd. (The Prudential Trust Company, Ltd.)The Gibraltar Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (The Prudential Trust Company, Ltd.)The Prudential Gibraltar Financial Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank,Limited.)
The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited (Mizuho Trust & Banking Co., Ltd.)The Dai-ichi Frontier Life Insurance Co. Ltd. (Mizuho Trust & Banking Co., Ltd.)FWD Fuji Life Insurance Company, Limited (Mizuho Trust & Banking Co., Ltd.)Sony Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Limited.)*As of June 14, 2023◼

Some product/service examples of Mandate Contract for After-death Tasks using
Life Insurance Trust⚫

Shukatsu Support -My Ending Care- (The Prudential Trust Company, Ltd.)(Shukatsu means an end-of-life planning in Japanese)⚫ Ohitori-sama Shintaku (Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Limited.)(Ohitori-sama means a single person whereas Shintaku means a trust inJapanese)*As of June 14, 2023
Oriental Life Insurance Development Center bears sole responsibility for the contents ofthis article.