New conditions for insurance agents which sell pension insurance products

New conditions for insurance agents which sell pension insurance products

Vietnam Ministry of Finance amends rules on voluntary Pension Insurance Products Provided by Life Insurers as Circular No. 130 effective 10 October 2015.

There are three key amendments under Circular No.130 as follows:

1. The first amendment is new conditions for insurance agents which sell pension insurance products.

Circular No. 130 amends Circular No. 115 with new conditions for insurance agents which sell pension insurance products. Accordingly, from effective date, to be permitted to sell pension insurance products, insurance agents will need to satisfy the three following conditions:

(i) Having an insurance agent certificate issued by a training organization approved by the MOF;

(ii) Not having violated the rules on agent occupational ethics of the life insurer whilst practising as an agent; and

(iii) having been trained and certified by the insurer of his/her completion of a training course on voluntary pension insurance products.

2. The second amendments is withdrawal in advance of the pension insurance account

Under Circular No. 115, an insured person is entitled to request the life insurer for a withdrawal in advance of a part, or the whole of the value of a pension insurance account in the following cases:

(i) The insured person has a reduced working capacity of 61% or more; and

(ii) The insured person suffers a dangerous disease.

In addition to the above circumstances, Circular No. 130 adds a new case allowing insured persons, who are Vietnamese citizens and permitted by the competent authorities to lawfully reside in foreign countries, to withdraw, fully or partly in advance, from their pension insurance account.

3. The third amendments is age threshold for eligibility to receive pension insurance

In terms of the age threshold for eligibility to receive pension insurance, Circular No. 115 previously provided for a standard age of retirement (which is not lower than 60 for men and 55 for women). In this regard, Circular No. 130 supplements this with a flexible provision that in the case where the law provides for a different retirement age, life insurers will apply such new retirement age to this voluntary pension insurance regime. This addition aims at covering any special circumstances or any change in the law to make this voluntary pension insurance regime consistent with Vietnamese law on retirement age, as well as the pension regime of compulsory social insurance.

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