Sri Lanka’s life insurance sector is preparing for a significant demographic shift

Sri Lanka’s inhabitants is ageing sooner than another in South Asia. According to the newest Sri Lanka Population and Housing Census, the variety of over-60s within the nation has greater than doubled since 1953, comprising 12.Four % of the inhabitants in 2012. The World Bank estimates that one in 4 Sri Lankans can be older than 60 by 2041.

According to a 2012 World Bank report on demographic transition, for each 100 working-age individuals in Sri Lanka in 2001, there have been 41 little one dependants and 14 aged dependants. The variety of little one dependants is predicted to lower to 25 by 2036, whereas aged dependants will enhance to 36. As such, there can be fewer individuals to take care of Sri Lanka’s aged inhabitants within the years to return.

The challenges that may emerge as Sri Lanka’s inhabitants will get older are huge. World Finance spoke with Rajkumar Renganathan, Chair of Ceylinco Life Insurance, about how the nation can adapt to the approaching demographic modifications.

What is inflicting Sri Lanka’s present demographic shift?
Declining fertility, falling mortality charges, growing life expectancy and emigration have turn out to be main causes of the nation’s rising aged inhabitants. The World Bank reviews that the fertility charge in Sri Lanka has steadily decreased over the many years, from 5.54 in 1960 to 2.2 in 2017 (see Fig 1). Life expectancy for Sri Lankans was 76 years in 2019, in contrast with 59 in 1960. These components all contribute to a swelling aged inhabitants.

As Sri Lanka’s inhabitants will get older, what challenges will come up?
One of the largest challenges of an ageing inhabitants might be quantified by a life cycle deficit, which measures the distinction between consumption and labour revenue for a sure age group. With Sri Lanka’s demographic shift, the proportion of the inhabitants that is consuming greater than it earns will enhance, placing strain on the working-age inhabitants to finance this upward switch. As the prices of medical care enhance, supporting aged dependants is solely going to turn out to be extra burdensome, particularly if there is multiple individual to supply for.

Although Sri Lanka is historically a tradition that cares for its elders, components comparable to globalisation, industrialisation, higher entry to schooling and emigration have widened the hole between the aged and the youth populations. The normal household unit has additionally shifted from prolonged to nuclear. This may pose a downside to those that turn out to be aged dependants sooner or later as they’ve restricted entry to caregivers.

How ought to people plan for retirement to make sure a good high quality of life of their later years?
The alarming statistics already quoted inform us that early retirement planning is of essential significance. Besides the components outlined, one other factor to contemplate is that the Sri Lankan non-public sector doesn’t pay pensions after the retirement age of 55. Therefore, it is important that people – particularly these working within the non-public sector – make choices about their retirement financial savings early in life. To guarantee the entire inhabitants has entry to recommendation about their pension, Ceylinco Life has greater than 275 branches unfold throughout the nation.

What does the corporate’s La Serena subsidiary supply retirees?
Ceylinco La Serena is a first-of-its-kind retirement resort in Sri Lanka, catering to newly retired or semi-retired people who wish to keep their independence, be fairly lively and revel in a hotel-like atmosphere. It includes 44 self-contained, absolutely furnished, well-equipped and repeatedly serviced dwelling items, and is situated on beachfront land within the Uswetakeiyawa fishing village, a few kilometres from the capital, Colombo. It is designed to offer a sense of group to its aged residents and produce like-minded individuals collectively.

With Sri Lanka’s demographic shift, the proportion of the inhabitants that is consuming greater than it earns will enhance, placing strain on the working-age inhabitants to finance this upward switch

What makes Ceylinco Life Insurance stand out from different insurance corporations within the nation?
Ceylinco Life has been within the enterprise of insuring lives in Sri Lanka for greater than 30 years. During that point, it was the market chief within the business for 15 consecutive years. To date, the corporate has offered cowl for practically a million individuals and is dedicated to the precept that life insurance suppliers ought to have a relationship with their shoppers for life.

The firm has launched ‘life insurance week’ and ‘retirement planning month’ to Sri Lanka in an effort to enhance the general public’s consciousness and understanding of the advantages that preparing for retirement brings. We have constantly centered on the significance of teaching individuals about how they will profit from doing so. For instance, in 2018, the corporate ran a retirement marketing campaign titled ‘the 30 day plan for 30 years of serenity’. The scheme highlighted how individuals may put together for a fruitful retirement in only one month. Some 4,000 members of the Ceylinco Life gross sales group had been deployed in door-to-door visits throughout Sri Lanka to take this message to the lots.

Ceylinco Life additionally not too long ago launched an revolutionary life insurance product, the likes of which had not been seen in Sri Lanka earlier than. Named ‘sensible safety’, it provides a payout that is eight instances the sum assured and ensures a refund of the sum assured plus whole premiums paid at maturity. Products of this nature assist drive penetration of life insurance and retirement planning within the nation, setting the corporate aside from its competitors.

Could you go into element about a number of the firm’s company social duty (CSR) programmes?
Ceylinco Life’s CSR initiatives are primarily centered on schooling and healthcare. In the realm of schooling, the corporate has donated 80 purpose-built lecture rooms to deprived colleges over the previous 15 years and continues to observe and keep each to at the present time. Ceylinco Life has invested practically LKR 50m ($278,500) on this initiative to enhance services and the training atmosphere for college students.

In the sphere of healthcare, the corporate is well-known for its ‘waidya hamuwa’, or ‘meet the physician’, programme. In 2018 alone, greater than 4,400 Sri Lankans – most of them from rural areas – had been supplied with entry to docs via the scheme. To date, Ceylinco Life has reached roughly 142,000 individuals via free medical camps held in 375 areas throughout the nation. These medical camps are overseen by certified and skilled docs and nursing employees connected to the state well being sector and personal laboratories. Medical check-ups and well being screenings, together with blood sugar, blood strain, imaginative and prescient, ECG scans and kidney scans, are provided at these medical camps.

The firm has additionally donated high-dependency items (HDUs) to 5 hospitals since 2012. Clinics which have benefitted are the Kandy Teaching Hospital, Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, the National Hospital of Sri Lanka, the Jaffna Teaching Hospital and the Colombo South Teaching Hospital. HDUs are used as a area for sufferers being upgraded from regular care or as a transition down from intensive care. They can be utilized for post-surgery care earlier than transferring sufferers to different wards, or to deal with intensive illnesses comparable to dengue fever.

What are Ceylinco Life Insurance’s plans for the following 5 years?
As the market chief in Sri Lanka, Ceylinco Life Insurance will proceed to set the benchmark within the business by introducing new merchandise and upgrading its present providing, together with engaging retirement plans to go well with any consumer. The firm will additional drive consciousness of life insurance and retirement planning to enhance residents’ later years.