Group Life Insurance in Vietnam; The Ultimate Guide for Employers
written by Quinn Miller | Founder & Managing Partner
Employee Benefits Asia by Tenzing Pacific Services
Understanding Group Life Insurance in Vietnam
While life insurance remains popular for Vietnamese on a personal level via multinational life insurance companies who have set up local entities here, group life insurance is less common, especially international group life insurance.
Life insurance companies in Vietnam operat on a direct agent model with thousands of agents per company. It seems every Vietnamese person has a family member or close friend who is a life insurance agent or has been at one point.
The life insurance companies in Vietnam do not work with brokers or agencies for personal life insurance policies, but group life insurance is possible via brokers like Tenzing Pacific Services, the parent of Employee Benefits Asia.
Why Get Group Life Insurance in Vietnam?
There are many benefits to putting group life insurance through your Vietnamese company, including:
- Get your employees covered for the worst day in their family’s life
- Get a VAT invoice
- Life Insurance is tax exempt, so there’s no additional fees
- Helps reduce your income tax burden by putting as an company expense
- Get group life insurance discounts
- Centralize your policy offering & administration
- Reduced or removed medical underwriting
Providers of Group Health Insurance in Vietnam
When you look at group life insurance in Vietnam, you’ll have two core options: local or international. Here are the providers and differences between them.
1) Local Group Life Insurance in Vietnam
While I use the term ‘local’ losely here, what I mean is a local entity in Vietnam with policies in VND, that can be paid locally and get a VAT invoice. Local providers are intended for residents of Vietnam only. Such providers include:
- AIA
- Manulife
- Prudential
- Generali
- Cathay Life
- MB Ageas
- Hanwha Life
- Sun Life
- Dai-ichi
- Bao Viet
- and many many more
Local Vienamese group life insurance are more cost effective options, with lower sum insured amounts & have optional health insurance as an add-on. Though we recommend to keep group health insurance in Vietnam with a health insurer.
2) International Group Life Insurance in Vietnam
If your company does not require a local payment & VAT invoice, for example you’ll pay from an offshore entity or simply don’t need one, then you can look at international group life insurance in Vietnam, from providers like:
- Atlas Life
- Manhattan Trust
- Unisure
- William Russell
- Regency for Expats
- Lloyd’s of London (group personal accident)
- and more
Group Life Insurance in Vietnam: The Benefits
- Group life insurance pays out a lump sum in the event of:
- Death from all causes
- Terminal diagnosis
For groups, the sum insured amount would get paid to the company first and then paid to the individual’s family or whoever they declared. Optional add-ons can include:
- Personal Accident (extra payout if the death is from an accident)
- Critical Illness coverage
- Disability (partial or total)
- Income protection
Key Features of International Group Life Insurance in Vietnam
Policies in Major Global Currencies
Get your policy in a major global currency like USD, which holds its value over time better than the Vietnamese dong. Example:
- 2009: $1 USD = 17,216
- 2015: $1 USD = 21,252
- 2020: $1 USD = 23,171
- 2024: $1 USD = 24,685
Safety
International life insurers are located in very regulated and safe jurisdictions, such as the UK, USA & more. They are regulated by professional bodies such as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK.
Reinsured by Tier 1 Reinsurers
In addition to jurisdiction, they are fully guaranteed by tier 1 global reinsurers such as Swiss Re, Gen Re, Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) and more.
High Sum Insured
$100,000 USD would be considered a pretty high-end life insurance policy for a local life insurance company in Vietnam. Where $100,000 for internaitonal players would be considered a very low value sum insured. Typically you’d want to make sure your employees life insurance sum insured is in-life with the salary they receive. If your CTO is earning $100K USD, insuring them for 500M VND is not adequate (~$20,000).
Free Cover Limit
By pooling your employees into a group, you can get coverage up to a certain sum insured level, depending on:
- How many employees you have
- The demographics of your employees
From there, the insurer will set the Free Cover Limit (FCL) and no underwriting will be required unless they went above the FCL.
Term-Life Insurance In Vietnam
Term-life insurance is not popular option in Vietnam or in any country in Asia really. Universal life products, life products with an investment element, dominate the Asian markets via the large multinational providers already mentioned that set up local entities in each country.
Term-life insurance in Vietnam is available through international providers. Term-life insurance in Vietnam is the most straightforward type of life insurance there is. You can take out term-life insurance:
- On one or all of your employees
- Only on certain levels of employees, such as owners, directors, partners & senior management
- On key people only, where the company is the beneficiary rather than the insured’s family
Term-life insurance in Vietnam can be a personal expense, it could be paid upfront by the employee and reimbursed or it can put through & paid for by your organization.
Key Person Life Insurance in Vietnam
Local life insurance companies don’t have a key person life insurance policy per se. Though you could take out a high-limit individual life insurance policy.
If you want a proper key person life insurance policy, you’ll need to use an international life insurer who can easily do a key person policy on one more key people in your business. How it works:
- Your company is the policyholder
- Life insured is the key person or key people
- The beneficiary is your company
Your company owns the policy and controls it, rather than a personal policy which would be owned and controlled by an individual.
PRe-exisitng Conditions
Like with group health insurance in Vietnam, your company can benefit from simplified underwriting and sign-up process by taking out group life insurance in Vietnam.
This includes things like:
- Simplified or no individual medical underwriting
- Only needing to declare major chronic conditions that anyone would have at the time of applying
- Remove the need to have individual employees get any medical exams
Choosing the right Group Life Insurance in Vietnam
Choose a professional broker like Employee Benefits Asia, a brand by Tenzing Pacific Services, to help your company navigate group life insurance in Vietnam.
Whether you’re seeking a coverage for all employees, only some or a key person policy, we’ll help you find a suitable provider and plan for your employee benefits program.
We help with policy administration during the year, including adding/removing employees, answering their questions and liasing between your company, the insurer, your employee & any hospital/clinic. There are no charges for using a broker, so whether that’s us or another highly reputable broker, that is suggested (though we prefer us!)
Get Quotes for Group Life Insurance in Vietnam
Like with group health insurance, you’ll be required to submit a census of employees, including information like:
- Name
- Date of Birth
- Gender
- Nationality
- Residence Country
- Smoking Status
- Sum Insured Amount
- Salary Details (if you want to insure a multiplier of salary, like 3X salary)
Why Me, by the numbers?
- 130+ perfect 5-star Google reviews
- I’ve have been helping companies with their insurance needs in Asia since 2014
- Wide range of providers with $0 added costs
- Tenzing Base Camp; HR & Employee portals for making user experience a breeze