ChartBar Explained | Taiwan's Life Insurance Market Map: Premiums vs. Benefits of the Top 5 Insurers (2021)

Adapted from an August 2022 ChartBar Instagram post (61 likes, 13 saves), with added industry context. The author previously worked at Cathay Life Insurance; this article uses only public government data.

Key findings

The x-axis shows premium income and the y-axis benefit payments (NT$ billions). Figures below are approximate readings from the chart:

• Cathay Life leads on both axes: roughly NT$640 billion in premiums and NT$390 billion in benefits.
• Fubon Life (~NT$450 billion) and Nan Shan Life (~NT$360 billion) form the second tier.
• Shin Kong Life and China Life sit close together at around NT$220–240 billion.
• All five insurers fall below the "benefits = premiums" line, meaning net cash inflow for the year.

Reading it correctly

The original post framed this as "which insurer made the most money" — but premiums minus benefits is not profit:

1. Most premium income is set aside as policy reserves — a liability owed to policyholders, not earnings.
2. Benefits include maturity, surrender and annuity payments on policies sold years earlier, so they reflect the age and mix of the book rather than current performance.
3. Life insurers earn profit from three spreads — investment spread, mortality spread and expense spread — with investment returns usually dominating.

So the chart shows market scale and cash flow. To compare profitability, look at net income, ROE or investment yield instead.

Why this chart design

A bubble chart (positioning map) compares two measures at once and labels each bubble directly, so no legend is needed. If redesigned, a y = x reference line would make the cash-flow reading explicit, and transparency or data labels would fix the overlap between Shin Kong and China Life.

Source: Taiwan Government Open Data Platform (life insurance business overview), 2021. Made with Tableau. Values are approximate chart readings.