The five major listed insurance companies plan to distribute dividends exceeding 100 billion yuan

China Life Insurance, China Ping An, China Taiping, New China Life, and China Property & Casualty Insurance’ 2025 annual performance and dividend plans have all been fully disclosed, and a “trillion-yuan red-packet rain” campaign for investors is about to arrive as scheduled. On March 30, a Beijing Business Daily reporter compiled that the five A-share listed insurers’ full-year attributable net profits totaled 425.29B yuan, and their planned total dividend payout exceeded 1 trillion yuan—delivering a solid “return answer sheet” to the market with their strength. However, when faced with dividend plans from insurers running into hundreds of billions of yuan, investors can’t help asking with delight: Can this “red-packet rain” be delivered year after year as scheduled? Behind high dividend payouts, where exactly does insurers’ confidence come from?

China Ping An has been rising for 14 years

Besides the operating performance itself, the dividend plans of the five major listed insurers in A shares have also captured investors’ attention. Based on the summary and statistics compiled by Beijing Business Daily reporters, the combined planned total dividends of these five insurers have already exceeded 1 trillion yuan.

Specifically, China Property & Casualty Insurance plans to distribute a 2025 year-end cash dividend of 1.45 yuan per 10 shares (including tax), totaling 6.41B yuan. The total cash dividend for the full year will reach 9.73B yuan, accounting for 20.9% of net profit, and the dividend amount has hit a historical high.

The board of directors of China Life Insurance has recommended a 2025 year-end cash dividend of 6.18 yuan per 10 shares (including tax). Together with the already declared 2025 interim cash dividend, the total dividends for the full year will accumulate to 8.56 yuan per 10 shares (including tax), bringing the total dividend payout to 24.2B yuan, up 31.7% year over year.

Also a “large dividend payer,” in recent years China Ping An has continued to increase its dividend payout ratio. Regarding its 2025 dividends, the company stated that it plans to distribute 1.75 yuan in cash dividends per share for the 2025 year-end period; cash dividends of 2.7 yuan per share for the full year, up 5.9%; and the total cash dividend payout will reach 48.89B yuan, maintaining an upward trend for 14 consecutive years.

China Taiping Insurance plans to distribute 2025 annual cash dividends based on a total share capital of 9.62 billion shares, at 1.15 yuan per share (including tax), totaling 11.06B yuan. New China Life stated that it plans to distribute 2025 year-end cash dividends of 2.06 yuan per share (including tax) to all shareholders, totaling 6.43B yuan. In 2025, the company plans to distribute a total cash dividend of 8.52B yuan, up 7.9%, which is about 25.1% of net profit attributable to shareholders of the parent company after deducting non-recurring gains and losses in the company’s 2025 annual financial report.

Multiple insurers, in performance meetings held recently, released a signal that “dividends have increased compared with last year.” On a recent basis, China Taiping Insurance held a 2025 annual results briefing. Sun Shaojun, secretary to the board of directors of China Taiping Insurance, said that for the 2025 dividend, this board recommends distributing 1.15 yuan in cash dividend per share, which is higher than the prior year. The dividend level has been further increased, matching the company’s dividend policy.

Zhao Peng, president of China Property & Casualty Insurance, said at China Property & Casualty Insurance’s 2025 annual results briefing that the company has always attached great importance to shareholder returns, maintaining the continuity and stability of cash dividends. In 2025, the group’s full-year dividends were 0.22 yuan per share, up 22.2%; and over the past three years, the group’s cash dividend compound annual growth rate reached 18.8%.

With dividend intensity continuing to increase, senior executives from several insurers also provided “reassurance” at their performance meetings. As Zhao Peng pointed out, “The company will continue to deepen its core insurance business, continuously improve quality and efficiency, strengthen payment management, and enhance performance appraisal. By moving in the same direction from both the liability side and the investment side, we will strive to achieve continuous and stable growth in profitability, thereby repaying the trust and support of our broad investors.”

Why do insurers dare to “act generously”?

This dividend payout of over 1 trillion yuan did not come out of thin air. Multiple insurers’ senior executives gave clear explanations at their performance meetings. On March 27, at the site of China Property & Casualty Insurance’s 2025 annual results briefing, Zhao Peng explained the logic behind the dividend. He said the company’s dividend policy mainly considers three factors: first, overall planning for differences between new and old accounting standards; second, fully considering capital constraints; third, striving to achieve long-term stable growth in dividends per share.

Wang Zhaojiang, executive director of the investment research institute at Shenzhen Beishan Changcheng Fund, analyzed the signals and significance of listed insurers’ continued high dividend payouts in an interview with a Beijing Business Daily reporter. He believes that high dividends are based on sound underlying operations, with strong earnings and cash flow. The five insurers’ total attributable net profit for 2025 was 425.29B yuan, and the total dividend payout exceeded 1 trillion yuan. With high growth continuing for two consecutive years, this demonstrates a high-quality profit model driven by both the liability side’s premium business and the investment side’s returns.

Looking back, in the annual reports of the five major A-share listed insurers, the total dividend amount mentioned was 63.83B yuan. Added to the interim dividends paid earlier, the total dividends of A-share listed insurers in 2024 were 90.79B yuan, up 20.21%.

“Dividend growth by insurers also shows that policy guidance is being implemented—placing importance on long-term stable returns.” Wang Zhaojiang added that insurers have responded to the new “Opinions on Further Improving the Quality of Listed Companies” (the “New Nine Articles”), “improve quality and efficiency and increase returns,” moving from “performance fulfillment” to continuous, predictable, and high-percentage dividend payouts. China Ping An’s dividends have increased for 14 consecutive years, and dividends of China Property & Casualty Insurance, New China Life, and others have reached historical highs. At the same time, this also highlights that insurers have sufficient capital strength, with a solid “solvency safety cushion.” Even after large dividends, they can still meet regulatory requirements, reflecting capital redundancy and controllable risk—providing support for business expansion and ongoing dividends. In addition, it proves the investment value of the insurance sector. High dividend yield and stable growth align with the preferences of institutions and long-term capital, strengthening the sector’s dual attributes of defense and returns.

Wang Zhaojiang further broke down the core considerations of insurers’ proposed dividend policies. He said that evaluating earnings and cash flow is the main foundation and also a factor determining the upper limit of dividends; capital and solvency capacity are the baseline for dividends; regulatory and policy guidance is also important—we need to comply with new rules to ensure stable and sustained dividends. In addition, insurers should also take into account their own business development and long-term strategy to maintain the sustainability of long-term benefits.

When discussing the impact of increasing dividends, Wang Zhaojiang said that for investors, it directly increases cash returns, enhances the sense of gain from holding shares, and strengthens willingness to hold for the long term. For insurers themselves, high dividends convey business confidence, stabilize market expectations, and can help with share-price and market-cap management. For the industry and the market, setting a high-dividend benchmark can push other financial blue-chip companies to follow, improve the overall dividend level of A shares, further strengthen the value-investment label of the insurance sector, attract incremental capital, and ultimately improve the sector’s liquidity and valuation.

Sun Shaojun also expressed similar views at the performance meeting. He mentioned that investors can make reasonable expectations for potential dividend returns by tracking and assessing insurers’ medium- and long-term development potential. The company’s management team can also focus more on shaping endogenous development drivers by consolidating shareholders’ return base through solid capabilities in acquiring sustainable businesses, releasing profitability, and controlling risks. At the same time, it should appropriately realize the positive contributions of current-period investment performance and share the company’s operations and performance with investors.

Beijing Business Daily reporter Hu Yongxin

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

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