South Korea’s Kyobo Life Insurance has launched a variable life insurance product that covers an individual’s education expenses for college in line with the company’s original philosophy, the firm said Monday.

Since it was founded in 1958, Kyobo, formerly known as Daehan Kyoyuk Insurance and short for “life insurance for educational expenses,” was the first to introduce insurance products for education cost to promote literacy in the nation torn by the Korean War at the time. The company grew based on the popularity of education cost-related insurance until the 1980s.

Sixty years on, the latest variable annuity product is based on Kyobo Life’s investment in a variable insurance fund, which the company said would guarantee a maximum of 135 percent of the lump sum of premiums regularly paid by policyholders’ parents from the time of policyholders’ birth. The investments can also turn into a pension fund, upon the request of those insured.

Kyobo Life Insurance is one of Korea’s three major life insurance companies, along with Samsung Life Insurance and Hanwha Life Insurance, which account for nearly half of the market share when combined.

By Son Ji-hyoung 
(consnow@heraldcorp.com)