The commission on Tuesday announced the first rule, which set a minimum ratio for death benefits to policy account value. Some savings-type policies that feature high survival benefits offer few death benefits, with their average death benefits to account value ratio slightly higher than 100 percent, Tsai said. Life insurers would need to redesign their product programs and recalculate the amount of death benefits and premiums according to the age of the insured, Tsai said. For policies that mainly concentrate on survival benefits, such as savings-type policies, life insurance firms must increase the death benefits, which would buoy premiums, Tsai said. IMPLEMENTATIONThe rules would apply to all new life insurance policies sold after July 1 next year, Tsai said.
