Q1 You became president in April 2015. As the newly appointed president, what are your goals?
T&D Holdings, Inc. is the holding company for three life insurance companies: Taiyo Life Insurance Company, Daido Life Insurance Company, and T&D Financial Life Insurance Company. T&D Holdings was established in April 2004 as Japan's first publicly listed holding company in the life insurance field, and in 2014 we celebrated the 10th anniversary of its establishment. “With our ‘Try & Discover’ motto for creating new value, we aim to be a group that contributes to all people and society.” Guided by this Group Corporate Philosophy, we aim to be a life insurance group that brings the greatest peace of mind and the utmost satisfaction to its customers.
First, in line with the current Medium-term Management Plan (fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2015), T&D Life Group (the Group) will make every effort to steadily achieve its management targets, and will strengthen its business platform so as to be able to achieve further growth from fiscal 2016 onwards.
Q2 What are the strengths of the T&D Life Group?
The greatest strength is that under the holding company system, each of the three life insurance companies which possess different business models, can take full advantage of their uniqueness and specialization. Taiyo Life, Daido Life, and T&D Financial Life each specialize in the household market, the small and medium enterprise market and the financial institutions and other agencies market. The Group has developed a unique business model where each of our three life insurance companies is focused on different markets, sales channels and products. As a result, the Group commands a competitive advantage. The Group's three life insurance companies have achieved growth since the establishment of T&D Holdings by further strengthening their respective strengths. Moreover, the solvency margin ratio, one of the indicators of management soundness of an insurance holding company and an insurance company, is 1,220.7%, and the Group is maintaining a high degree of soundness that retains the trust and confidence of policyholders for the long term.
Q3 Currently, what initiatives are you most focusing on?
Looking ahead, aging of the population combined with the low birthrate will become more pronounced in Japan. Accordingly, there will be increasing demand from seniors for insurance protection.
Under these conditions, each Group company is focusing on meeting the needs of our senior customers. We are reviewing our work processes, products, services, business forms, and other items from the viewpoint of our senior customers, and are striving to provide services that are easy to understand and highly convenient. Taiyo Life and Daido Life are promoting initiatives for senior customers as the Best Senior Service.
In order to achieve a maximum performance, each Group company is more than ever strengthening its systems for cooperating with other Group companies. Daido Life and Taiyo Life began cross selling specific products that they supply to each other from March 2015. We have strengthened our ability to respond better to the wide-ranging needs of our customers by having the Group's life insurance companies supplying products to each other and by implementing initiatives that will speedily provide these products to each of our customers. Going forward, we will support this collaboration between Group companies, including through the participation of T&D Financial Life.
Q4 Please talk about your aspirations for the Group and vision for the future.
The business environment enveloping the Group, including economic trends and financial markets, is changing significantly. In light of this, we will endeavor to retain and secure the soundness of management, and to increase corporate value. To do this, I believe my mission is to further expand the life insurance business in Japan, to pursue the growth opportunities resulting from business investment, including business alliances, to further secure these stages of growth, and to further accelerate the speed at which we achieve these aims. Looking to the future, I will continue working hard to improve the satisfaction of all our stakeholders, including shareholders, investors and employees, by means of accelerating growth in step with the Group's steady evolution.
