In a bid to prevent frailty in the life insurance sector from potentially exploding into the political and banking scenes, the House of Councilors on Friday enacted legislation allowing troubled life insurers to lower their promised payouts to policyholders.
Life insurance companies swear they would never resort to the revised Insurance Business Law, expected to go into effect as early as Aug. 24 after the government prepares relevant ordinances. They have instructed their sales teams to tell customers that they are not even considering lowering promised payouts.
Do not believe these sales pitches, warns Nobuko Takahashi, a journalist specializing in consumer affairs.