Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co. plans to appoint Vice Chairman Katsutoshi Saito as its next chairman to replace Tomijiro Morita, who will become a special adviser, company sources said Thursday.

The appointment will be formalized at a board meeting Friday and the two will assume their new posts after a shareholders' meeting in late June, the sources said. Morita, 70, has been at the helm of the major life insurer for 14 years since he assumed the presidency in 1997. He has been chairman since 2004.

The change will take place in conjunction with the planned handover of a vice chairmanship at the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren), from Morita to Saito later this month.