보험계약의 승환에 관한 연구

초록

Article 97(1)5 of the Insurance Business Act regulates unfair policy replacement. In principle, the replacement of insurance contracts should be permitted, particularly in the case of long-term insurance contracts, as it may become necessary in response to changes in the policyholderʼs needs. Nevertheless, policy replacement may give rise to significant adverse effects. There are two primary reasons for this. First, excessive competition among insurance solicitation personnel may induce unnecessary or improper policy replacement in order to earn solicitation commissions, while some insurers may encourage or tolerate such practices in pursuit of market share. Second, in many cases, policyholders are not provided with sufficient explanations to enable them to fully understand the advantages and disadvantages of the existing contract and the new contract, and thereby make an autonomous and informed decision. Similar problems can also be observed in advanced foreign insurance markets. This article examines the Insurance Business Act of Japan, which may be regarded as a legislative model for Koreaʼs policy replacement regime, as well as the regulatory framework of the United States, one of the worldʼs leading insurance markets. The analysis shows that the problems faced in the United States and Japan are broadly similar to those in Korea. Recently, the Korean government amended insurance-related laws and regulations with a view to restoring sound order in the insurance market and enhancing consumer protection, including through reforms to the corporate insurance agency system and measures addressing policy replacement. In particular, the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Insurance Business Act, effective April 21, 2026, is expected to contribute to alleviating these problems to some extent by enabling the use of information concentrated at the Korea Credit Information Services, a centralized credit information collection agency. Furthermore, sustained efforts are needed to reform the remuneration structure for insurance intermediaries and to reinforce their duty of explanation.

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