Where is "Patience Capital" investing? The latest insurance asset management survey reveals strategic signals

Every reporter｜Yuan Yuan Every editor｜Huang Bowen

As an important representative of “patient capital” in the A-share market, the allocation trends of insurance funds have always attracted market attention. The first quarter is a key window period for insurance funds to lay out their investments for the entire year, and the research activities of insurance institutions (including insurance companies and insurance asset management companies) have traditionally been viewed as an important indicator for understanding annual investment trends.

On March 23, reporters from the “Daily Economic News” found through data from Tonghuashun iFinD that since the beginning of this year, insurance institutions have conducted research on A-share listed companies over 1,900 times. In terms of research fields, insurance funds mainly focus on industries such as industrial machinery, electronic components, electronic devices and instruments, automotive parts and equipment, integrated circuits, Western medicine, and finance.

“The research conducted by insurance funds follows the core principles of stability, safety, and asset-liability matching as outlined in the ‘Regulations on the Management of Insurance Fund Investments.’ As typical long-term liability funds, the research logic of insurance funds does not pursue short-term market hotspots, but rather focuses on fields that align with national strategic transformation, possess technological barriers, and have stable cash flow expectations,” an industry insider analyzed. The electronics and semiconductor industries benefit from domestic substitution and technological innovation policies, while the pharmaceutical industry has rigid demand characteristics, and automotive parts align with the deep development of the new energy and intelligent industry chain. Essentially, this layout aims to achieve long-term returns that cover rigid liability costs by selectively investing in growth industries with the ability to withstand economic cycles in a low-interest-rate environment.

Several insurance institutions have already conducted more than 50 research activities this year.

According to data from Tonghuashun iFinD, as of March 23 at 18:30, insurance companies and insurance asset management companies have conducted research on A-share listed companies a total of 1,981 times this year.

Among insurance companies, the average research frequency of specialized pension insurance companies is higher than that of ordinary life insurance companies and property insurance companies. For example, Changjiang Pension Insurance Co., Ltd. conducted 78 research activities, Taiping Pension Insurance Co., Ltd. conducted 66, and Ping An Pension Insurance Co., Ltd. conducted 54; among insurance asset management companies, Taikang Asset Management Co., Ltd., Huatai Asset Management Co., Ltd., and Xinhua Asset Management Co., Ltd. had high research frequencies, with 162, 129, and 98 respectively.

From the fields of research conducted by insurance institutions, it is clear that they focus on industries such as industrial machinery, electronic components, electronic devices and instruments, automotive parts and equipment, integrated circuits, Western medicine, and finance.

Regarding the research style and preferences of insurance funds, Yuan Shuai, Deputy Director of the Investment Department at the China Urban Development Research Institute, told reporters from the “Daily Economic News” that insurance funds focus on industries such as industrial machinery, electronic components, integrated circuits, Western medicine, and finance, reflecting their dual anchoring on technological self-reliance and the essential needs of people’s livelihoods as “patient capital.”

“Logically, industries related to industrial and electronic equipment are at the intersection of global industrial chain restructuring and domestic industrial upgrading, possessing strong performance elasticity and technological barriers, which meets the demand for uncovering mid-to-long-term growth value from insurance funds. The finance and Western medicine sectors have typical defensive attributes; the former provides stable dividend income and valuation recovery space, while the latter is supported by the rigid demand for medical consumption in the context of an aging population, effectively hedging against macroeconomic fluctuations,” Yuan Shuai stated. From a strategic perspective, insurance funds are transitioning from traditional ‘interest spread loss’ defenses to ‘enhancing high-quality assets,’ aiming to find high-cost performance targets with new productive forces through in-depth research on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board and the Growth Enterprise Market, thereby replacing pure secondary market speculation with an asset-based logic that balances dividend income and growth premium in a diversified portfolio.

Wang Peng, Associate Researcher at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, shares the same view. In his opinion, the intensive research conducted by insurance funds in the fields of industry, semiconductors, and finance is based on the core logic of “dividend support + technological advancement.” “Industries like finance and Western medicine provide stable cash flow and high dividends to hedge against liability costs in a low-interest-rate environment; emerging technologies represented by integrated circuits and automotive parts are not only key directions of national strategy but also essential for achieving long-term asset appreciation and obtaining excess returns.”

The future equity allocation of insurance funds will unfold along “two main lines.”

The aforementioned research directions also align with the survey results of insurance institutions published in the “2026 Outlook on Asset Allocation in the Banking and Insurance Asset Management Industry” by the China Banking and Insurance Asset Management Association.

According to the survey results, “hard technology” remains the main line of investment for insurance funds. Insurance institutions focus on investment themes such as chips and semiconductors, national defense and military industry, AI (artificial intelligence) computing power, robotics, energy metals, commercial aerospace, high dividends, pharmaceuticals and innovative drugs, and corporate globalization, believing that corporate profit recovery and liquidity conditions are the primary factors influencing the A-share market. In terms of asset allocation, most insurance institutions plan to slightly increase their allocation to A-shares.

Wang Guojun, a professor at the School of Insurance at the University of International Business and Economics, previously analyzed to reporters from the “Daily Economic News” that the asset allocation trends of insurance funds for 2026 are quite clear. In 2025, insurance funds achieved high returns in the stock market and expect the A-share market to continue improving in 2026. Therefore, stocks and securities investment funds will be the most favored domestic investment assets for insurance funds in 2026.

Data from the Financial Regulatory Bureau shows that as of the end of 2025, the total balance of insurance company fund investments amounted to 38.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.7% compared to the end of 2024. Among them, the balance of equity funds directed towards stocks and funds is approximately 5.7 trillion yuan, an increase of about 39% compared to the end of 2024.

Regarding the future direction of equity asset allocation for insurance funds, Gao Chengyuan, Deputy Secretary-General of the Guangdong Social Policy Research Association, believes that the future equity allocation of insurance funds will unfold along “two main lines”: first is the dividend defense line, where high-dividend assets like banks, public utilities, and white goods remain the ballast, providing stable cash flow and defensive attributes; second is the technology growth line, with core layout directions in fields such as the AI industry chain (e.g., computing power, storage, applications), semiconductor equipment and materials, innovative drugs, humanoid robots, and commercial aerospace. Additionally, key attention is also given to cornerstone investments in Hong Kong stocks’ “specialized technology” and pharmaceutical IPOs (initial public offerings), as well as gold and other safe-haven asset allocations.

“Insurance funds are building a full-cycle investment and financing system through diversified tools of ‘stocks, bonds, funds, and alternatives,’ transitioning from pure financial investment to ‘patient capital + industrial empowerment,’ while supporting the upgrading of the real economy and obtaining long-term excess returns,” Gao Chengyuan stated.

(Editor: Qian Xiaorui)

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