Hanwha General Insurance honors Kim Suk-ja on her 100th birthday

with a 'Legacy FP' dedication ceremony

"A beautiful legacy, thanks to my company and family"

Na Chae-beom (right), chief executive of Hanwha General Insurance, and financial planner Kim Suk-ja pose for a photo at the "Hanwha General Insurance 100-Year Legacy FP" dedication ceremony held at 63 Square in Yeouido, Seoul. [Hanwha General Insurance]
Na Chae-beom (right), chief executive of Hanwha General Insurance, and financial planner Kim Suk-ja pose for a photo at the "Hanwha General Insurance 100-Year Legacy FP" dedication ceremony held at 63 Square in Yeouido, Seoul. [Hanwha General Insurance]

Hanwha General Insurance has honored the career of a 100-year-old active financial planner who spent 43 years earning the trust of customers, enshrining her journey as a company legacy.

Hanwha General Insurance held a "100-Year Legacy FP" dedication ceremony at 63 Square in Yeouido, Seoul, for Kim Suk-ja, a financial planner at its Royal Branch in the Seoul regional division who turns 100 this year, the company said Tuesday. The event was organized to preserve Kim's career as a permanent legacy of the company. Chief Executive Na Chae-beom attended along with the heads of the exclusive sales division, the long-term insurance support office and the Seoul headquarters.

Born in 1926, Kim joined the company in 1983 and has worked for Hanwha General Insurance ever since, embodying the company's "go far together" spirit. She has received long-service awards marking 20, 30 and 40 years with the company, and at 100 she still comes into the branch every day to sign new contracts — a model for younger colleagues.

Kim has built what the company calls a "family legacy" alongside her professional one. Her children have established careers in education and finance, and her grandchildren work as researchers and in other fields, passing down values of diligence and responsibility across three generations. Several of her children attended the ceremony to share in the celebration.

"Forty-three years have passed alongside Hanwha General Insurance's customers before I knew it," Kim said. "I am so happy that the company and my family have recognized that journey as a beautiful legacy."

Hanwha General Insurance said it offers broad support to help its exclusive agents build long, fulfilling careers in the field. The company runs a "For FP" program — introduced as part of branch-manager training — to strengthen communication with financial planners and sharpen managers' ability to provide tailored support on the ground. It also holds specialized sales training and cultural festivals to foster a sense of belonging, as part of an effort to build a distinctive organizational culture.

"This dedication ceremony is a moment to inscribe Kim Suk-ja's contribution — her active career at 100, her stable life and the bond she has built with her family — as a lasting legacy of the company," a Hanwha General Insurance official said. "We will continue to build a 'legacy culture' that our field sales family can carry forward with pride for years to come."

Long-serving agents like Kim remain rare across the non-life insurance industry. According to a report on sales-channel efficiency and supervisory direction for 2025 released by the Financial Supervisory Service last April, the retention rate for exclusive agents stood at 51.4 percent at the end of last year, down 1.2 percentage points from the year before. Among non-life insurers in particular, the rate fell 1.9 percentage points, driven by a rise in agents juggling multiple jobs — meaning roughly one in two new agents leaves the field within a year.


won@heraldcorp.com