Author
Bowtie Team
Updated on
2025-07-24
Disclaimer: This article is translated with the assistance of AI.
In the IT world, “debug” means fixing bugs in code. Similarly, Hong Kong’s insurance market has been overrun by investment and savings plans, sidelining the core role of true protection. That’s where Bowtie steps in – we’re all about pure protection products with no savings gimmicks, closing the massive coverage gaps for everyday folks.
This time, we’ve invited the Bowtie Product Development Team to share with us about their entire team’s work and how it debugs the insurance industry’s ecosystem!
What Needs Debugging in Insurance Industry?
Bowtie Product Development Team : In recent years, the Hong Kong market has been dominated by savings or investment-linked products , mainly for two reasons.
- First, Hong Kong people prefer savings or investment-linked products because even if no claims are made during the coverage period, they can still receive cash value/dividends , so the premiums aren’t “wasted.”
- Second, insurance brokers/agents can earn more commissions by selling these products. All these factors lead the market to favor such products.
While these products do meet some market demand, providing stable returns and certain protection for some people in Hong Kong, their premiums are generally high, and the coverage provided may not be sufficient.
- Existing products offer insufficient coverage: Take life insurance as an example. According to the Insurance Authority’s “Mortality Protection Gap Study ” , in 2019, life insurance premiums reached HK$511 billion, but the mortality protection gap was as high as HK$6.9 trillion (with a per-person gap of HK$1.9 million, equivalent to 5.7 times the average annual salary).
Bowtie believes insurance should focus on providing protection , offering financial security for policyholders against unexpected incidents and risks. That’s why we’ve decided to fill this protection gap by offering pure protection products without investment or savings components.
Moreover, when traditional insurers launch new products, they often consider “market competition,” leading many product features to become mere “numbers games,” where the design may not bring real benefits to policyholders.
- Products may not bring real benefits to the public: Take critical illness products as an example. Many on the market boast coverage for over a hundred critical illnesses or unlimited claims.
- Providing such extensive coverage actually carries high risks, so to control costs and risks, insurers add clauses like: cancer recurrence must be at least 3 years from the previous diagnosis to qualify for multiple protections. Sometimes, policyholders can hardly enjoy the advertised coverage, making the insurance practically useless.
That’s why Bowtie only launches reasonable and “just right” insurance products, not selling on huge sums or excessive coverage. For example, Bowtie Term CI covers 38 critical illnesses and 4 conditions under the Bowtie Safety Net. Although the number of illnesses is fewer than other market products, 7 of them (like cancer and heart disease) account for nearly 97% of critical illness insurance claims.^
- ^ According to a major illness survey conducted by a reinsurer in Asia from 2008-2012, cancer, coronary artery bypass surgery, heart disease, other serious coronary artery diseases, stroke, benign brain tumor, and kidney failure account for about 97% of critical illness insurance claims among Hong Kong women
No need to be tied down for decades, no savings component, more flexible premium payment period
Redefining Actuaries’ Duties?
Bowtie Product Development Team : Most of our colleagues have actuarial backgrounds, and to debug insurance products, our team’s structure and division of labor differ from those of traditional insurance companies.
|
Traditional Insurance Companies |
Bowtie |
| Divided into 2 departments
Product Development Department
Actuarial Department
|
Product Development Team
|
In addition, we’ve gained plenty of insights from real customer feedback, understanding what they truly value.
- For example, many critical illness insurances on the market offer Multiple Pay (multiple claims coverage), but customers find this arrangement hard to understand. Instead, they want to know the “critical illness definitions” in the policy, whether they align with “medical theories,” etc. These opinions not only help us design new products or consider updates, but also affirm our product value.
Simply put, actuaries in traditional insurance companies have lower autonomy in their work, with a singular scope, but Bowtie’s product development team and actuaries have higher autonomy, often participating in company operational decisions, and frequently collaborating and communicating with other departments (such as underwriting , claims , and even software engineers), gaining a detailed understanding of the entire insurance industry’s operations, thereby designing practical insurance products.
Does Bowtie Regularly Debug Products?
Bowtie Product Development Team : Unlike traditional insurers, Bowtie follows a core product philosophy that doesn’t rely on frequent updates to attract customers.
- Bowtie’s products are planned by life stages, no need for constant changes: Our product philosophy – different life stages require different protections. For example, a recent graduate without family dependents might need medical and critical illness insurance, but not life insurance, as life insurance protects beneficiaries, and in this case, the student’s passing wouldn’t severely impact family finances.
When we design products to fit everyone’s life stages, there’s no need for frequent modifications.
- Traditional insurers update products mainly to adjust returns: Traditional insurance products often include investment or savings elements, with returns affected yearly by market conditions and global events, requiring constant tweaks. This leads to unnecessary “variations” of the same product (usually identical but with minor tweaks), causing confusion.
- Customer-centric product design: We consider customer questions and feedback, even joining customer service chats to explain details. We update products when needed to provide better protection.
- For instance, in September, without increasing premiums, we removed most exclusions from Bowtie Term Life , updated the “renewal” definition, and more. Earlier, considering medical inflation, we boosted coverage limits for some items in Bowtie VHIS Flexi without raising fees.
Our “debugs” focus on enhancing coverage; we review market needs and launch new products to fill Hong Kong’s protection gaps.
Unforgettable Product Design Stories?
Bowtie Product Development Team : Designing Term CI was the most memorable – it truly broke out of market and personal “boxes.”
After reviewing various market products, we initially created a few versions, but after gathering company-wide input, we settled on the simplest critical illness insurance: a single payout upon diagnosis. Compared to market options, Bowtie’s design simplifies policy terms, making it easier for customers to understand coverage and definitions, with more reasonable premiums.
While multiple payouts are the market trend, Bowtie went the opposite way, offering the simplest, most direct, and practical product. This not only broke market norms but challenged my own preconceptions about critical illness insurance.
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