Aon has appointed Matthew Chae as growth leader for life and health in Korea within its reinsurance solutions business, hiring a former TAL Australia actuarial executive whose background maps precisely onto the capital and reporting transition Korean life insurers are navigating. Based in Seoul, Chae reports to Young Wook Kang, head of life and health for Korea, and will work with the regional life and health reinsurance team to support insurers in the market.
Korea adopted IFRS 17 and its own risk-based capital framework, K-ICS, from January 2023, creating a period of material actuarial and capital management transition for Korean life insurers. The accounting standard has reshaped financial reporting and performance measurement across the sector, while K-ICS has changed how insurers calculate and manage their capital requirements. Both reforms have increased demand for actuarial expertise in valuation, capital management and financial analysis - precisely the disciplines that define Chae's career.
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Chae joins from TAL Australia, where he most recently served as head of actuarial for Project Chrysalis, TAL's internal business transformation programme covering valuation, capital, wealth reporting and strategic change. He has more than 20 years of experience across life insurance and reinsurance spanning capital management, valuation, IFRS 17 implementation and business transformation. Before TAL, he held actuarial and leadership roles with Suncorp, Munich Re, Prudential Hong Kong, CommInsure and Reinsurance Group of America across Australia and Hong Kong. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia.
Korea's life insurance market is one of the largest in Asia, with an aging population creating growing longevity product demand and a well-documented protection gap in areas including critical illness and income protection. K-ICS capital requirements are creating capital efficiency pressure that directly generates reinsurance demand, as insurers look to reinsurance to manage long-term liabilities, support capital efficiency and strengthen balance sheet resilience. Industry participants have pointed to growing use of asset-liability management expertise and actuarial advisory alongside traditional risk transfer as the profile of life reinsurance demand evolves.
The appointment follows a series of leadership changes within Aon's Reinsurance Solutions business across Asia-Pacific, including the launch of a dedicated life and health reinsurance practice in India. The broker has been broadening its advisory services across the region as life insurers face changing capital, risk and product requirements following IFRS 17 adoption at different stages across different markets.
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