Recently, Waterdrop Inc. (WDH.US) has ushered in a new upgrade for 'Waterdrop Star,' which has transitioned from being an 'insurance service expert' to 'insurance, health preservation, and heritage,' while also expanding product supply, upgrading sales systems, and extending mid-office services. In addition, Waterdrop Star has established a '1+N' mid-office service model, empowering brokers to transform and effectively address the challenge of insufficient professional service capabilities among industry practitioners.

Waterdrop focuses on high-net-worth clients, opening up the blue ocean market of wealth management.

Currently, the insurance industry is accelerating towards high-quality transformation. The recent release of the new 'Ten Articles for the Country' also outlines the future direction of the insurance industry, especially affirming the functions of insurance wealth management, highlighting the 'roles of life insurance in family protection and wealth inheritance' and 'better meeting the increasing demand of the masses for insurance protection and wealth management.'

According to the '2024 China Wealth Management Industry White Paper,' by the end of 2022, the personal financial assets of Chinese residents had approached nearly 250 trillion yuan. It is projected to steadily grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9% in the next decade, reaching an expected 571 trillion yuan by 2032. Meanwhile, amidst the complex and changing global economy, considerations for wealth security, wealth inheritance, and other factors are leading to increasing demands from high-net-worth individuals for diversified asset allocation and personalized investments.

Based on market and user demand changes, Waterdrop Inc. has upgraded its insurance strategy and established various forms of customer service teams. Online, through the 'Internet Insurance Brokerage Platform' Waterdrop Bao, it meets the insurance service needs of different customer groups like urban new middle class, patients with preexisting conditions, and substandard individuals. Offline, through the broker team carried by Waterdrop Star, it provides services to high-net-worth clients and creates an offline high-end insurance, health preservation, and heritage service platform for Waterdrop Inc.

However, the competition in the mid-range market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the advantages of products and rates are no longer as apparent. Brokers looking to transition to the high-end customer market also face many challenges.

One is the lack of supporting products and service capabilities, unable to fully tap into the high-end customer demand. In addition to insurance, high-end customers often have many needs in health services, high-end medical care, quality retirement, family inheritance, etc. The development cycle of high-end customers is longer, and the potential is greater. Single insurance service personnel often struggle to have enough products to fully meet and deeply discover their needs.

Second is the lack of professional capabilities, making it difficult to provide effective complete solutions. The professional knowledge required to serve high-end customers includes various aspects such as finance, law, medical health, taxation, etc. Brokers also find it difficult to become experts in a short time and lack systematicity.

Waterdrop Stars empowers brokers to transition from 'insurance service experts' to 'insurance, health preservation, and inheritance'.

In January this year, Waterdrop Inc. officially launched 'Waterdrop Stars', dedicated to providing customers with a full lifecycle of insurance protection planning and services. After accumulating a certain market presence, Waterdrop Stars upgraded again from 'insurance service expert' to 'insurance, health preservation, and inheritance'.

In the health preservation aspect, Waterdrop Stars will integrate domestic and international health services and cutting-edge medical resources, focusing on daily health service system, high-end medical and health service system, and global medical resource connection system to safeguard customers' health and longevity. Meanwhile, based on integrating all-round retirement service resources, it provides a comprehensive solution to retirement services in the entire process, hierarchical, and personalized manner, covering five major aspects: retirement fund planning, retirement risk prevention, selected retirement communities, residential retirement services, and home-based retirement services.

In terms of inheritance, relying on the Group National Family Office as the service entity, through financial, legal, and tax planning tools such as insurance, reits, wills, it designs personalized and secure wealth inheritance plans for customers, covering seven major aspects: tax planning, legal consultation, charity public welfare, identity planning, education planning, trust services, will services, etc.

Behind this is Waterdrop Stars' further transformation and model innovation on global strategy, including broadening product supply, upgrading sales systems, extending middle-office services, and other systematic upgrades. Building a '1+N' mid-office service model, breaking through traditional transaction links and service models, truly effective in solving the problem of brokers' insufficient professional service capabilities.

Each frontline advisor is backed by a strong support of domain senior expert teams and high-quality resources. From online operation for high-end customer KYC to one-click calling for legal/reits/will services and other mid-office experts in various fields, the new 'technology + mid-office' model can help brokers 'do professional work' better, thereby providing customers with professional and continuous service.

In the next three years, Waterdrop Constellation will also cultivate 100 city partners (WCP100 project) in key cities, providing a full-process professional service integrating insurance services, retirement planning, wealth inheritance, home services for high-end client families, and growing together with the industry through the new employee training system, continuous growth system, WISS expert training system, and entrepreneur management training system.