| Summary: | 碩士 === 東吳大學 === 法律學系 === 103 === In 2001, the Investment-linked insurance products were booming in the financial markets of many countries around the world. Meanwhile, the tumble of the interest rate in Taiwan has made the traditional life insurance products less competitive in the local market. As a result of the above mentioned factors, the financial authority in Taiwan was eager to bring the Taiwanese financial market into a new era by introducing innovated cross-industrial products.
With the help from the newly formed Financial Holding Company Act thereupon, the first Investment-linked insurance product in Taiwan was introduced to the market in November 2001. This new type of financial products provides dual benefits of both protection and investment, and they were soon in great demand by Taiwanese investors. However, gradually the high risk that came along with the high yield caused problems when the investors found that the proceeds were not as high as they expected, and some even suffered heavy losses. That is why in recent years, the number of the disputes related to Investment-linked insurance products has risen up to the second place among non-claim complaints, only next to that of the disagreements arose from life insurance products.
When there are disputes related to the Investment-linked insurance products, it is usually difficult for investors to make clear whether to seek relief from the insurance aspect or the securities one. In Taiwan, when the judiciary tends to deal with these disputes, it is custom to quote Insurance Laws or Financial Consumer Protection Act. However, these regulations are usually not able to solve the pragmatic arguments concerning the separated accounts which deal with the securities investments, and thus could not offer satisfactory legal remedies to the investors.
It is necessary and important to re-examine the legal position of the investment-linked insurance products, because the distinctive character of pursuing profits in the Investment-linked insurance products has made them greatly different from the traditional life insurance products, which focus mainly on safeguarding the financial status of the policy holders.
We should look closely at the special identities of how these products transact, the degree of the risks the investors might face, and financial value of the products themselves so that we could find the fittest laws and regulations which the investment-linked insurance products could apply to. In addition, we should also keep an eye on whether the cited regulations could also help to promote the safety of the transactions, to stabilize the financial market, and to protect the rights and interests of the investors. These laws and decrees must be able to ascertain the legal value of the products so that to confirm their legal positioning.
In this dissertation, the author shares her points of view by describing the meaning and the features of the Investment-linked insurance products in the beginning part. She continues to elaborate her work by sharing the development and current status of Investment-linked insurance products in other countries, and emphasizes her discussion on the dual-supervision system in Hong Kong. The author also discusses the theories of the nature of securities investment brought up by the scholars in the United States. She then analyzes and reviews the present situations in the Taiwanese financial market with concentration on why the Investment-linked insurance products are currently categorized as insurance products by the authorities. In the conclusion, the author sincerely hopes that this dissertation will contribute to improve the financial market in Taiwan, to steady the economic growth, and to guarantee the rights and interests of the investors.
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