Research Spotlight: The Digital Future of UAE Group Pensions After the End of Service Gratuity Reform

UAE Life Insurance and Group Pensions: Seizing Opportunities After Gratuity Reform

The UAE’s recent End of Service Gratuity Reform marks a significant milestone in modernising employee benefits and retirement planning for the country’s private sector and free zones. This voluntary scheme allows employers to transition from traditional gratuity systems to investment-based alternatives, offering employees opportunities to grow their end-of-service benefits through tailored investment options. With safeguards against inflation and company insolvency, the reform ensures greater financial security for expatriate workers, helping them plan for a stable future. 

This new reform provides unique opportunities for UAE’s life insurance market, emphasising the need for accessible, user-focused pension planning solutions. More interactive and educational digital journeys will empower employees to make more nuanced financial decisions about retirement. At the same time, these tools will enable employers to better manage retirement liabilities. In this environment, the ability to create engaging and intuitive digital journeys in the group pension space becomes paramount in bridging the gap between complex financial considerations of group pension planning and the everyday needs of employers and employees. 

We believe this represents a rare opportunity for a win-win-win: 

• For employers, interactive group pension tools can provide clarity on the best options for their workforce.  

• For employees, these tools can offer personalised financial guidance, helping them calculate optimal monthly contributions and project retirement outcomes that suit their needs.  

• From the life insurer’s perspective, these digital journeys can lower customer acquisition costs by streamlining the experience and expanding the reach of group life products.  

Additionally, interactive journeys enable insurers to build feedback loops with their users, fostering continuous improvement by addressing common questions or concerns, and tailoring offerings to evolving customer needs. 

The UAE’s life insurance sector: The untapped opportunities 

At Kidbrooke, we have recently reviewed the current state of the UAE’s insurers’ user journeys to determine how far ahead the industry has come in adopting this approach. We examined the websites of 29 insurers* listed on the UAE’s stock market, alongside three additional major players: MetLife UAE, Zurich, and Arabia Insurance Company. Sukoon Takaful and Orient UNB Takaful were excluded, as they are subsidiaries of Sukoon Insurance and Orient Insurance. Our research revealed that 26 out of 29 listed firms offer group life products, reflecting the popularity of this sector across the market. 

We classified the observed the user experience on the website into three groups: the providers that merely list their products without offering dedicated landing pages for them, the static landing pages describing group life offerings but lacking interactivity – and finally, - delivering digital, interactive journeys that help users understand the offerings and select products that suit their needs.  

Our findings highlight a significant gap in the market – although an overwhelming majority of analysed firms offered group life products, only one—HAYAH Insurance—provided a genuinely interactive experience. With 88% of group life providers relying on static landing pages and 7.7% lacking dedicated product pages altogether, there is significant untapped potential to create more educational and personalised user journeys.  

In modern competitive reality marked by significant regulatory advancements such as the End of Service Gratuity Reform, helping employers select optimal pension schemes and empowering employees to make informed, long-term financial decisions will be an important differentiator for a life insurer based in the UAE. 

The Industry Leader – HAYAH Employee Secure Saver 

We have reviewed HAYAH’s group pension product, HAYAH Employee Secure Saver, a corporate pension planning solution designed to help businesses and their employees navigate the complexities of end-of-service gratuity and retirement savings in the UAE. By offering customisable group pension plans, it enables employers to tailor contributions, benefits, and investment options, ensuring that both company and employee needs are met effectively. A key feature of the HAYAH Employee Secure Saver is its integration of advanced analytics and projections powered by KidbrookeONE. It allows businesses to assess gratuity liabilities and track savings growth over time. 

As in HAYAH’s case, complementing your website with an intuitive pension calculator powered by our cutting-edge analytical platform will enable businesses to input key details such as employee numbers, salaries, and turnover rates to generate clear, actionable insights. These projections, presented through visual charts and tables, simplify complex pension products. They enable employers to make strategic decisions while demonstrating to employees the benefits of consistent contributions. HAYAH’s group pension solution also features secure, paperless digital portals for 24/7 access, ensuring transparency and fostering trust. 

Consistency first: The role of advanced financial analytics in the future of the sector 

Interactive group pension journeys require analytics capable of modelling the insurance products in necessary detail and generating projections that are in line with the institution’s house views. Besides, the analytics underpinning these journeys must be consistent with the calculations performed at all stages to avoid confusing or misleading customers.  

At Kidbrooke®, we have expertise and experience in building financial experiences that ensure all the above.  Our analytics platform, KidbrookeONE enables the creation of personalised, interactive pension journeys that reduce costs and enhance customer engagement. The market-leading HAYAH group pension journey powered by our technology is a great example of what we can deliver. By adopting such tools, insurers can meet the demands of a rapidly evolving market, establish trust with their customers, and differentiate themselves as forward-thinking providers. 

The End of Service Gratuity Reform has created an opportunity for UAE’s life insurers to expand their services to modern, user-focused group pension solutions. According to our research, while progress has been made in the current landscape, there is still a long way to go in delivering the digital experiences that customers now expect.  However, by learning from innovators like HAYAH Insurance and leveraging advanced analytics solutions such as KidbrookeONE, the region’s insurers can transform the way group pensions are understood and accessed, paving the way for a more secure and informed financial future in the UAE. 

*Analysed life insurance firms: Orient Insurance, Sukoon Insurance Company, Dubai Insurance Company, Al Ain Al Ahlia Insurance Company, Al Buhaira National Insurance Company, Emirates Insurance Company, Islamic Arab Insurance Company, Watania International Holding, Al Sagr National Insurance Company, National General Insurance Company, Abu Dhabi National Takaful Company, Union Insurance Company, United Fidelity Insurance Company, Ras Al Khaimah National Insurance Company, Dubai National Insurance & Reinsurance Company, Takaful Emarat, Al Dhafra Insurance Company, Alliance Insurance, Al Fujairah National Insurance Company, Insurance House, Hayah Insurance Company, Dubai Islamic Insurance & Reinsurance Co., Sharjah Insurance Company, Zurich International Life Limited, MetLife UAE, Arabia Insurance Company