Taking exclusive control of the investment landscape! The chapter of Group Vice President Cai Zhiwei, the wise helmsman of PICC Asset Management, officially comes to an end.

The Organization Home noticed that on March 27, 2026, China Life Insurance Asset Management Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “PICC Asset Management”) issued an appointment announcement. Only after the National Financial Regulatory Administration approved the reply (Jin Fu〔2026〕162) could Cai Zhiwei serve as Chairman of the board of PICC Asset Management. A “post-70s” deputy general manager who joined the PICC Group as early as 2020, has finally officially transitioned from a “deputy helmsman” to a “helmsman,” taking over from Wang Tingke to lead this insurance asset management giant with an asset management scale of over 1.98 trillion.

Source: PICC Asset Management official website

“Big investments, one grab at a time” takes shape at PICC Asset Management

At 51 years old, Cai Zhiwei belongs to the “young and vigorous” cohort among executives in the insurance industry today. Looking through his resume, unlike traditional PICC-system officials who were bred and raised within the “PICC system,” Cai Zhiwei carries a distinct “external-facing window” and “sovereign fund” color.

Source: PICC Asset Management official website

Early on, his experience with the China Development Bank and DeDeliangxing financing company sharpened his sensitivity to the capital markets. But undoubtedly the highlight of his career came during more than a decade at China Investment Corporation (CIC). During his time at CIC, he served as a member of the Executive Committee and concurrently as the General Director of the Investment Support Department and the General Director of the Real Estate Investment Department. This background is crucial—CIC is known for its international perspective, alternative investments, and asset allocation capabilities.

In 2020, Cai Zhiwei was brought in as an “outsider” to join the PICC Group and took the role of deputy general manager. At that time, it was a key period when the PICC Group was promoting the “Excellence Insurance Strategy.” In the following years, he quickly held multiple posts at once: Chairman of PICC Capital, Chairman of PICC Pension, Chairman of PICC Investment Holding, and up to the point where he now takes over PICC Asset Management.

By this point, apart from his position as deputy general manager of the PICC Group, the chair seats of the PICC Group’s core investment platforms (PICC Asset Management, PICC Capital, and PICC Pension) were all held by Cai Zhiwei alone. Such a power structure where “one person grabs big investments” is not common in the industry, showing the group’s high level of trust in his investment capabilities.

Also worth revisiting alongside Cai Zhiwei’s appointment is the winding down of Wang Tingke’s tenure at PICC.

Wang Tingke’s name represents an overly short chapter in the development history of the PICC Group in recent years. From April 2023, when he took over as the Group Party Secretary after Luo Xi, who was dismissed due to the “learning-sentence” controversy, to August 17, 2024, when he was suddenly announced to no longer serve as Party Secretary—his term lasted only one year and four months at most. If counted up to the same year’s September when he resigned as chairman, his career as PICC’s top executive lasted less than a year and a half.

Interestingly, the position of Chairman of PICC Asset Management was kept by Wang Tingke until the board’s reshuffle in November 2025, when he finally officially exited. In other words, after he lost real power as Group Party Secretary and Chairman, he still nominally held the legal-person title of the asset management subsidiary for more than a year. It was not until March 2026 that Cai Zhiwei obtained the regulatory approval documents, and only then was this “tail” truly cut off.

Source: PICC Asset Management official website

Now that Cai Zhiwei has officially taken charge of PICC Asset Management, the investment map of the PICC Group in the “post–Wang Tingke era” has been set. With Cai Zhiwei being young, having the international perspective and alternative investment background from CIC, and having been deeply involved in the PICC investment sector for many years already, this seems to indicate that PICC’s investment strategy will shift from the “defensive keeping” approach during the Wang Tingke period to a more aggressive drive to adapt and change.

Running in parallel with Cai Zhiwei’s onboarding is a major reshuffle within PICC Asset Management’s public offering business department. According to a report by Caixin Lianhe, on the very same day the approval was issued, PICC Asset Management appointed four executives at once for its public offering business department: Xiao Hu, Ge Jin as deputy general manager of the department; Zhu Youhan as Chief Information Officer; and Shen Jing as Deputy Assistant General Manager and person in charge of finance. The four individuals each oversee fixed income, quantitative investment, technology, and finance. This kind of “wholesale” adjustment of senior leadership is relatively rare in the industry.

Behind this could be dissatisfaction with PICC Asset Management’s long-term “lukewarm” state in the public offering business. PICC Asset Management’s total asset management scale has reached 1.98 trillion, making it a bona fide behemoth; yet the public offering mutual fund business has lagged in development. Equity investment lacks sharpness; responses for innovative products such as quantitative and FOF are slow. Compared with public-offering subsidiaries of insurance asset managers at the same level, the gap is growing larger and larger.

With multiple personnel changes settled at the same time, this may indicate that reforms on PICC’s investment side have entered the stage of substantive implementation. A deep remolding centered on research and investment capabilities, equity “offensive” strength, and breaking through in the public offering business has officially begun.

Add more than 10 billion to equity, and face a market pullback in the fourth quarter

In 2025, the PICC Group delivered a set of results with multiple indicators reaching record highs. Net profit attributable to the parent was 46.646 billion yuan, up 8.8%; total assets first surpassed 2 trillion yuan; and total investment income was 92.3 billion yuan, a record high.

In terms of investment performance, as of the end of 2025, PICC’s investment assets totaled 1.90 trillion yuan, up 15.8%. For the full year, it achieved total investment income of 92.323 billion yuan, up 12.4%, and its total investment income yield was 5.7%.

Source: PICC Group 2025 annual report

At the earnings release conference, Deputy General Manager Cai Zhiwei said that net investment income is the cornerstone of stable investment returns. It mainly includes interest income from fixed-income assets and dividends from equity assets such as stocks, accounting for nearly 70% of total investment income. Against the backdrop of a continuing decline in the interest-rate center and increasing pressure on traditional fixed-income allocations, PICC uses stable net investment income as its core lever. In 2025, it achieved net investment income of 58.7 billion yuan. Over the past three years, the average net investment income yield reached 4.0%, which can effectively cover the cost of liabilities in the same period.

Source: PICC Group 2025 annual report

In addition, President Zhao Peng disclosed that A-share net adds were over 40 billion yuan, and the equity share in the secondary market increased by 4.3 percentage points. Stock holdings surged from 60.2 billion yuan at the end of 2024 to 166.2 billion yuan, and the proportion of investment assets rose from 3.7% to 8.7%.

Despite multiple indicators hitting record highs, the market does not buy it. The day after the financial report was released, PICC’s A shares fell 3.74%, and its H shares fell more than 7%. The reason is straightforward: in the fourth quarter it recorded a loss of 176 million yuan, which was PICC’s first single-quarter loss since the implementation of the new accounting standards. The capital markets look at marginal changes. Even if the full-year numbers look good, they cannot cover this first-time loss.

The losses mainly came from the fact that after the market rose sharply at the end of September, both A-shares and Hong Kong shares pulled back in the fourth quarter. The CSI 300 fell 0.23%, and the Hang Seng Index fell 4.56%. The cost of the large increase in equity positioning is that the volatility of the income statement was dramatically amplified. Under the new standards, a large number of stocks were classified into FVTPL (fair value changes recognized in profit or loss for the current period). When the market fell, profits shrank directly.

Regarding its plans going forward, Cai Zhiwei at the performance meeting laid out a clear approach: in 2026, it will continue to pay attention to the allocation of OCI high-dividend stocks, while also reasonably planning the allocation of TPL stocks, building a balanced equity investment portfolio that delivers long-term steady performance. After he officially takes over PICC Asset Management, whether reforms on the investment side can continue the momentum from 2025 will be the biggest highlight for 2026.