Sales of life insurance rose in the three months ending in June this year, making it the second quarter of growth. This is welcome news for life insurance companies who saw a slump in sales last year as a result of the recession. Last year saw the biggest drop in sales of life insurance in 70 years. According to trade group Limra International life insurance sales in the first half of 2010 rose by 9%.
Whole Life Policies Show Biggest Increase in Sales
Whole life policies, offering death benefits with additional savings features showed the sharpest gain with sales rising by 23%. Life insurance products which have just guaranteed death benefits went up by 5%.
Half of Insurers Saw Double Digit Growth
Ashley Durham, a senior analyst at Limra stated “Things appear to be looking up” and added that “nearly half of all companies experienced double-digit growth during the first half of the year.” New York based Met Life, the largest life insurance company in the USA, saw increased earnings as did Prudential who reported a sevenfold increase in profits on investments compared with the previous year.
According to Limra Term Life Insurance was the only product which saw a decline in sales in the second quarter with premiums dropping by 11%.
Source
- Inyoung Hwang –25 August, Bloomberg Businessweek
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