Life insurance risk premium inflows and new premium sales have both hit positive numbers for the first time in six months as group risk sales spiked and placed TAL and AIA at the top of the table for annual growth, according to data released by Strategic Insight.
In its market overview of inflows and sales for the 12 months to the end of September 2016 Strategic Insight reported that overall inflows increased by 3.6% and sales rose 7.5%, coming back from a 23.2% fall experienced in the previous year.
In its June 2016 figures, the researcher reported that sales were down 5.9% for the year to the end of that period while the March 2016 quarter figures posted a 5.9% decrease in sales for the 12 months to the end of March 2016.
Strategic Insight reported that much of the premium sales were the result of a large spike in Group Risk sales which grew by 31.5% for the year to the end of September 2016 while Individual Risk Lump Sum sales decreased by 4.1% compared with Individual Risk Income sales which increased by 5.9% over the same period.
TAL was the clear leader in Total Risk Premium Sales recording annual growth of 138.2% followed by AIA Australia with 40.6% growth for the year to the end of September 2016. No other insurers posted higher than single figures with most recording negative premium sales growth.
This overall growth also resulted in only three insurers posting double digit growth in premium inflows, which were led by TAL with 11.5% growth (19.1% growth in the June figures) followed by AIA (13.3%) and BT / Westpac (10.1%).
In the Individual Risk Lump Sum Market premium inflows grew at 3.9% led by AIA (17%), Zurich (8.6%) and Macquarie (7.9%) while CommInsure recorded a fall of -4.8%.
“Group Risk New Premium Sales jumped by 31.5% driven by the inherent cyclical remarketing of Group Risk business…”
Interestingly, Individual Risk Lump Sum sales decreased by 4.1% year on year but AIA and ClearView bucked that trend and reported 17.1% and 15.1% growth respectively. At the opposite end, CommInsure (-10.85%) and Suncorp (-21.2%) reported decreases in their annual sales.
Individual Risk Income Market inflows were up 7% over the past year (6.9% in the June quarter) while overall New Risk Income Sales increased 5.9% over the last twelve months.
BT / Westpac (18.9%), AIA (18.7%) and Zurich (15.2%) were the top three for inflows and AIA (28.5%), ClearView (21.1%) and BT / Westpac (16.1%) led for new sales.
Group Risk Inflows rose marginally at 2% year on year with TAL (13.7%) and AIA (12%) leading the growth in that market while Group Risk New Premium Sales jumped by 31.5% driven by the inherent cyclical remarketing of Group Risk business.
The researcher stated this was not unexpected and “…over the past three years Group Risk Sales have been up 83%, down 51% and now once again up by 31.5%”.
