Overall life insurance risk premium inflows have continued to grow year on year but slowed during the 2016 calendar year to a modest 3.4% growth rate, according to data released by Strategic Insight.
This growth was sufficient to push inflows close to the $16 billion mark ($15.89 billion) for the past year during which Zurich posted inflow growth of 63.8% – driven by the merger of the acquired Macquarie business, well ahead of the next largest growth of 12.1% for AIA Australia.
In its market overview of inflows and sales for the 12 months to the end of December 2016 Strategic Insight also reported that Total Risk Premium Sales fell 12.2% over the calendar year but that AIA Australia and Zurich posted strong increases of 37.1% and 16%, respectively, in this area. No other insurers posted higher than single figures with most recording negative premium sales growth.
In the Individual Risk Lump Sum market premium inflows grew at 3.6% led by Zurich (67.9%), ClearView (22.8%) and AIA Australia (15.3%) while CommInsure recorded a fall of -3.7%.
Individual Risk Lump Sum sales decreased by 4.1% year on year but ClearView, AIA and Zurich moved in the other direction with 15.6%, 8.4% and 6.9% growth respectively. At the opposite end, Suncorp (-18.3%) and OnePath (-9.8%) reported decreases in their annual sales.
Individual Risk Income Market inflows were up 5.7% over the past year while overall Individual Risk Income Sales increased 4.9% over the last twelve months. Zurich (106.5%), ClearView (54.6%), AIA (17.7%) all recorded significant double digit increases and were the top three for inflows, as well as for new sales – Zurich (43.9%), AIA (29.4%), ClearView (28.6%).
Group Risk Inflows rose marginally at 2.2 % year on year with One Path (13.6%) and AIA Australia (10.8%) leading the growth in that market while Group Risk New Premium Sales dropped by 33.4% off the back of a very limited number of sales in this area.
Strategic Insight reported that only two insurers – AIA Australia and NAB/MLC, posted positive growth in this area while TAL, which had posted strong growth in this area in the past two years reported a 98.3% decline in sales
“This again reflects the importance of business “churn” from one company to another due to remarketing exercises that are a feature of this volatile market,” Strategic Insight stated.
