Life insurance industry hit with sales slowdown as new sales slide 6% in Q3

New business premiums slipped to $705.4m.

The third quarter proved to be quite disappointing for the country’s life insurance industry. The Life Insurance Association Singapore today revealed that weighted new business sales slipped 6% year-on-year to $705.4m in Q3.

For the first nine months of the year, the industry achieved a total of S$2,024.4 million in weighted new business premiums, a 1% dip over the same period in 2013.

The life insurance industry paid out S$5.33 billion to policyholders and beneficiaries as at end September 2014. Of this, S$439 million was for death, critical illness or disability claims, and the remaining S$4.89 billion for policies that matured. A larger number of policies had matured in the third quarter of 2014.

The total sum assured for new business increased by nine per cent to S$64.5 billion for the first three quarters of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013.