New life insurance premiums in Q3 dip 4% to $3b

Total sum assured for businesses grew by $1.3b.

Singapore’s life insurance industry recorded a total of $3b in weighted new business premiums for YTD 3Q2019, a 4% decrease from the corresponding period in 2018, according to the Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA Singapore).

Against this backdrop, the total sum assured for new business continued to increase by 1% ($1.3b) year-on-year, amounting to $103.1b.

On annual premium policies, products have seen a steady growth, narrowing protection gaps. Annual premium policies recorded a four percent increase from the same period last year, amounting to $2.1b in total weighted annual premiums – mainly attributed to the increase in uptake of participating plans, meeting the protection and saving needs of consumers.

Single premium products on the other hand continue to drop, primarily due to global market volatility. A 20% decline was recorded on a year-on-year basis for single premium products. For YTD Q3 2019, weighted single premiums amounted to $889.2m.

For retirement policies, a 57% increase in the uptake has been recorded in YTD Q3 2019 compared to a year ago. A total of 38,622 policies were purchased as of September 2019, a significant addition of 14,012 policies compared to the same period in 2018.