Facts + Statistics: Life insurance

 

Life insurance ownership

According to the 2022 Insurance Barometer Study, conducted by LIMRA and Life Happens, 106 million adults are lack life insurance, or adequate coverage. The need gap, what people have versus what they said they need, is at an all-time high and more than double what it was 12 years ago. The percent of households that say they would be financial secure if the primary wage earner suddenly passed away is 68 percent among life insurance owners, versus 47 percent who do not own life insurance. Seventy-eight percent of those who own worksite and individual life insurance said they feel secure.

 

Life/Annuity Sector

Traditional life insurance is no longer the primary business of many companies in the life insurance industry. The emphasis has shifted to the underwriting of annuities, which accounted for 48 percent of life/annuity direct premiums written in 2020. Annuities are contracts that accumulate funds or pay out a fixed or variable income stream. An income stream can be for a set time period or over the lifetimes of the contract holder or beneficiaries. Accident and health insurance, which includes distinctive products apart from traditional health insurance, accounts for 27 percent of direct premiums written. Traditional life insurance products such as universal life and term life for individuals, and group life, remain an important part of the business, making up the remaining 25 percent of direct premiums written. In addition to annuities, accident and health, and life insurance products, life insurers may offer other types of financial services such as asset management.

Traditional health insurance, which is not included in this section and are not considered a part of the life/annuity sector, are described under Private Health Insurance. Health insurance pays for medical, surgical and hospital services received by the insured, as well as routine and preventive care, usually within a network format. Of the many types of plans available, most include a deductible paid by the insured, and benefits received are tax-free. Accident insurance and health insurance, which is included in the life/annuity and property/casualty (P/C) sectors, encompass a variety of specialty products related to health, such as reimbursement for the time a policyholder spent in a hospital or was disabled; short- and long-term disability based on employment; long-term care, and critical or catastrophic illness insurance. Accident and health insurance are not meant to replace health insurance.

 

Premiums by line

Annuities are the largest life product line as measured by direct premiums written and accounted for 48 percent of direct premiums written by life insurers in 2020. Accident and health insurance accounted for 27 percent of direct premiums written. Accident and health insurance, not to be confused with traditional health insurance, includes reimbursement for certain medical expenses. These include: short- and long-term disability; critical or catastrophic illness insurance; and long-term care. Life insurance accounted for the remaining 25 percent of direct premiums written. Life insurance policies can be sold on an individual, or ordinary, basis or to groups such as employees and associations. Other lines include credit life, which pays the balance of a loan if the borrower dies or becomes disabled; and industrial life, small policies whose premiums are generally collected by an agent on a weekly basis.

 

Credit life insurance

Credit life insurance, a form of decreasing term insurance, protects creditors such as banks. The borrower pays the premium, generally as part of the credit transaction, to cover the outstanding loan in the event he or she dies. The face value of a policy decreases as the loan is paid off until both equal zero. When loans are paid off early, premiums for the remaining term are returned to the policyholder. Credit accident and health, a similar product, provides a monthly income in the event the borrower becomes disabled.

 

Investments

Life/annuity and P/C insurers are key players in capital markets, with $9.7 trillion in cash and invested assets in 2020, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Life insurance and annuity cash and invested assets totaled $4.7 trillion in 2020, and separate accounts assets and other investments totaled $3.0 trillion. P/C insurer cash and invested assets were $2.0 trillion in 2020.

Because life insurance products are long-term, generally in force for 10 years or longer, payments are predictable. Therefore, life/annuity insurers invest primarily in long-term products. In 2020 life insurers, excluding separate accounts, invested 70 percent of their assets in bonds and 3 percent in corporate stocks. Life insurers invested 13 percent of their assets in mortgage loans on real estate that take seven years or longer to mature.

 

Distribution channels

Independent agents control about half of the individual life insurance market.  From 2012 to 2021 independent insurance agents’ share of the personal life insurance market grew from 44 percent to 50 percent. The direct response channel increased slightly over the same ten years, from 5 percent to 6 percent.  Affiliated agents have lost some ground, falling from 43 percent to 39 percent, as shown in the chart below.

 

Online sales

According to LIMRA’s 2021 Insurance Barometer Study, there has been a substantial consumer shift in favor of online life insurance shopping and purchasing because of technological advances and the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumer preference for online life insurance shopping increased 29 percent since 2016 when online purchasing was first added as an option to the study.

 

Other sales channels

Worksite Life Insurance Sales By Line Of Business, 2020   worksite_life_ins_sale_by_lin_of_bus_20.jpg (1) Short-term and long-term disability. Source: Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc. View Archived Graphs

Worksite marketing is the selling of voluntary (employee-paid) insurance and financial products at the worksite. The products may be on either an individual or group platform and are usually paid through periodic payroll deductions. Worksite sales of life and health insurance totaled $7.46 billion in 2020, down 15.5 percent from 2019.

 

Separate Accounts