A Firm Foundation: How Insurance Supports the Economy

Income replacement

Life insurance benefits and claims totaled $747.4 billion in 2020. This amount includes life insurance death benefits, annuity benefits, disability benefits and other payouts and compares with $762.0 billion in 2019. The largest payout in 2020 was $323.4 billion, for surrender benefits and withdrawals from life insurance contracts made to policyholders who terminated their policies early or withdrew cash from their policies.

Life/Annuity Insurance Benefits And Claims, 2016-2020

($000)

  2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Death benefits $73,996,171 $74,942,626 $77,076,010 $76,038,700 $87,670,442
Matured endowments, excluding annual pure endowments 420,287 437,591 381,587 423,780 467,154
Annuity benefits 74,769,738 77,043,317 78,392,309 82,348,469 86,023,032
Disability, accident and health benefits (1) 120,056,048 126,785,757 131,440,728 140,558,797 137,585,722
Coupons, pure endowment and similar benefits 19,509 19,406 11,216 4,327 4,297
Surrender benefits, withdrawals for life contracts 265,095,216 308,928,842 350,278,913 339,640,132 323,350,563
Group conversions 30,872 25,719 26,702 25,499 13,980
Interest and adjustments on deposit type contracts 9,407,551 8,348,035 9,539,457 10,044,578 9,815,812
Payments on supplementary contracts with life contingencies 2,062,662 2,106,523 2,152,431 2,413,542 2,414,306
Increase in aggregate reserve 123,731,601 98,004,358 133,760,428 110,529,379 100,020,756
Total benefits and claims $669,589,655 $696,642,288 $783,059,441 $762,027,202 $747,366,061

(1) Excludes benefits paid by health insurance companies and property/casualty insurance companies.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

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