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, 2017-2021

($000)

  2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Death benefits $74,942,626 $77,076,010 $76,038,700 $87,670,442 $97,191,646
Matured endowments, excluding annual
pure endowments		 437,591 381,587 423,780 467,154 497,918
Annuity benefits 77,043,317 78,392,309 82,348,469 86,023,032 92,164,218
Disability, accident and health benefits (1) 126,785,757 131,440,728 140,558,797 137,575,199 146,251,082
Coupons, pure endowment and similar benefits 19,406 11,216 4,327 4,297 5,828
Surrender benefits, withdrawals for life contracts 308,928,842 350,278,913 339,640,132 323,350,563 362,681,903
Group conversions 25,719 26,702 25,499 13,980 17,343
Interest and adjustments on deposit type contracts 8,348,035 9,539,457 10,044,578 9,815,812 8,832,771
Payments on supplementary contracts with
life contingencies		 2,106,523 2,152,431 2,413,542 2,414,306 2,288,589
Increase in aggregate reserve 98,004,358 133,760,428 110,529,379 100,020,755 80,922,192
Total benefits and claims $696,642,288 $783,059,441 $762,027,202 $747,355,538 $790,853,489

(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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