Life insurance sales rise 3% in first half

SINGAPORE — The life insurance industry saw growth for the first half of this year, helped by increased sales in both single premium and annual premium products.

New sales of weighted annual premium products rose 3 per cent on-year to S$964.9 million in the first half of the year, while weighted single premium products increased 2 per cent to S$387.8 million, the Life Insurance Association Singapore (LIA Singapore) said today (Aug 6). This lifted overall weighted new business premiums up by 3 per cent to S$1.35 billion.

The total sum assured for new business for the same period rose by 9 per cent year-on-year to S$44.3 billion.

Dr Khoo Kah Siang, President of LIA Singapore said: “The first half 2015 performance is about level compared to first half of 2014. There is slight growth in both single premium and regular premium business. With relatively low interest rate, sales of traditional (ie, non-linked) single premium plans dropped while sales of investment linked plans, both single premium and regular premium, picked up amidst the positive but volatile equity market.”

Investment linked products contributed S$272 million in the first half of the year, accounting for 20 per cent of total weighted business premiums.

As for Direct Purchase Insurance (DPI), a product that was implemented in April this year, LIA said the scheme has drawn almost S$200,000 of weighted new premiums, with a total of 193 policies sold as of end-June.

DPI products are basic life insurance plans sold without financial advice and are purchased directly from customer service centres or websites of life insurance companies in Singapore.

"We are encouraged to see the numbers for DPIs, they were within expectations and marks a good start to the launch of this product," said Dr Khoo.

On the Medishield Life scheme that will be rolled out in November this year, LIA said they will continue to take a pro-active role in working closely with policy makers and relevant stakeholders to provide Integrated Shield Plans (IPs) to complement the scheme.