Putting Life in Q4 Numbers

As many consumers wonder in these tough economic times if life insurance is or isn’t for them, a new study reports total new individual life annualized premium grew two percent in Q4, leading in a four percent jump in 2010, according to LIMRA’s U.S. Individual Life Insurance Sales Survey.

When consumers turn to 2insure4less.com for their life insurance and other coverage needs, they find themselves with quality and affordable quotes. It is also important for consumers to do their homework when it comes to the different forms of life insurance available on the market.

According to an analyst with LIMRA Product Research, “Throughout the year, Whole Life (WL) and Universal Life (UL) were strong performers, spurring an increase of overall life insurance sales. While we have not gotten back to the peak level reached in 2007, we are encouraged by the positive results this year.”

The numbers go on to point out that the new WL annualized premium saw an improvement of 14 percent in Q4 and 15 percent in 2010. Policy sales also witnessed a spike, up six percent for the quarter and two percent for 2010.

The study from LIMRA also points out that close to 60 percent of the writers were able to better their Whole Life premium this year, including all but one of the Top 10. This marks the sixth straight quarter of growth when it comes to WL sales.

New UL annualized premium also saw strong numbers in the final three months of 2010, gaining 13 percent. In 2010, UL premium sales increased 10 percent, growing its market share back to 41 percent. Research shows policy count increased 20 percent for the quarter and 21 percent for the entire year. The report adds that the unveiling of Term UL products has assisted in the growth in universal life policy sales.

In all, 60 percent of UL writers were able to grow their premium sales compared to 2009 sales, including 15 of the top 20. Life insurance products offering long-term secondary guarantees dipped slightly, a five percent decline compared to the prior year. Annualized premium sales for products, meantime, that do not offer these guarantees jumped by 27 percent.

ndexed UL sales increased by 47 percent in 2010; representing close to 20 percent of 2010 UL annualized premium sales.

Term life insurance premium declined by 16 percent for the quarter and 12 percent for the year, as did term policy sales. This is the biggest annual decline for term on record. Some of the factors that contributed to the drop include companies removing product lines - like longer-duration and return-on-premium (ROP) term products - and increasing prices.

Finally, variable sales witnessed a major decline in the fourth quarter, falling 25 percent.

Only one-fourth of the writers were able to grow their sales over 2009 (a time when sales were down by 50 half). Year-end results dropped seven percent as compared to 2009.