At Mid-Year, Group LTD And STD Premiums Were Up

At Mid-Year, Group LTD And STD Premiums Were Up

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U.S. group disability insurers had good luck with increasing enrollment and revenue in the first half of the year despite the softening of the economy.

The 39 carriers that participated in the mid-year disability market survey conducted by John Hewitt & Associates Inc., Portland, Maine, increased group long-term disability insurance premium revenue 9% in the first half of 2001, to $3.3 billion, and group short-term disability insurance revenue 15%, to $1.2 billion.

Insurers expanded by 15% the number of workers with STD coverage, which protects against disabilities that last for a few months, to 16 million, and the number with LTD coverage, which protects against disabilities that last for years, by 5% to 34.4 million.

New sales were a mixed bag.

On the LTD side, insurers increased premium revenue from new sales only 1%, to $711 million, while the number of new cases and the average number of lives per new case fell.

Half of the top 10 insurers reported an increase in new sales revenue for the first half.

The biggest carrier, UnumProvident Corp., Chattanooga, Tenn., increased its new sales revenue 30%, to $168 million.

On the STD side, insurers increased new case sales revenue 27%, to $381 million. The number of new STD cases fell 6%, to 20,489, but the number of workers in the new cases increased 24%, to 2.4 million.

Nine of the top 10 STD carriers reported increases in premiums from new STD case sales.

UnumProvident, the leader in that market as well as the LTD market, increased its new sales revenue 47%, to $99 million.