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January 01, 2004 at 07:00 PM
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Individual life insurance sales edged up slightly in the 3rd quarter of 2003, according to a summary report of quarterly sales from LIMRA International, Windsor, Conn.
Meanwhile, fixed annuity sales in the 3rd quarter fell by 29% from the same period in 2002.
Those are among preliminary results of LIMRA surveys in these 2 areas.
In the life insurance area, annualized new individual premiums increased 2% over the same quarter in 2002, says LIMRA.
Fixed products accounted for much of this increase, the life sales report says. For example, universal life premiums were up 36% for the quarter and 28% year-to-date. Research that LIMRA is conducting now suggests that UL policies with secondary guarantees are driving much of this increase.
In addition, annualized premium for whole life products rose by 8% for the quarter over the year-earlier period and 9% year-to-date.
Meanwhile, sales in variable universal life were off 32% for the quarter and 36% year-to-date.
Another form of the variable product line–variable lifesaw sales fall even more. VL sales dropped 41% for the quarter and by 47% year-to-date. For all 3 quarters of 2003, total individual life annualized premium fell by 2% over the same period in 2002, LIMRA says.
The research organization points out that total variable life results are tracking closely with the S&P 500 index, while the universal life and whole life products have shown the opposite trend (See Chart 1).
What about term life insurance? Those sales remained flat on both a quarterly and year-to-date basis, says LIMRA. But half of the top reporting term insurers did show increases, while the other half reported decreases, LIMRA says.
