MetLife Inc. wrote the largest share of ordinary and group life insurance premiums in the first quarter of 2012, according to a new report.
SNL Financial LLC, Charlottesville, Va., published this finding in a new report that ranks premiums written by the top ten carriers of term and permanent insurance sold to individuals and, in the employer marketplace, group life insurance. The rankings exclude companies that write a significant amount of business outside of the U.S. to eliminate the effect of foreign currency conversions.
For the quarter ended March 31, MetLife’s market share, based on statutory total direct premiums, totaled 10.13%, exceeding the market share of the second highest writer, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, by 2.2%. That’s up from the 0.84% in market share that separated the two companies in the first quarter of 2011.
However, MetLife’s life premiums in the first quarter dipped to $3.84 billion, down 2.1% from the $3.92 billion in life premiums recorded for the year-ago period.
The second and third highest writers of life insurance in SNL’s rankings, Northwestern Mutual (7.92% market share) and Prudential Financial Inc. (6.6%) enjoyed increases in life premiums in the first quarter. For the period ending March 31, Northwestern Mutual’s life premiums rose to $3 billion, up 2.79% from the 2.92 billion posted for the year-ago period.