Insurers Might Be a Little Bored With Critical Illness Insurance

The issuers made about $373 million of the sales through group plan sales or through the sales of many individual policies at once at the worksite, through worksite marketing programs.

The issuers were happy with their claims experience: 49% said claims matched expectations, and 46% said claims were better than expected. Only 5% said claims were higher than expected.

For insurers with successful critical illness insurance programs, a reduction in competitors’ interest in the market could lead to a chance to increase sales and, possibly, profit margins.

The Context

LIMRA announced in May that participants in its voluntary benefits and worksite marketing program reported an 8% increase in 2018 critical illness insurance sales.

Eastbridge Consulting Group Inc. announced in June that participants in its voluntary benefits and worksite marketing survey had posted a 12% increase in 2018 critical illness insurance sales.

But DirectPath and a unit from Gartner say the percentage of DirectPath employer clients offering voluntary critical illness insurance fell to 26% this year, from 31% in 2018.

Resources

A link to the latest Gen Re critical illness insurance market survey is available here.

Correction: The group and individual market sales figures for 2018 were given incorrectly in an earlier version of this article. The individual market accounted for about $87 million in sales, and voluntary group and worksite sales programs accounted for about $373 million in sales.

— Read Where Did the Voluntary Life Sponsors Go?, on ThinkAdvisor.

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