15 Predictions for Life and Annuity Professionals in 2024 and Beyond

2. Global GDP

Swiss Re Institute analysts are assuming that, after subtracting the effects of inflation, global gross domestic product increase 2.8% this year and will increase 2.2% in 2024 and 2.7% in 2025.

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3. U.S. GDP

S&P Global Ratings has U.S. GDP, or national income, increasing 1.5% in 2024 and 1.4% in 2025, then rising 1.8% in 2026.

Swiss Re believes U.S. GDP grew about 2.3% this year.

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4. U.S. Interest Rates

Fitch Ratings expects life and annuity issuers' portfolio yields to continue to rise, even if rates fall slightly, because rates will still be much higher than in recent years.

The higher rates should be especially good for for sales of fixed annuities, the firm predicted.

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5. Credit Losses

Fitch Ratings predicted that default rates on the bonds and other forms of debt in life and annuity issuers' investment portfolios will stay low in 2024.

"The higher interest rate environment decreases the likelihood that life insurers will overreach for yield in ways that increase vulnerability to a large market shock," according to Fitch.

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6. Price Stability

Swiss Re Institute analysts predicted that the world price inflation rate will fall to 5.1% in 2024 and to 3.4% in 2025.

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7. Inflation Expectations

When F&G Annuities & Life conducted a recent U.S. investor survey, about 85% of the participants said they worry about the effect of inflation on their financial future, up from 79% in 2022.

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8. U.S. Life Premium Revenue

LIMRA estimates that total U.S. retail life insurance premium revenue could grow as much as 5% in 2024 and 2025.

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9. U.S. Annuity Sales

LIMRA predicted that U.S. retail annuity sales will climb to about $350 billion for 2023, up from $313 billion in 2022, and that sales will continue to exceed $300 billion in 2024 and 2025.

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10. The World Retirement Savings Gap

The retirement savings gap for the United States, five other very advanced economies and China and India reached $106 trillion in 2022 and could grow to $483 trillion by 2050, according to the Swiss Re Institute.

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11. Life Insurance Wellness

Capgemini suggested in an email that some life insurers may form alliances or buy other companies outright to expand wellness programs aimed at life insurance policy owners.

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12. Mortality

CNO Financial is thinking a continuing decrease in U.S. residents' expectancy could expand life insurance sales.

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13. Insurance Technology

Suhas Sethi, global insurance leader at Genpact, predicted that life and annuity information technology investment projects that began two or three years ago will start to pay off this year.

He expects to see the investments speed up life insurance underwriting and lead to more access to personalized products.

He noted that the retirement of baby boomer technology workers is already underway, and that companies often have trouble filling the positions the older employees are leaving.

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14. Artificial Intelligence

When EY commissioned a survey of financial services sector executives, it found that 24% of the insurance executives were nervous or skeptical about the effects of generative AI on their organizations, compared with just 17% of the banking and capital markets executives.

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15. Household Economics

MassMutual learned that 41% of the Americans it surveyed were planning to make a financial resolution for 2024, up from 35% for 2023.

About 64% of the survey participants planned to resolve to build up savings, and 55% said they planned to resolve to earn more income.

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