Close Close
Sign In
Newsletters
Popular Financial Topics Discover relevant content from across the suite of ALM legal publications From the Industry More content from ThinkAdvisor and select sponsors Investment Advisor Issue Gallery Read digital editions of Investment Advisor Magazine Tax Facts Get clear, current, and reliable answers to pressing tax questions
Luminaries Awards
Podcast Center Video Center Webcasts Resource Center Events
About ThinkAdvisor Contact Us Advertise With Us Asset & Logo Licensing Sitemap Terms of Service Privacy Policy Copyright © 2024 ALM Global, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
ThinkAdvisor
Percent sign

Life Health > Life Insurance

Life Buyers Loosen Up in Q4

By Allison Bell

X
Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided.

A stock market rebound pulled U.S. individual life insurance buyers back toward market-linked products in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to survey data from LIMRA and Wink.

Wink focuses on nonvariable permanent life products. LIMRA includes term life and variable products.

Annualized premiums from sales of variable universal life insurance policies, which give the owners a chance to link cash-value growth to the performance of investment funds, were 11% higher in the latest quarter than they were in the fourth quarter of 2022, LIMRA found.

Both LIMRA and Wink saw the most growth in sales of nonvariable indexed life policies, which provide a cash-value growth floor but let owners link value growth to the performance of an investment index. Both organizations recorded a drop in sales of whole life policies, which are designed to insulate owners from any market growth and to hold premiums, death benefits and cash-value growth steady.

What it means: The life sales numbers show consumers warming to the idea of getting more involved in the stock market, even in their life insurance policies.

The big picture: LIMRA says overall U.S. individual life sales increased 4% in the latest quarter from year-earlier levels, to $4.2 billion.

The number of policies sold increased 2%. LIMRA did not provide a policy count. The American Council of Life Insurers’ 2023 Life Insurers Fact Book shows that U.S. life insurers sell an average of about 2.4 million individual life policies per quarter.

The Wink numbers: Wink tracks fewer life products than does LIMRA, and its list of participating life insurers is different.

Here’s how Wink saw sales revenue changing for some products between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the latest quarter:

  • Indexed universal life and indexed whole life: $799 million (+5.1%)
  • Traditional universal life: $96 million (-11%)
  • Whole life: $1.2 billion (-6.4%)

The LIMRA numbers:  LIMRA estimates that the insurers that send it quarterly sales data account for about 85% of the U.S. individual life market.

  • Variable universal life: $536 million (+11%)
  • Traditional universal life: $266 million (+9%)
  • Term life: $745 million (+6%)
  • Indexed universal life:  $1.1 billion (+3%)
  • Whole life: $1.6 billion (-1%)
  • Total: $4.2 billion (+4%)

Credit: Adobe Stock

Allison Bell

Think_Allison

NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.