We hear a lot of talk from Capitol Hill about our industry not serving the American public, but few of us, including Capitol Hill, understand the true economic impact our industry provides to American consumers.
According to the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), there is almost $18.5 trillion of death benefit coverage currently in force. This includes individual, credit and group life insurance. This sounds like a tremendous amount of protection our industry is providing Americans to protect families and businesses, to create legacies, to create money where none existed before.
These are promises to pay future death benefits, but what is the industry putting into the economy today? According to ACLI, total payments made under life insurance and annuity contracts were $365.6 billion in 2010. That is more than $30 billion in cash per month coming back into the U.S. economy. I don't know how you do your math, but even in government terms, this is a lot of money.
What about industry employment? Jobs are a critical concern with unemployment hovering at 9%. ACLI's 2011 Fact Book states that there are 917 companies doing business in the United States with a total employment of more than 2.2 million people. This is broken down into 1,367,500 home office employees and 870,500 agents, brokers and service personnel. Our industry's employment has remained fairly constant over the past 10 years, even as the financial services sector has had significant reductions.
All these factors are positive signs that our industry is resilient and responsive to economic swings while protecting the interests of its policyholders and beneficiaries. I don't know what 2012 has in store for us, but I do know that all of us involved in the life insurance industry will work to protect our clients' best interests in this and the coming years.
Marvin Feldman, CLU, ChFC, is president and CEO of the LIFE Foundation.
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