singapore life insurance sales rise 8

Sales of so-called “weighted” new business in the single premium category fell 13% in the three months ending on 30 Sept, to S$153.7m (£78.59m, $125.62m)  and slid 10% in the nine months, toS$447.3m, compared with 2011 levels, the figures, released this morning, show.

The weighted figure is calculated by adding 10% of the Single Premium Index (SPI) to the Annual Premium Index (API), with adjustment for premium payment  terms of less than 10 years.

Last year at this time, annual premium products outsold single-premium investments too, but the single-premium comparisons with the previous year were positive, up 16% and 38% respectively.

Total insurance sales in the first three quarters touched $1.608bn, up from $1.465bn in the same nine months of 2011.

The share of the total handled by the five “defined market segments” insurers, of particular interest to intermediaries handling wealthy expatriate clients, stayed at 4%, unchanged from their share at the half-year point, but down from 5% at the end of 2011.

Tied agents continued to be the main channel of distribution, contributing 58% of new business policies and 44% of new business funds invested during the nine months to the end of September.

Financial advisers handled 14% of sales in the period, a percentage point more than the total  they handled in 2011, and in terms of policies, accounted for 10% of the total, indicating that the average value of the policies they handled was higher than that of distributors in the other main channels. 

The steady growth in the contribution made by banks continued during the nine months, with this channel accounting for 37% of weighted premium sales – an increase of two percentage points from the same period in 2011 – and for 16% of total policies sold.

In a statement Tan Hak Leh, president of the LIA, said the organisation took a “naturally” restrained view in terms of target estimates for the remainder of the year, “in light of the forces of the economic climate”. 

To read the LIA results statement on its website in full,click here.