The Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA Singapore) announced on 14 February 2022 that S$5.38bn in weighted new business premiums was achieved from January to December 2021, which amounted to a 23% growth over 2020.
Surge in single-premium products
Single-premium products recorded a strong 41% jump (S$1.84bn to S$2.59bn), compared to annual premium products which grew 10% year-on-year. Uptake of annual premium products remained stable despite a slight drop of 6% in growth for 2021 over the same period in 2020.
More purchasing policies online
Online purchases of new policies transacted by customers without financial advisory increased two-fold to 591,282, from 206,679 in 2020. Totalling S$189m in weighted premiums for the year, these online purchases amounted to a 6% improvement over the previous year. The large increases in policy count were due in part to new micro-insurance products and complimentary products covering the side effects of COVID-19 vaccination.
Breaking down by distribution channels, online transactions accounted for 32.2% of number of policies sold and 3.5% by weighted premiums, as compared to sales by financial adviser representatives (22% by policy count and 28.8% by weighted premiums).
Retirement policies pick up
The 40,395 retirement policies purchased as of 31 December 2021 reflected a growth rate of 3% over 2020 but is still less than the 51,040 policies purchased in 2019 before COVID-19 swept across the world.
Going forward
LIA Singapore president Khor Hock Seng said, “In 2022, life insurers will continue to pursue their digitalisation plans to deliver a better customer experience from product purchase to claims submission.”
“Sustainability will remain a priority and life insurers are working closely with all stakeholders to build up a multi-dimensional capacity in ESG for green investments and life insurance products to become common place over the next decade.”
“Workforce transformation is crucial to achieving these two key pillars and life insurers will continue to invest in upskilling employees as well as attracting talent in the digital and sustainability space,” he said.