Singapore’s life insurance industry recorded a total of S$1.21 billion in weighted new business premiums for the first quarter of 2022, according to data released by the Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA).
This was a 2% decrease compared to the S$1.23 billion reported in the same quarter last year.
Sales of annual premium products also saw a 20% reduction from the previous year, amounting to S$555.1 million in total weighted annual premiums.
There was, however, an uptake of single-premium products, with LIA reporting a 21% quarter-on-quarter increase in weighted premiums, amounting to a total of S$655.4 million. Single-premium par and non-par products made up 88% of all single-premium purchases, while single-premium linked products accounted for the remaining 12%.
LIA’s data also reported a total of S$2.29 billion in claims payouts for Q1 – S$1.92 billion of which was for policies that matured, while S$364 million was for death, critical illness, or disability claims.
Additionally, the industry saw significant growth in policies purchased online without financial advisory. For this quarter, there were 214,372 policies purchased online, compared to the 88,565 purchased in the same quarter last year. All in all, these online purchases amounted to S$27 million in weighted premiums, accounting for 2% of the total weighted premiums for Q1.
“Life insurance was one of the few sectors that grew over the past two years as consumers increasingly recognised the importance of life insurance as a crucial component to financial planning and protection,” said LIA president Khor Hock Seng. “As the country steadily emerges from the pandemic’s headwinds, life insurers have noted the sustained popularity of single-premium products for their relatively attractive yields.”
