TOWER went from 74,081 in-force premiums to 73,477 after it lost a reasonable sized employer subsidised scheme during the quarter.
ING on the other hand had the strongest growth of around 4,000 in-force premiums for the quarter bringing it to 117,106.
Sovereign remains the market leader with 442,659 in-force premiums, while AMP and AXA tussle for second position in the market, AMP with 150,614 in-force premiums and AXA with 148,883.
Since March 2009, Sovereign, ING and Asteron have had the biggest increases of in-force premiums, with Sovereign seeing growth of 27,206.
AIA is the only company to have seen a decrease (-121) year on year.
After recording double digit growth in annual in-force premiums over the last few years, the life insurance industry has reported lower annual growth of 6.7% ($105m) for the year ended 31 March 2010, driven largely by flat growth of only 0.9% ($15.7m) over the last quarter.
ISI chief executive Vance Arkinstall says the latest (flat) quarterly result was to be expected given the start of each year is historically a slow period for life insurance sales.
"In the first few months people are typically recovering from the financial strains of the Christmas period, and are either settling back into work or busy with the end of the financial year.
While the decade-long move away from traditional insurance products continued with in-force premiums down 6.3% for the year, the newer forms of insurance continued to record strong premium growth, despite the flat March quarter:
• guaranteed acceptance in-force premiums increased 14.2%;
• trauma in-force premiums rose 13.4%;
• term life in-force premiums (which account for almost half the life insurance market) were up 9.7%;
• lump sum disablement in-force premiums increased 9.6%; and,
• replacement income in-force premiums rose 8.1%.
Over the last year total claims and maturity payments have increased from $895m (year ended 31 March 2009) to $964m (year ended 31 March 2010). At the current rate of increase, the industry should reach the $1 billion milestone by the end of the year.
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