Sovereign holds on to market top spot

Most insurers grew their books in the December 2015 quarter, new data shows.

Tuesday, February 9th 2016, 6:00AM 2 Comments

by Susan Edmunds

Financial Services Council statistics for the period show there was $25.9 million of annual premiums added to term risk business in the quarter, taking the total amount in force at the end of the three months to $1.12 billion.

Trauma added $11 million in annual premiums in cover and replacement income products $13.4 million.

Including whole-of-life and group business, there was $2.28 billion in in-force risk premiums across the market at the end of the quarter.

Sovereign had the largest chunk of the total market, at 20.7%, a position that has been relatively unchanged over recent times.

It was followed by Partners Life at 17.2% and OnePath at 16.1%.

Year-on-year, AIA grew the most in terms of market share of new business, up 4 per cent compared to the same quarter the year before, to 9.4 per cent of the market. It overtook Fidelity Life for fourth place in the new business market. Fidelity has an 8.6% share.

On an annual basis, AMP, Asteron, Cigna Life and Partners Life lost new business share, although all were down less than 2% each.

Taking in-force premiums, including group risk and annuity business, into account as well, Sovereign is still in first place with 28% of annual premiums, followed by AMP on 19% and Fidelity and Asteron jointly at 10%.

Sovereign had the most new business in the term life category, adding $4.9 million in annual premiums in the quarter. AMP paid out the most claims and expiries, at $441,000.

OnePath added the most new business in income replacement policies, with $1.3 million more in force at the end of the quarter than it had at the start.

Product categories where insurers ended the quarter with less in in-force premiums than they started it were in whole life and endowment policies, where all the providers dropped except AIA with no change, and unbundled risk, where the same applied.

Westpac lost $1.6 million in annual premiums in term risk products. Amp, Cigna and Pinnacle experienced small declines in trauma cover.

Tags: FSC health insurance Income Protection Life insurance

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Comments from our readers

On 23 February 2016 at 4:15 pm Donald said:

The age old question, does Sovereign's and Onepath's percentage market share include business generated by their aligned bank channels ?? It is obvious that Partners are doing many things right.

On 24 February 2016 at 5:07 pm Ron Flood said:

Donald, why does it matter if the bank generated business is included. When Partners is finally owned by a bank does it really matter where the business comes from?

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