Sales of life insurance in Singapore have started positively for Q1, with a 14% hike in new business premiums recorded, according to new statistics released by the Life Insurance Association, Singapore.
LIA Singapore has announced the industry results for the period January to March 2018 with a total of S$925.1m ($6980m) in weighted new business premiums for 1Q2018, a 14% growth from the previous year.
Linked policies recorded the highest growth in total weighted premiums of S$208m, with an 82% increase from Q12017.
S$642.8m in weighted annual premiums were registered during the first three months of the year, a 21% increase from the corresponding period in 2017. This is attributed to increases recorded across all policy types namely; linked, participating and non-participating policies.
Manpower increase
Employment in Singapore also continues to grow in the finance and insurance sector, with 10% increase in the number of employed individuals within the life insurance industry. In Q12018 7,594 individuals were employed by member companies, up from 6,883 staff in Q12017 the Singapore LIA said.
There was also a significant 23% year-on-year increase in total sum assured for new business.
, president of LIA Singapore, pictured left, said: “While our Protection Gap Study 2017 found a persistent gap in the level of protection amount in Singapore, it is heartening to know that more people are taking actions to get better insured.
“Collectively, the life insurance industry will not only look at continuing ongoing public education efforts, we will also develop more targeted public engagement programmes based on insights from our follow-up qualitative study, so that we can help more individuals in Singapore better protect their loved ones, their future, and their quality of life.”
As at 31 March 2018, the life insurance industry paid out S$1.30bn to policyholders and beneficiaries.
The contribution of new business by the different channels is as follows:
| Distribution channel | By weighted premium (%) | By number of policies (%) |
| Tied Representatives | 37 | 52 |
| Bank Representatives | 38 | 12 |
| Financial Adviser Representatives | 20 | 18 |
| Others (products sold without intermediaries, e.g. DPI, ElderShield) | 5 | 18 |
