Research: GE Insurance Solutions annual risk survey shows flat sales figures
The entire group protection market remained unmoved in 2004 despite insurers' efforts to try to increase sales.
According to GE Insurance Solutions' latest annual risk survey, the group income protection (IP) market, group critical illness (CI) market and the group life market have been relatively flat throughout the past year.
The group CI sector saw a slight increase in the number of existing schemes, up from 1,855 in 2003 to 1,858 in 2004, while the number of group IP schemes fell from 21,713 to 20,333 during the same period. The group life market also shrunk, losing more than 2,000 of the 54,041 schemes it had in 2003.
"I am not too surprised at the lack of overall growth in schemes," said Kelvyn Young, marketing leader for life and health Europe at GE Insurance Solutions.
"However, I still believe there is a good opportunity in the group market owing to a number of issues such as current low penetration, regulatory changes and also areas such as the cost of sickness absence where income protection can help a lot," he said.
The data, which has been put together on the back of figures directly provided by a number of insurance companies, showed that while last year saw a reduction in the number of schemes, premium volumes increased across the group market.
Group IP premiums rose from £509m in 2003 to £543m in 2004, while group life premiums increased from £754m to £802m. Group CI volumes also increased by another £3m to a total of £24m.
Commenting on the findings, Stuart Gray, managing director of Portus Consulting, said that he is not surprised by the result. "Our own experience would suggest growth is primarily due to premium increases at rate review," he said.
