Life insurance industry new business premiums up 12% – The Star Online

KUALA LUMPUR: The life insurance industry registered a double-digit growth of 12.4% or RM12.8bil in new business total premiums in 2021 from RM11.4bil in 2020.

In a statement, Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (Liam) president Loh Guat Lan said the stronger performance of the life insurance industry reflected the increase in awareness among consumers on the importance of life insurance protection amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The industry recorded a healthier performance driven by the strong rebound of investment-linked policies which rose 31.2% to RM6.6bil in 2021, despite the challenging business environment due to the pandemic,” she said in a statement yesterday.

Group policies recorded a moderate growth of 7.7% in new business total premiums to RM4.1bil in 2021. However, traditional policies charted a decline of 17.3% during the year.“The overall new business sum assured increased to RM461.1bil, registering a modest growth of 5.4% from RM437.2bil in 2020,” she said.

Meanwhile, Loh said new policies issued in 2021 recorded a strong growth of 53.5% to 1.9 million policies last year compared with 1.2 million in 2020 due to the encouraging take-up of Perlindungan Tenang policies under the Perlindungan Tenang RM50 Voucher programme for Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat recipients from end-September until end-December 2021.

The total in-force premiums rose 8% to RM46.8bil in 2021 compared with RM43.4bil in 2020.

Liam chief executive officer Mark O’Dell exepcted the positive trends to continue in 2022.

“The industry will continue to engage proactively with our key stakeholders and embark on our ongoing consumer education programmes to generate awareness on the importance of life insurance protection.

“We will continue to educate the consumers on medical and health insurance and how it can save their lives, factors that could lead to changes on premiums, how to maintain the sustainability of their medical policies and their role as responsible consumers,” he added. — Bernama