The industry wrote $1.3 billion of lump sum new business in the 12 months ending December 2016, down 0.7 per cent on the $1.31 billion recorded in the year to December 2015, the report said.
Lump sum new business has fallen by an average of 1 per cent per annum since reaching a peak of $1.325 billion in the year to December 2013.
Of the top 10 life companies, MLC, TAL, Zurich and AMP recorded an increase in lump sum new business for the year.
“Only two top 10 companies, MLC and Zurich, have recorded an increase in sales in each of the past three years,” DEXX&R said.
“Zurich’s 2016 sales include new business flowing from Zurich’s acquisition of Macquarie Life’s risk business in 2016.
The report also said lump sum new business decreased over the December 2016 quarter following two consecutive quarters of increases, totalling $336 million, a decrease of 10 per cent.
However, new business in the December 2016 quarter was up 8 per cent on the December 2015 quarter sales of $310 million.
This trend has been happening ever since the LIF Reforms were first muted, Wait until they see the results after a year of the reforms in early 2019, the industry has the same problem as what the population of South Australia has with its power supply, can the last person out please turn off the lights!
Hard to disagree with you Joe
This seems like a somewhat misleading headline, $1.3Bn vs $1.31Bn… given the reporting variables and rounding used in compiling these figures, its very hard to justify a headline of “Sales down” far more accurate would be “Sales are Flat”. Your credibility as industry journalists has not been enhanced with this headline.
Les, the literal interpretation is actually correct, the number [u]IS[/u] lower – but it’s semantics really isn’t it? Given the chronic under- (life) insured position of the nations citizens, the actions of the recent past by the uneducated bureaucrats, in collusion with the various ‘unions’, appears to have clipped the wings of the most important cog in the wheel – risk advisers who in fact got the business in the door and performing a critical ‘public service’ – keeping families protected! Joe is a good example below of the ‘new’ world – loss of that kind of public servant is a travesty….I said it all along – when was life insurance broken? It had ‘issues’ but were they so serious….eventually the numbers should tell all anyway I suppose….Cheers, S
I think the journalist in this case is trying to emulate many actuaries I have to deal with …. technically accurate and 100% useless.
Welcome to the future you have created for yourselves, FSC via your LIF reforms. One can only hope the trend continues.
We’re exiting Risk to focus on all our other areas and consistently have written over $150k new premium a year, not worth the risk to our business anymore.
Well done Trowbridge, your biased report is bearing fruit already!