2020 Was a Challenging Year for Individual Disability Insurance Sales
Portland, Maine, May 10, 2021 – Gen Re’s recently released U.S. Individual Disability Market Survey which captures Non-Cancelable (Non-Can), Guaranteed Renewable (GR), Guaranteed Standard Issue (GSI), and Buy-Sell sales and in-force premium results for more than 90% of the U.S. individual disability insurance market. Sixteen carriers participated in the 2020 survey, representing $5 billion of in-force premium, an increase of 1.3% over 2019 results.
As with other lines of insurance, COVID-19 impacted new sales of Individual Disability insurance in 2020. Even though most carriers were able to adjust their internal processes to address the challenges of COVID, producers still struggled to close sales without having the ability to meet their clients face-to-face. This resulted in new sales being down 6.5% to $398.9 million and the number of new policies written being down 11% year-over-year.
Additional highlights from this annual benchmark report include:
- By product line, Non-Can new sales premium was down 5.2%, GR declined 11.8%, and Buy-Sell new sales premium fell 19.5%.
- Non-Can and GR in-force premium grew 1.1% and 3%, respectively. Buy-Sell in-force premium declined 3.7%, posting negative results for the 12th consecutive year.
- By product, the number of new policies declined 4.9% for Non-Can, new GR policies fell 19.5% and Buy-Sell policies were down 21.9%. Meanwhile, total in-force policies were flat, declining less than 1%.
The Market Survey is an annual benchmark survey produced by Gen Re, with the full results available only to participating companies. A summary report is available here.
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Gen Re, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, is one of the leading Life/Health and Property/Casualty reinsurers in the world. Our North American Life/Health reinsurance company, General Re Life Corporation, has superior financial strength ratings among Life and Health reinsurers. Gen Re delivers customized reinsurance programs and risk management solutions for the Life, Medicare Supplement, Critical Illness and Individual Disability Income markets. Through our research, we also offer valuable information and insights.