The reinsurer’s Term & Health Watch 2013 found that the number of new income protection sales fell by almost a quarter (24.4%) from 120,094 in 2012 to 90,794 during 2013.
Critical illness sales decreased by 20.5% from 560,911 to 445,679; while whole of life sales fell by 20.5% from 344,110 to 273,423.
Finally, term assurance sales faced the smallest drop of 17.4% as the number of policies bought fell from 1,473,404 to 1,216,649.
However, Swiss Re said comparing 2013 with previous years needs to be “treated with caution” due to the introduction of gender-neutral pricing and the taxation of life assurance funds, which saw prices increase.
The re-insurer added that this year’s figures provide “a more realistic view” of genuine ‘new’ business than previous years.
In the report, industry commentators estimated around 85% of business was ‘brand new’ instead of replacement of existing policies.
However, Swiss Re warned that such difficulty in comparison does not hide the fact that consumer apathy remains.
