Life Buyers Loosen Up in Q4
A stock market rebound pulled U.S. individual life insurance buyers back toward market-linked products in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to survey data from LIMRA and Wink.
Wink focuses on nonvariable permanent life products. LIMRA includes term life and variable products.
Annualized premiums from sales of variable universal life insurance policies, which give the owners a chance to link cash-value growth to the performance of investment funds, were 11% higher in the latest quarter than they were in the fourth quarter of 2022, LIMRA found.
Both LIMRA and Wink saw the most growth in sales of nonvariable indexed life policies, which provide a cash-value growth floor but let owners link value growth to the performance of an investment index. Both organizations recorded a drop in sales of whole life policies, which are designed to insulate owners from any market growth and to hold premiums, death benefits and cash-value growth steady.
What it means: The life sales numbers show consumers warming to the idea of getting more involved in the stock market, even in their life insurance policies.
