Life insurance sales in S'pore recover in 2024, growing nearly 20%

A surge in consumers taking up investment-linked plans helped Singapore's life insurance business to recover strongly in 2024 after a drop in sales the previous year.

- Claire Huang

The life insurance sector here grew 19.7 per cent year on year in 2024 to $5.87 billion in total weighted new business premiums, which is a rough measure of new sales, according to figures from the Life Insurance Association (LIA) Singapore released on Feb 13.

This is a reversal from the 3.9 per cent year-on-year dip in total weighted new business premiums posted in 2023 to $4.9 billion, led by a drop in the single premium business.

LIA attributed the 2024 growth to sales of investment-linked plans (ILPs), which jumped 41 per cent year on year to $2.3 billion from $1.6 billion in 2023.

It said more consumers are leveraging ILPs for wealth accumulation, especially amid economic uncertainty and higher interest rates, as these policies provide life insurance protection while offering higher potential returns.

It noted that regular premium ILPs - plans whose premiums are regularly allocated to sub-funds at various prices - also recorded a surge in uptake as they help mitigate market timing and volatility through dollar-cost averaging.