UK Protection Insurance 2019: Term and Whole of Life

Powered by

All the vital news, analysis, and commentary curated by our industry experts.

The UK life protection insurance market for regular individual premiums grew in 2018. This was primarily driven by growth in the term assurance market, with the whole-of-life market growing marginally. Term market growth was primarily due to increased sales of non-mortgage term assurance policies by independent financial advisors. But sales in the direct channel are also increasing, reflecting the demand for purchasing life insurance conveniently online. Underwritten whole-of-life policies continue to be sold by independent advisors, while guaranteed acceptance over-50s products are sold direct without advice. In the future, insurers will look to work with policyholders to improve their lifestyle choices by leveraging the Internet of Things and rewarding positive choices.

This report discusses the term assurance and whole-of-life insurance markets, looking at market size with regards to changes in contracts and premiums. The scope of this report covers the market for individual regular premiums only, concentrating on the main market for all types of consumers seeking their own cover. It highlights how products are distributed, and looks at the key players and their propositions. It provides five-year forecasts of market size in premiums to 2024, and discusses how the market, distribution, and products offered are likely to change in the future.

Scope

– Consumer behavior has shifted to put greater importance on the distribution of protection policies through the direct channel. In the guaranteed acceptance space, the direct channel increased its share of the market by 13%.

– The total protection market grew in 2018, with new contracts rising by 5.9% and premiums by 1.5%.

– The top five players in both term assurance and whole of life accounted for over three quarters of the market in 2017. The dominance of a few key players indicates that startups will struggle to succeed without partnerships.

Reasons to Buy

– Understand the future of life insurance products and services that are vital to implement.

– This includes engaging in health and wellbeing, personalizing policies, providing customers with rewards and benefits, and improving underwriting and claims processes.

Legal & General
Aviva
Royal London
Vitality
Zurich
LV=
AIG Life
SunLife
Zurich life
Scottish Friendly
One Family

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.1. Term assurance fueled growth in the wider protection market

1.2. Key findings

1.3. Critical success factors

2. MARKET DYNAMICS

2.1. Introduction

2.2. The UK protection market experienced growth in 2018

2.2.1. The UK protection market continued its resurgence and saw another year of growth

2.2.2. Term assurance remains by far the most popular product

2.3. Growth in term products drives the performance of the total protection market

2.3.1. CI as a rider is most popular among mortgage-related term assurance customers

2.3.2. Continued growth in the mortgage lending market provides opportunities for term assurance providers

2.4. The two sides to the whole-of-life market

2.4.1. The whole-of-life market experienced growth in premiums and contracts in 2018

2.4.2. Inheritance tax influences the whole-of-life underwritten market

3. DISTRIBUTION

3.1. All distribution channels experienced growth in 2018

3.1.1. The restricted advice channel experienced the most growth for the year

3.1.2. Mortgage-related products remain a stronghold for banks

3.2. IFAs remain dominant in the distribution of term assurance

3.3. The distribution of whole-of-life products remains divided by policy type

3.3.1. The non-advised channel dominates the distribution of guaranteed acceptance policies

3.3.2. The complexity of underwritten whole-of-life policies makes them ideal for the IFA channel

4. COMPETITION

4.1. Product complexity restricts new entrants’ ability to gain market share

4.2. The life insurance market is dominated by a handful of providers

4.2.1. Legal & General dominated the individual term assurance market in 2017

4.2.2. SunLife remained the largest player in the whole-of-life market in 2017

4.3. Competitor profiles of chosen term and whole-of-life providers

4.3.1. Legal & General uses rewards to attract new customers

4.3.2. Aviva allows for direct purchasing of standard policies online

4.3.3. SunLife is a specialist in the over-50s market

4.3.4. Royal London has a strong position in both the term assurance and whole-of-life market

4.3.5. Vitality remains one of the most innovative providers in the market

5. THE MARKET GOING FORWARD

5.1. The life insurance market is forecast to grow over the coming years

5.1.1. The term assurance market will exhibit strong growth

5.1.2. The whole-of-life market is forecast to contract slightly over the next five years

5.2. Policyholders’ personal data will shape products going forward

5.2.1. Technological advances in the IoT will enable greater personalization

5.2.2. Technology could open the market up to those previously priced out

5.2.3. Policyholders must be kept in the loop with insightful data

5.2.4. Quotations have the potential to be disrupted by new technology

5.3. Innovation is occurring across different areas of life insurance

5.3.1. Royal London’s adoption of motor pricing software highlights that innovation can be found outside of life insurance

5.3.2. Aviva increases its support services for bereaved families

5.4. The direct channel will grow in importance

5.4.1. Customer purchasing behavior in other markets will force the industry to invest in the direct channel

5.5. Advancements in medical capabilities could alter risk assessment

6. APPENDIX

6.1. Abbreviations and acronyms

6.2. Definitions

6.3. Methodology

6.3.1. GlobalData’s 2018 UK Insurance Consumer Survey

6.3.2. GlobalData’s 2018 UK Life & Pensions Survey

6.3.3. Forecasting methodology

6.4. Secondary sources

6.5. Further reading

Table

List of Tables

Table 1: Total UK protection market, 2014–18

Table 2: Year-on-year change in new premiums and contracts by protection product type, 2014–18

Table 3: Year-on-year growth of contracts and premiums in the term assurance market, 2014–18

Table 4: Year-on-year growth of contracts and premiums in the whole-of-life market, 2014–18

Table 5: Annual growth rates of contracts and premiums across distribution channels, 2014–18

Table 6: Percentage of term assurance policyholders who are open to using an activity tracker

Figures

List of Figures

Figure 1: The UK protection market experienced growth in both premiums and contracts in 2018

Figure 2: Term assurance products continue to dominate the UK protection market

Figure 3: All forms of term assurance saw an increase in the number of new contracts in 2018

Figure 4: Consistent growth in mortgage lending provides the protection market with solid foundations to grow from

Figure 5: Guaranteed acceptance policies accounted for 90.4% of whole-of-life contracts in 2018

Figure 6: The independent advice channel accounted for over half of new premiums in 2018

Figure 7: The impact of the RDR slashed banks’ share of distribution

Figure 8: The non-advised channel is growing in the distribution of mortgage-related policies

Figure 9: The non-advised channel accounted for almost 90% of premiums in the guaranteed acceptance market in 2018

Figure 10: Legal & General held a commanding share of the term assurance market in 2017

Figure 11: SunLife accounted for four in 10 new policies in the whole-of-life market in 2017

Figure 12: The total life insurance market is forecast to grow from 2018 to 2024

Figure 13: Forecasting methodology

Frequently asked questions

UK Protection Insurance 2019: Term and Whole of Life standard reports
Currency USD
$3,450

Can be used by individual purchaser only

$10,350

Can be shared globally by unlimited users within the purchasing corporation e.g. all employees of a single company


Undecided about purchasing this report?

Enquire Before Buying Request a Free Sample

Get in touch to find out about multi-purchase discounts

reportstore@globaldata.com
Tel +44 20 7947 2745

Every customer’s requirement is unique. With over 220,000 construction projects tracked, we can create a tailored dataset for you based on the types of projects you are looking for. Please get in touch with your specific requirements and we can send you a quote.

Sample Report

UK Protection Insurance 2019: Term and Whole of Life was curated by the best experts in the industry and we are confident about its unique quality. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer free sample pages to help you:

  • Assess the relevance of the report
  • Evaluate the quality of the report
  • Justify the cost

Download your copy of the sample report and make an informed decision about whether the full report will provide you with the insights and information you need.

Below is a sample report to understand what you are buying

See what our customers are saying

“The GlobalData platform is our go-to tool for intelligence services. GlobalData provides an easy way to access comprehensive intelligence data around multiple sectors, which essentially makes it a one-for-all intelligence platform, for tendering and approaching customers.

GlobalData is very customer orientated, with a high degree of personalised services, which benefits everyday use. The highly detailed project intelligence and forecast reports can be utilised across multiple departments and workflow scopes, from operational to strategic level, and often support strategic decisions. GlobalData Analytics and visualisation solutions has contributed positively when preparing management presentations and strategic papers.”

Business Intelligence & Marketing Manager, SAL Heavy Lift

“COVID-19 has caused significant interference to our business and the COVID-19 intelligence from GlobalData has helped us reach better decisions around strategy. These two highlights have helped enormously to understand the projections into the future concerning our business units, we also utilise the project database to source new projects for Liebherr-Werk to use as an additional source to pitch for new business.”

Market Analyst & Management, Liebherr-Werk

Your daily news has saved me a lot of time and keeps me up-to-date with what is happening in the market, I like that you almost always have a link to the source origin. We also use your market data in our Strategic Business Process to support our business decisions. By having everything in one place on the Intelligence Center it has saved me a lot of time versus looking on different sources, the alert function also helps with this.

Head of Key Accounts, Saab AB

Having used several other market research companies, I find that GlobalData manages to provide that ‘difficult-to-get’ market data that others can’t, as well as very diverse and complete consumer surveys.

Marketing Intelligence Manager, Portugal Foods

Our experience with GlobalData has been very good, from the platform itself to the people. I find that the analysts and the account team have a high level of customer focus and responsiveness and therefore I can always rely on. The platform is more holistic than other providers. It is convenient and almost like a one stop shop. The pricing suite is highly competitive and value for our organisation.

I like reports that inform new segments such as the analysis on generation Z, millennials, the impact of COVID 19 to our banking customers and their new channel habits. Secondly the specialist insight on affluent sector significantly increases our understanding about this group of customers. The combination of those give us depth and breadth of the evolving market.

I’m in the business of answering and helping people make decisions so with the intelligence center I can do that, effectively and efficiently. I can share quickly key insights that answer and satisfy our country stakeholders by giving them many quality studies and primary research about competitive landscape beyond the outlook of our bank. It helps me be seen as an advisory partner and that makes a big difference. A big benefit of our subscription is that no one holds the whole data and because it allows so many people, so many different parts of our organisation have access, it enables all teams to have the same level of knowledge and decision support.

Head of Customer Insight and Research, Standard Chartered

“I know that I can always rely on Globaldata’s work when I’m searching for the right consumer and market insights. I use Globaldata insights to understand the changing market & consumer landscape and help create better taste & wellbeing solutions for our customers in food, beverage and healthcare industries.

Globaldata has the right data and the reports are of very high quality compared to your competitors. Globaldata not only has overall market sizes & consumer insights on food & beverages but also provides insights at the ingredient & flavour level. That is key for B2B companies like Givaudan. This way we understand our customers’ business and also gain insight to our unique industry”

Head of Consumer Sensory Insights, Givaudan

GlobalData provides a great range of information and reports on various sectors that is highly relevant, timely, easy to access and utilise.  The reports and data dashboards help engagement with clients; they provide valuable industry and market insights that can enrich client conversations and can help in the shaping of value propositions. Moreover, using GlobalData products has helped increase my knowledge of the finance sector, the players within it, and the general threats and opportunities.

I find the consumer surveys that are carried out to be extremely beneficial and not something I have seen anywhere else. They provided an insightful view of why and which consumers take (or don’t) particular financial products. This can help shape conversations with clients to ensure they make the right strategic decisions for their business.

One of the challenges I have found is that data in the payments space is often piecemeal. With GD all of the data I need is in one place, but it also comes with additional market reports that provide useful extra context and information. Having the ability to set-up alerts on relevant movements in the industry, be it competitors or customers, and have them emailed directly to me, ensures I get early sight of industry activity and don’t have to search for news.

Senior Account Manager, TSYS
Financial Services
New
Worldline - Competitor Profile
$350 | March 2024
Financial Services
New
Huawei Pay - Competitor Profile
$350 | April 2024
Go even deeper with GlobalData Intelligence Center

Every Company Report we produce is powered by the GlobalData Intelligence Center.

Subscribing to our intelligence platform means you can monitor developments at UK Protection Insurance 2019: Term and Whole of Life in real time.

  • Access a live UK Protection Insurance 2019: Term and Whole of Life dashboard for 12 months, with up-to-the-minute insights.
  • Fuel your decision making with real-time deal coverage and media activity.
  • Turn insights on financials, deals, products and pipelines into powerful agents of commercial advantage.