More Canadians buying individual life insurance

By Staff | September 27, 2017 | Last updated on September 27, 2017
1 min read

Canadians are choosing individual life insurance over group insurance.

Read: When should young people buy life insurance?

As of 2016, individual life insurance accounted for 60% of all life insurance purchased, up from 54% in 2006, reveals an annual report from the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. The growth is mostly driven by individual term life insurance.

Further, the average life insurance protection owned by Canadians surpassed $400,000 per insured household in 2016. That represents about five times household income, and is up from $388,000 in 2015.

Total premium revenue in Canada rose to $106 billion in 2016. This includes revenues of $8.4 billion from foreign branches operation in Canada.

Year-over-year revenue growth was led by life insurance, up 9.8%, followed by health insurance, up 2.3%. Annuities, including segregated funds, were down 0.8%.

The industry is one of Canada’s most important sources of long-term capital, says the report, with total assets in the country growing to more than $810 billion in 2016, including $40 billion in infrastructure investments.

Of the industry’s long-term investments of more than $740 billion, 38% is invested in bonds, 30% in mutual funds and 17% in stocks. The remainder is in other investments, including mortgage loans and real estate.

Read the full insurance report.

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Advisor.ca staff

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.