Variable life insurance sales with single premiums included at 10% for the 40 companies reporting in the VALUE survey for the 4th quarter of 2006 were $660 million, a 16.7% increase from 3rd quarter 2006 sales of $566 million, exhibiting the typical seasonality trends of life insurance sales.
This is a 3.2% decrease from 4th quarter 2005 sales, which were $682 million.
Full-year 2006 sales at $2.403 billion were 2.6% lower than full-year 2005 sales of $2.467 billion.
(Sales include first-year annualized premium, drop-in premiums and 10% of single premiums.)
The market estimate for 2006 with single premiums included at 10% is $2.585 billion, down from $2.7 billion the previous year.
Variable life sales with single premiums included at 100% for the 40 companies in the VALUE survey for the 4th quarter of 2006 were $675 million, a 17.8% increase from 3rd quarter 2006, which had sales of $573 million, and a 2.3% decrease from 4th quarter 2005 sales, which were $691 million.
Full-year 2006 sales with single premiums included at 100% were $2.445 billion, off from $2.508 billion in 2005.
The market estimate for the full-year 2006 with single premiums included at 100% is $2.67 billion, down from $2.765 billion the year before.
For 2006, the top 5 companies/fleets–IDS, Hartford Life, John Hancock, Pacific Life and Lincoln National–captured 49% of all variable life sales (including single premiums at 10%), while the top 10 companies/fleets garnered 74% of VL sales.
For the 4th quarter of 2006, Lincoln National ranked among the top 5 companies, displacing Met Life, which now ranks 6th.
For the companies in the survey, the number of flexible-premium contracts issued during 2006 decreased 16% from the number issued during 2005. The average face amount increased 3% to $378,018.
