How many potential life insurance buyers are there in your city?
It's relatively simple to determine the number of prospects who should be in the market for life insurance given their age, income and family responsibilities. However, the decades-long trend of lower life insurance ownership due to demographic and structural issues has been a persistent challenge. Determining the number of life insurance buyers in a given market this year requires predictive analytics.
We asked Information Asset Partners (IAP), a firm specializing in predictive analytic data for the insurance and investment industries, to provide a look at the foundations for 2017's life insurance market at the city level, both the biggest and the fastest growing cities. IAP uses recent product buying data for permanent and term life insurance across all manufacturers and distributors to develop bottom-up predictive analytics that enable marketers to assess market potential and growth, target prospects online and offline, and score inbound leads.
U.S. life insurance market potential growth — a prospective, forward-looking measure for a product or need that has an analytical basis — stands at -9.2 percent: the number of households that analytically "look like" those that bought or upgraded policies, or intend to do so soon, declined from 13.2 million to 12 million from 2012-2015.
"While there have been some recent favorable indications in the market this year, such as application volume, this contraction is an indication that the industry mined deeper into its productive segments rather than reaching a broader market," said Bill Poll of IAP. "Market potential growth would mean that more households 'look like' those that recently bought policies."
IAP's ranking incorporates several data points including:
Continue reading to see market potential rankings and key dynamics for the 10 largest life insurance markets.
The capitol building in Austin, Texas, a city that jumped six places in IAP's life insurance ranking. (Photo: iStock)
10. Austin, Texas
2014-15 life insurance market rank: 10
2012-13 life insurance market rank: 16
Change: 11.1 percent
Digital insurance buying index: 180
Digital investment/retirement buying index: 140
Hot ZIP code: 78660
Downtown San Diego Gaslamp District. San Deigo moved up one spot on IAP's ranking. (Photo: iStock)
9. San Diego
2014-15 life insurance market rank: 9
2012-13 life insurance market rank: 10
Change: -0.9 percent
Digital insurance buying index: 181
Digital investment/retirement buying index: 211
Hot ZIP code: 92126
Phoenix, shown here, remained in the 8th spot in IAP's ranking. (Photo: iStock)
8. Phoenix
2014-15 life insurance market rank: 8
2012-13 life insurance market rank: 8
Change: -2.05 percent
Digital insurance buying index: 116
Digital investment/retirement buying index: 95
Hot ZIP code: 85032
The San Antonio Riverwalk is a popular attraction in the city ranked 7th on IAP's life insurance list. (Photo: iStock)
7. San Antonio
2014-15 life insurance market rank: 7
2012-13 life insurance market rank: 6
Change: -6.28 percent
Digital insurance buying index: 83
Digital investment/retirement buying index: 80
Hot ZIP code: 78233
Dallas is one of four Texas cities in IAP's top 10 life insurance markets. (Photo: iStock)
6. Dallas
2014-15 life insurance market rank: 6
2012-13 life insurance market rank: 7
Change: -0.48 percent
Digital insurance buying index: 153
Digital investment/retirement buying index: 119
Philadelphia maintained its 5th-place spot on IAP's ranking of life insurance markets. (Photo: iStock)
Chicago's famous Bean sculpture is a popular attraction in the city that rank's 4th on IAP's list. (Photo: iStock)
Los Angeles maintained its third-place spot on IAP's ranking. (Photo: iStock)
Houston ranks second on IAP's list of largest life insurance markets. (Photo: iStock)
It may come as little surprise that country's most populous city, New York, also is the life insurance industry's largest market, as ranked by IAP. (Photo: iStock)
