More South Africans Buying Life Insurance

March 10 - More South Africans purchased life insurance products in 2010 than 2009, according to the Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA).

The Chief Executive Officer of the group, Peter Dempsey, said that South African life insurance groups attracted R66.4 billion in new premiums last year.

This was in comparison to the R62 billion reported in 2009.

"The life industry managed to grow new individual and group business by an inflation beating percentage last year," he said.

"Considering that the operating environment remained challenging in 2010 with more than one million jobs lost, these are solid results achieved under tough operating conditions."

In addition, South African life insurance policy holders also maintained and increased their recurring premiums.

All in all, total recurring premiums increased by 9% in 2010, showing a rise from R66.8 billion to R72.8 billion.

Other information released by Dempsey was as follows:

• New compulsory annuity single premiums decreased from R5 billion in 2009 to R4.7 billion (7%) in 2010.
• Total assets for the life insurance industry increased by 13% to R1.3 trillion.
• Retirement annuity funds had a good year.

ASISA believes that the life insurance industry is stable and in good health.