Life Insurance Carriers
Industry Profile Report
Dive Deep into the industry with a 25+ page industry report (pdf format) including the following chapters
Industry Overview Current Conditions, Industry Structure, How Firms Operate, Industry Trends, Credit Underwriting & Risks, and Industry Forecast.
Call Preparation Call Prep Questions, Industry Terms, and Weblinks.
Financial Insights Working Capital, Capital Financing, Business Valuation, and Financial Benchmarks.
Industry Profile Excerpts
Industry Overview
The 900 life insurance carriers underwrite annuities and policies for life insurance, disability income, and accidental death and dismemberment. Life insurance policies pay money to beneficiaries when a policyholder dies in exchange for a premium payment or series of payments. Annuities are financial contracts with insurers that provide a series of income payments at regular intervals in exchange for premiums. When assessing risk, underwriters consider a range of factors, including an applicant’s age, gender, medical history, financial profile, foreign travel, vocations, and alcohol, drug, and tobacco use. Life insurance companies invest a portion of premiums in assets with features that align with the characteristics of the policies they sell.
Investment Risk
Because life insurance companies invest premiums to ensure they have sufficient funds to satisfy future claims on and withdrawals from policies, firms are exposed to financial risk.
Market Maturity
The US life insurance market is mature and characterized by low growth.
Industry size & Structure
The average life insurance company employs between 300 and 400 workers and generates just over $630 million annually.
- The life insurance industry consists of about 900 firms that employ over 320,000 workers and generate over $560 billion annually.
- Companies that generate more than $100 million annually account for 20.7% of firms and 99.3% of industry sales.
- The industry is highly concentrated; the top 50 companies account for more than 90% of industry revenue.
- About 14% of life insurance companies operating in the US are foreign owned, according to the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI).
- Large companies include MetLife, Prudential Financial, New York Life Insurance, and The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company.
Industry Forecast
Life Insurance Carriers Industry Growth
Recent Developments
Feb 6, 2025 - Offshore Reinsurance Deals Draw New Scrutiny
- The life insurance industry’s growing practice of partnering with offshore reinsurance companies to mitigate their financial exposure is increasingly becoming a headache for regulators and credit rating agencies, according to a new report from Moody’s. Amid a flurry of M&A activity in the industry, life insurance and annuity companies are increasingly selling a portion of their portfolios to reinsurance companies in tax havens like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. Offshoring to the reinsurance market lets insurers cut operational expenses, take advantage of tax breaks, and share the policy risk. Moody’s states that the practice creates transparency problems for both credit agencies and US regulators. Life insurance credit ratings became a hot topic in 2024 after Atlantic Coast Life and Sentinel Security Life successfully sued credit agency AM Best after it lowered their ratings. The case spurred fears that credit agencies might not downgrade insurance companies if they fear lawsuits will follow.
- Life insurance new premium collected increased 6% year over year to $3.9 billion during the third quarter of 2024, according to LIMRA’s retail individual life insurance sales survey. The number of policies sold in the third quarter was unchanged. New premium collected topped $11.6 billion during the first nine months of 2024, up 1% over the prior year’s results. Policy count was flat during the first nine months of 2024.
- Generation Z members and Millennials represent the largest opportunity for the life insurance industry, according to the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association. More than 54 million younger adults say they live with a life insurance coverage gap. Consumer awareness about the risk of an untimely death and the importance of having life insurance has remained elevated since the coronavirus pandemic.
- Life insurance carrier industry employment, as well as average wages for nonsupervisory employees, stayed relatively flat throughout 2024, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Life insurance industry sales are forecast to grow at a 6.52% compounded annual rate from 2024 to 2028, faster than the growth of the overall economy, according to Inforum and the Interindustry Economic Research Fund.
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