I was a bit surprised when I checked out industry data from the Insurance Information Institute earlier this year that had pegged industry earnings for 2010, because for the first time that I can remember, life insurance became the smallest sector in this business. Annuities came in with nearly half of total industry revenue, health insurance came in at just over a quarter, and life insurance picked up the rest, as just under a quarter.
Many insurance industry executives are still expecting the economy to improve.
Analysts in the New York office of KPMG L.L.P., New York, have reported that finding in a summary of results from a survey of 100 high-level U.S. insurance company executives that was conducted in June.
Towers Watson's Life Insurance CFO Survey program provides ongoing research on issues of importance to the life insurance industry in North America. The 28th survey in our series, and first in 2011, focused on issues related to regulatory and financial reporting, specifically changes in IFRS and the implementation of U.S. principle-based approaches to determining reserves and capital. We also explored CFOs' expectations for first quarter 2011 results. The web-based survey was conducted in March and April of 2011.
When examining the consequences of the financial crisis on the insurance industry it is important to differentiate between direct and indirect effects on one hand and short- and medium-term ramifications on the other.
