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T he strength of the Canadian life and health insurance industry continued through 2013, despite the climate of slow growth and prolonged low interest rates. The industry built on its past solid performance with continued asset growth and sustained record high premiums during 2013. Industry assets in Canada rose 3.9 per cent during 2013 to $646.6 billion. Accounting for almost two-thirds of the total, general fund assets declined 1.9 per cent to $399.7 billion. Meanwhile, segregated fund assets rose 14.8 per cent to almost $246.9 billion, buoyed by the strengthening equity markets. In addition, total premiums and premium equivalents (all lines of business) rose 4 per cent to $92.2 billion. Canadians focused on protection products generating life insurance premiums of $17.2 billion (up 4.1 per cent), and health and disability insurance premiums of $37.6 billion (up 4.5 per cent). At the same time, annuity premiums showed a healthy growth of 3.5 per cent to almost $37.4 billion for wealth management and asset accumulation products for retirement. 4 Part 2 Life Insurance Purchases ❖ During 2013, Canadians purchased: Individual life insurance $222.1 billion Group life insurance 119.3 billion Total life insurance $341.4 billion ❖ About 718,000 individual policies were purchased during the year. ❖ Average size of new individual policies was $309,400. (Reference page 8) Annuities ❖ During 2013, Canadians paid premiums for: Individual annuities $12.7 billion Group annuities 24.6 billion Total annuities $37.3 billion ❖ RRSPs (individual and group) accounted for 36 per cent of total annuity premiums and 35 per cent of total annuity assets. ❖ Canadians owned 3.2 million individual annuity contracts at the end of the year. Health Insurance Coverage ❖ Supplementary health and disability income insurance plans protect Canadians against financial loss due to unexpected illnesses or accidents. ❖ At the end of 2013, insured plans 1 provided 11 million people with disability income protection, 26 million people with extended health care 2 coverage and 15.4 million people with reimbursement of dental care 2 expenses. ❖ Uninsured plans 1 provided 926,000 people with disability income protection, 10.4 million people with extended health care 2 coverage and 9.8 million people with reimbursement of dental care 2 expenses. 1 Including provincial Blue Cross organizations and other not-for-profit health care benefit providers 2 Data include some double counting when families are covered under separate plans for each spouse or when insured benefits are provided in conjunction with supplementary protection under an uninsured contract. In total, almost 24 million Canadians have supplementary health benefit coverage through private plans (Reference page 12) (Reference page 10) Life Insurance Ownership ❖ By year-end 2013, Canadians owned: Individual life insurance $2,370 billion Group life insurance 1,690 billion Total life insurance $4,060 billion ❖ More than 21 million Canadians own life insurance for the future financial security of their families. ❖ Average amounts owned were $189,600 for insured individuals and $373,400 for insured households. (Reference page 6) Key Statistics