PANDEMIC PROMPTS HIGHEST RISE IN US LIFE INSURANCE PAYOUTS SINCE 1918 SPANISH FLU

Thu 09 December 2021:

According to research released on Thursday by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), the amount of life insurance payouts in the United States reached a single-year high in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a year-to-year increase reaching its highest level since the 1918 influenza pandemic.

“Life insurance companies paid more than $90 billion to beneficiaries of life insurance policies in 2020, the highest ever in any single year,” the research said. “It also represents a 15.4 percent increase in payments over 2019, which is the largest year-to-year increase since the 1918 Influenza Epidemic.”

In total, Americans have purchased over 43 million life insurance policies with total coverage of $20.

4 trillion in 2020, the report noted.

Group life insurance policies, which are usually sold through employers, had a 19 percent increase in sales from 2019 to 2020, while individual coverage climbed by roughly 3%, according to the report.

“Industry assets in 2020 totaled $8.2 trillion, a jump from $7.6 trillion – a 7.7 percent increase,” the report said.

According to the ACLI, almost 90 million American families rely on life insurance for financial security. According to the council’s website, its 280 member companies account for 95 percent of industry assets in the United States.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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