Policyholders’ satisfaction with life insurance fell to 67.4% last year from 68.8% in 2015, according to a new Roy Morgan single source survey.

This is the lowest satisfaction level among all other major insurance types. The study questioned more than 9000 life insurance policyholders last year.

Consumers who bought in person from a life insurer have a much higher level of satisfaction (76.4%) than those purchasing direct online (74.9%) or by phone (71.9%).

Those who bought from a bank record a satisfaction level of 67.8%, followed by those buying from a financial adviser (64.6%) and group life policyholders (64.1%).

By insurer, Allianz leads on 75.7%, followed by Insuranceline (75.2%) and Asteron (74.4%).

OnePath is bottom among the 13 largest life insurers with 64.2%, behind TAL (64.4%) and AMP (66.6%).

Only four of the top 13 life insurers showed an improvement compared with 2015: Asteron (up 5.6%), AIA Australia (2.6%), Westpac (2.4%) and MLC (0.1%).

Roy Morgan Research Industry Communications Director Norman Morris says recent negative publicity is having an impact.

“It is not surprising that satisfaction with life insurance has decreased during the past year and remains lower than the other major types of insurance,” he said.

“In addition to the problem of low overall satisfaction for life insurance, it is important to note that fewer than one in four (23.9%) customers are ‘very satisfied’.

“Not only does this compare unfavourably with the much-maligned big four banks (32.4%), but it is this measure that has the greatest impact on renewing policies and improving advocacy.”