Growth in life insurance inflows have flatlined over the past year, increasing by only 0.8% over the whole industry, according to Plan For Life research.

MetLife and ClearView were the standouts, increasing their inflows by 23.8% and 12.4% respectively. AIA (6.1%), TAL (3.3%) and Zurich (1.3%) also increased their inflows. However, CommInsure and AMP went backwards, with inflows dropping by 11.1% and 10.6% respectively.

Total reported premium sales dropped by 24%. Group risk was hit hard, with sales almost halving between last year and this year. BT/Westpac sales were down 62.5%, AIA was down by 51.5%, CommInsure dropped by 32.7%, and AMP and TAL fell by 25% and 20.4% respectively.

MetLife was the only outlier. A recovery in group risk saw its sales jump by 173%. Zurich also increased sales by 4.1% over the last 12 months.

All the insurers have maintained their market share positions, with TAL (23.4%), AIA (16.3%) and Zurich (14.3%) coming first, second and third, followed by MLC Life, AMP Group, and Westpac.

Individual risk lump sum growth also went backwards, dropping 1.7%, while individual risk income grew by just 0.9%.