The total life insurance market grew by 10% during the 2011 financial year, according to the latest figures from Plan For Life.

It says total premium inflows grew from $8.9 billion to $9.8 billion during the 12 months ending June 30.

The big winners were TAL Group (formerly Tower Australia) with total premium inflows up 19.2% followed by Zurich (15.6%) and AIA (14.1%).

Plan For Life Director Simon Solomon says the life and total and permanent disability (TPD) market inflows grew by 9.1% during the year to $4.76 billion.

“All of the leading companies reported increased inflows, with AIA up 20.1%, Zurich 12.1%, Suncorp 11.1%, Westpac 10.9%, CommInsure10.5% and TAL 10.3% the best performers in percentage terms,” he said.

New sales saw Suncorp lead the market with a 20.9% increase followed by AMP (16.6%) and AIA (12.9%). The big loser was MLC, down 10.2%. 

Total new life and TPD sales for the year were $1.2 billion, up 5.9% on 2010’s total of $1.1 billion.

Income protection premium inflows for the 2011 financial year were $1.8 billion, up 12.3% on the previous year, with Westpac reporting 25% growth followed by AIA (18.8%) and Zurich (10.8%).

New business sales were up 18.7% to $433 million, with OnePath leading annual growth at 30%, followed by AIA (27.5%) and TAL (23%). Again MLC suffered a drop in new business, down 21.5% for the year.

In the group life insurance market, inflows were up 10.2% for 2010/11 to $3.2 billion while new business inflows dropped 0.4% to $678 million.

TAL continues to grow its market share in this sector, reporting 30% growth in inflows for the last financial year. Metlife reported a 21% fall during the same period.

But TAL’s growth in new business in recent years suffered a setback in 2010/11, with new sales down 30%.

Zurich was the star performer in new group life insurance sales, up 134.7%, with AMP also reporting a good year, up 78.7%.