Life insurance inforce annual premiums sales were up 9.61% to $9 billion for the 12 months ending March, according to research house Dexx&R.

Life and trauma sales for the year were up 8.96% to $4.4 billion while group life insurance sales were up 10.53% to $2.9 billion.

Leading the total life insurance annual premium inflows was Tower with 27.7% growth, followed by AIA with sales up 17.4%.

MLC is still the dominant player in the total annual inforce premium market with a 15.9% share, down from 16.29% in March 2010. It is followed by Tower with 13.3%, up from 11.49%. 

OnePath led individual life and trauma inforce premiums for the year ending March with 13.21% growth, followed by Tower with 10.5%.

In the group life insurance annual premiums sector, Tower reported 53.2% growth followed by AIA with 17%.

AIA is still the major player in this sector with a 21.6% market share, but Tower is now catching up having seen its share grow from 14.6% in March 2010 to 20.33% this year.

New annual premiums totals were up 4.8% to $1.9 billion for the 12 months ending March this year.

In life and trauma, Tower again continued its aggressive push for market share with 18% growth, achieved at the expense of MLC, which suffered an18.26% drop in sales during the year.

AIA continued to grow in the group life insurance new annual premiums sector, up 74%, but again Tower was in second place with 33.5% growth.