Private research has backed up the bullish official results for the life insurance market, with actuaries Plan For Life saying Australians are increasingly investing in personal insurance cover.

It says the value of the life insurance market grew last year to $5.7 billion. It says ING Life is leading the boom, nearly doubling the market average for inflows with 21.7% growth.

AIG Life (20.5% growth), CommInsure (20.1%) and Aviva (16.2%) were other strong performers.

New premiums jumped 15.8% on average, and ING was again the leading performer with a 72.6% increase. St Andrew’s and CommInsure increased their new-premium books by more than half. BT/Westpac (19.2%) and National Australia/MLC (18.7%) also lodged strong growth.

Inflows into the individual lump-sum market, comprised of term life, total/permanent disability and trauma insurance, rose 13% in 2006, headlined by ING (24.2%), Aviva (14.6%) and Zurich (12.8%).

In the individual insurance income sector – income protection, sickness/accident cover and business expenses – premium sales were up 9.9% on 2005, with sales matching pace at 9.8%.

Plan For Life says the group risk market had a 14.2% jump in premium inflows, with sales rising 8.6%.