TAL remains the leader in the direct life insurance individual lump sum market, with inforce premium of $307.6 million last year, according to a new Plan For Life report.

Next is CommInsure, with inforce premium of $232.64 million.

In the direct income protection segment, OnePath wrote $22.41 million of inforce premium last year, followed by TAL with $22.34 million.

The report says term life, total and permanent disability and trauma business continued to dominate sales in the direct market, accounting for 51% in the year.

Direct life lump sum sales have declined 5% during the past three years.

About 47.9% of the segment’s sales were through telephone channels last year, down from 55.7% in 2014.

Online channel sales also decreased, to 29.5% last year from 32.9% in 2014.

Mail-out and in-branch sales increased to 22.6% from 11.4%.

Sales of income protection products, while a small part of the overall direct market, grew 24% last year.

The Direct Life Insurance Report examined 19 life insurers offering 196 products.