Aviva reported a 5% increase in health and protection sales in Q1 2024 when compared to the corresponding period of last year.
The insurer’s trading update for the first quarter of the year, released this morning, showed protection and health sales grew to £106m from £102m in the first quarter of 2023.
Across group protection, sales increased 15% to £38m from £33m in Q1 2023 which Aviva said reflected strong new scheme wins.
Individual protection sales grew more marginally – to £37m from £36m in the first quarter of last year.
Aviva also noted continued momentum in its health business which reported double-digit growth in in-force premiums on the previous year.
But sales were 6% lower at £31m from £33m in Q1 2023, which the insurers said was expected, as a result of a strong prior year performance in corporate business following the exit of another provider from the market.
Value of new business (VNB) was also 7% lower at £56m amid high interest rates across the UK.
Aviva also pointed to the first quarter completion of the acquisition of AIG’s UK protection business for £453m on 9 April, which it said was “accelerating growth in the attractive UK protection market”.
It added the deal will broaden distribution, with over 2.5m customers across individual and group protection, and deliver capital and expense synergies.
Excellent set of results
Doug Brown, CEO Insurance, wealth and retirement at Aviva, said: “This is another excellent set of results in our insurance, wealth and retirement business, with strong performance across each area in the first three months of the year.
“In our insurance arm, we recorded double-digit growth in health in-force premiums and have increased protection sales, with a particularly strong performance winning new corporate clients.
“In April we completed the acquisition of AIG’s UK protection business, which will accelerate growth in an attractive market and broaden our distribution.
“Our wealth business saw strong growth in net flows.
“In Workplace we won 136 new schemes and higher wages fed through into increased pension contributions. We also saw excellent performance in our platform business, where flows were up and we had a record quarter of inflows to our adviser platform.
“Retirement sales increased, driven by continued momentum in BPA and sustained demand for individual annuities, while equity release sales were impacted by market contraction.
“We continue to benefit from the diversified nature of our Insurance, wealth and retirement business and I am delighted that we can serve our customers across such a wide range of their financial needs.”