Sales of new individual protection insurance policies climbed 3.6% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2025, according to reinsurer Gen Re.
It found 531,419 policies were sold over the quarter up 3.6% from 512,812 in Q1 2024, but this was still below the 551,618 sold in the first three months of 2023.
The value of policies sold rose 4.6% from £196m in the corresponding quarter of 2024 to £205m – on par with the 2023 figure of £206m.
This growth was noted across almost all market segments, with term assurance (up 7%), critical illness (up 4%) and income protection (up 3%) and underwritten whole of life (up 18%) all indicating sales increases when compared with Q1 2024.
The one exception was guaranteed whole of life which was down 16% on the previous year.
In terms of product market split, term assurance accounted for 45% of sales, followed by accelerated CI (26%), income protection (12%), guaranteed and underwritten whole of life (both 6%) and standalone CI (5%).
Overall 2,015,559 individual protection policies were sold last year, 2,492 or 0.1% more than the 2,013,067 completed in 2023.
