Royal London grew its UK protection new business by 23% in the first half of 2021 as sales rose to £21m from £17m in the same period last year.
According to the mutual’s interim results for the January to June, overall protection premium income also rose by 16% to £676m from £581m.
Its Ireland protection operation also saw growth with new sales rising to £6m from £5m and all premium income hitting £88m – up 40% from £63m in January to June 2020.
In contrast, Royal London’s individual and workplace pensions businesses have yet to fully recover from the pandemic with new sales down by 19% and 17% respectively.
This dragged down the mutual’s total new sales by 13% to £81m from £93m in H1 2020.
Demand for IP and business insurance
Discussing the market conditions, Royal London highlighted income protection and business protection and areas of growth.
“Through our continued focus on customer service and proposition enhancements we have met the increasing customer demand for protection products,” it said.
“We have observed renewed growth in the specialist markets of business protection and income protection following the easing of lockdown restrictions.”
And in Ireland it noted there was strong demand for term assurance and mortgage protection.
Hybrid working coming
Overall group statutory profit before tax for the six months ended 30 June 2021 was £228m, reversing the loss of £181m for the first six months of 2020.
And the mutual confirmed it will implement a hybrid working approach, with most colleagues splitting their time between the office and home when it is able to.
“Enabled by our robust capital position and long-term approach to decision making, we will work in partnership with financial advisers to deliver better outcomes to customers, supporting the growing need for high quality, technology-enabled solutions to help improve efficiency in adviser businesses,” it said.
“We will continue to be there for the increasing number of customers looking for protection products and expect to see continued growth in both UK and Irish markets.
“We anticipate growth in our pensions sales as economic recovery builds employer and customer confidence.”