Data published by the Life Insurance Association (LIA) Singapore on Tuesday found that for the three months to the end of December 2016, total new business sales rose 15% year on year to S$955.3m (£526m, $671m, €631m).
This was largely due to the rise in sales of annual premium products.
New sales of annual premium products, including whole life policies, also soared by 20% year on year to S$661.1m.
Meanwhile, new sales of single premium products went up by 4% to S$294.2m, spurred by stronger performances of linked and non-linked plans.
Sales of linked plans rose 10% to S$67.3m while sales of non-linked plans improved by 3% to S$226.9m.
Correspondingly, total new business sales for the full year rose 10% to S$3.29bn, due to a 10% rise in sales of annual premium plans – the bulk of the total new sales – to S$2.26bn.
On the single premium side, new sales for the year climbed 9%, mainly due to the 15% rise in non-linked plans, which was partly offset by the 7% fall in linked policies’ sales.
Data from LIA also showed that banks continued to be the main channel of distribution by total premiums at 38% in 2016, with tied agents accounting for 37% and financial advisers continued on its upward trend at 21%.
The remaining 4% came from other products that are sold without intermediaries, such as direct purchase insurance and ElderShield.
