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Gen Re is pleased to share this summary of key highlights from our latest U.S. Critical Illness and Accident Insurance Market Survey. This annual survey covers the Critical Illness (CI) industry, tracking sales and in‑force results for Traditional Individual, Group/Worksite Attained Age and Group/Worksite Issue Age products, as well as Accident Insurance, and is made available to participating companies.
Providing insight into the state of the market, this survey represents 31 companies that are actively marketing a CI product or have in‑force business, not including non-marketers. Twenty-eight companies completed the section on Accident Insurance.
Throughout the report, some comparisons have been made to prior years’ results. Caution should be used in interpreting these comparisons, as the companies participating vary from year to year.
Of the 31 participating companies, 15 offer one CI product, 14 offer two products and the remaining offer three products. The majority (24 or 77%) offer a Group/Worksite (G/W) product, with 12 companies offering both Attained Age and Issue Age CI.
In total, the results represent 60 products currently being marketed. While nine companies plan to make changes to their current G/W offering, only one plans to modify their Traditional Individual product. Four companies offer Traditional Individual products on both a standalone and a rider basis. For G/W Attained Age, two of the companies offer both and for Issue Age, three companies offer both.
|
|
Percentage of Companies |
|---|---|
|
Traditional Individual |
48% |
|
Group/Worksite |
77% |
|
– Attained Age |
61% |
|
– Issue Age |
55% |
When asked how overall sales results compared to goals for 2022, 74% reported exceeding or meeting their sales targets.
For those companies that missed their goals, the ability to attract agents interested in selling CI was cited as having the greatest impact on results. Other negative impacts were attributed to inflation and product delays. Increased awareness and interest in CI due to the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to more positive results for those companies that exceeded their targets.
The issue age for new business averaged 43 years for all three products combined. Traditional Individual averaged the highest issue age at 49 years, compared to 40 years for both G/W Attained Age and 41 years for Issue Age.
|
|
All Products Combined |
Traditional Individual |
G/W Attained Age |
G/W Issue Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Average Issue Age |
43 |
49 |
40 |
41 |
When comparing only those companies that provided product data for both survey years and taking into account any adjustments made to the 2021 data, the CI industry as a whole continued to exhibit positive growth in 2022.
|
|
New Sales |
In-force |
|---|---|---|
|
Premium |
21% |
15% |
|
Policies/Certificates |
5% |
16% |
|
Benefit Amount |
14% |
16% |
For 2022, participants reported selling 2.7 million new policies/certificates and roughly $684.5 million in new sales premium. In terms of new sales premium, G/W Attained Age represents the largest segment, with $421 million of new sales premium, or 62% of the total.
Participating carriers reported a combined total of 6.3 million policies/certificates with $1.8 billion of in‑force premium in 2022. Based on in‑force premium, G/W Attained Age business accounted for 57% of the total, with $1 billion in premium.
Eighty-one percent of companies underwrite their CI products in-house exclusively. One company outsources its underwriting to an external vendor.
Seventy-one percent of companies indicate technology deficiencies are one of their top three challenges to underwriting (U/W) CI products. About one-third of companies mentioned getting necessary medical/physician support (35%), maintaining underwriting manual (29%), and insufficient resources (29%).
Companies were asked to describe their claim incidence for 2022 and since inception. Regardless of timing, nearly 70% said the number of claims was less than expected, while none said the number was greater than expected.
For those companies whose claims experience deviated from expectations, the most common changes implemented were reducing the rates and adding new benefits.
The average age of a claimant at time of claim was 62 years for Traditional Individual, compared to 52 years for both G/W Attained Age, and 51 years for G/W Issue Age.
|
|
Average |
|---|---|
|
Traditional Individual |
62 |
|
G/W Attained Age |
52 |
|
G/W Issue Age |
51 |
On a combined basis, the three major diagnosis categories represent 87% of the claims submitted for Traditional Individual, 71% for G/W Attained Age, and 78% for G/W Issue Age.
Twenty-eight companies provided results for their Accident insurance product. For 2022, participating companies reported over 2.9 million new Accident policies and $500 million in new sales premium. For in‑force business, roughly 8.2 million policies and $1.7 billion in premium was reported.
Taking into account any adjustments made to 2021 data, new sales premium and policies increased by 11% and 16%, respectively for those companies providing data for both survey years. In‑force premium and policies both continued to exhibit positive growth in 2022.
|
|
New Sales |
In-force |
|---|---|---|
|
Premium |
11% |
7% |
|
Policies |
16% |
11% |
For companies tracking this data, issue age for new business averaged 42 years for 2022 and ranged from 33 to 55 years.
Sixty-eight percent of companies offer worksite Accident only, while 18% offer both worksite and individual plans.
Over two-thirds of companies (69%) require Group/Worksite Accident insurance policyholders to be actively at work. Fifty percent of companies require a minimum number of lives and require a minimum percentage of participation. A higher percentage of companies reported occupation (44%) and medical questions (22%) as underwriting requirements for Individual policies. Other requirements noted included census data, type of industry for Group/Worksite products, and employer name for Individual products.
On average, it takes 12 business days for companies to process an Accident claim, with the time ranging from two to 62 days. Sixty-four percent of companies take 10 or fewer business days to process a claim.
If you have any questions about our summary report, please reach out to me!
Download the PDF version for a list of participating companies and more information about the survey questionnaires.
