In the first half of 2012, the life insurance industry was managing assets around $124.4 billion, up by 3 per cent compared with a year ago. Assets of non-linked business accounted for $101.4 billion, while the remaining $23.0 billion were assets held for investment-linked policies, according to the Life Insurance Association of Singapore.

"Overall, we have seen consistent growth since the start of 2012. We naturally take a restrained view in our target estimates for the next quarter in light of the forces of the economic climate," Tan Hak Leh, president of the association, said in a statement on the organisation’s website.

There is, some industry figures say, considerable growth potential from insurance-linked wealth products. The consultancy, Scorpio Partnership has warned that the insurance-based wealth management market is missing untapped potential. It estimated that less than 5 per cent of all wealth management portfolios in emerging markets included an insurance component. If that share rose to 15 per cent in five years, this would create a market of almost $1.2 trillion.

Tied agents

Tied agents continued to be the main channel of distribution for new business. By policy count and weighted premiums, tied agents contributed 58 per cent and 44 per cent of the business respectively, the association said.

The bank channel accounted for 37 per cent of weighted premium sales, up by two percentage points from the same period the previous year. It accounted for 16 per cent of the total number of policies sold.

Financial advisors contributed 15 per cent of sales while other channels, including direct sales, made up the remaining 4 per cent.  By policy count, advisors accounted for 10 per cent of the business and the other channels took up the remaining 16 per cent.