What you need to know
The over-50s guaranteed acceptance life insurance market experienced a surge in activity during 2018 with the value of new policies rising 19.5% compared to 2017. This was driven largely by a spike in advertising expenditure during the first half of the year prior to the implementation of new GDPR rules that affect the use of direct mail marketing. Although this boosted the sector over the short term, it’s expected to prove an anomaly and the value of new premiums will fall back into line with its 2017 trend in 2019.
The sector is having to face up to a changing market, not just with the advertising shift demanded by GDPR, but also in how it targets a changing and hugely diverse over-50s demographic. Gen-Xers are now entering their 50s with lower home ownership levels and greater demands on their time and finances. As this ‘sandwich’ generation ages it presents insurers targeting the over-50s market with opportunities and challenges.
Products covered in this Report
This Report examines the over-50s guaranteed acceptance life insurance market including the market size, factors impacting the market, competitive strategies of the key players and the attitudes of consumers.
Mintel’s exclusive consumer research measures ownership of life insurance among the over-50s age group and explores attitudes towards guaranteed acceptance policies. The Report also explores the appeal of various welcome gifts, exposure to advertising channels, sources of information used for research and attitudes towards over-50s life insurance policies.
For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has used the following definitions:
Over-50s guaranteed acceptance insurance is a long-term policy, typically paid for on a monthly basis, which will pay a cash lump sum when the policyholder dies. These policies are not underwritten and do not require the customer to divulge information about their medical history.
These policies can have a ‘funeral benefit’ option where the policy pays out directly to a funeral provider, usually with an additional amount added by the selected funeral provider. However, this differs from a prepaid funeral plan (see below) in that the payout is not guaranteed to cover the whole cost of the funeral.
Prepaid funeral plans have been created to ensure that funeral costs are covered when a person passes away. These plans have a set monthly premium that once paid will cover the costs of a funeral, regardless of inflation or price increases.
