Term assurance

Term assurance was lauded as the success story of 2003. While both income protection and critical illness (CI) sales fell, term assurance surged ahead improving on the remarkable growth in 2002. Yet as advisers and providers were congratulating themselves, signs were beginning to emerge that the market was on the verge of a downturn. According to Swiss Re's Term and Health Watch 2004, 2003 saw sales increase by just 85,000 policies on the previous twelve months, the lowest level of growth in the last five years. To put this figure in context, 2002 saw an extra half a million new policies...