A.M. Best Special Report: Despite Global Woes, Stability of Canadian Life Industry Continues.OLDWICK, N.J. -- The Canadian life insurance market has been able to maintain stable trends in recent years. The industry is in for a bumpy bump·y adj. bump·i·er, bump·i·est 1. Covered with or full of bumps: a bumpy country road. 2. Marked by bumps and jolts; rough: a bumpy flight. ride in 2008, however, as it faces the volatility in the global equity markets, inflation, low interest rates and a generally lower level of consumer confidence. * While the balance sheets of major life insurers have been solid, earnings growth has slowed from previous double-digit levels. * Premium growth also was a relatively modest 3% in 2007, in part reflecting the maturity of the Canadian life market. Premium was up by more than 6% in 2007 for group life and health products. * Segregated fund Segregated Fund A type of annuity that is similar to a mutual fund, and is an insurance product and offered only by insurance companies. Notes: Most segregated funds will guarantee a specific return, anywhere from 70% to 120%, over a certain period of time (five-10 years). sales, particularly individual segregated funds, enjoyed continued growth in 2007, with deposits increasing approximately 12%. * A larger portion of revenue and earnings for the three largest Canadian life insurers continues to come from business produced outside of Canada. * The change to fair value accounting had a modest negative impact on Canadian capital Noun 1. Canadian capital - the capital of Canada (located in southeastern Ontario across the Ottawa river from Quebec) capital of Canada, Ottawa Ontario - a prosperous and industrialized province in central Canada ratios in 2007. * The Canadian life insurance industry enjoyed a healthy investment climate through 2007. In addition, the mortgage markets have not experienced the subprime meltdown meltdown Occurrence in which a huge amount of thermal energy and radiation is released as a result of an uncontrolled chain reaction in a nuclear power reactor. The chain reaction that occurs in the reactor's core must be carefully regulated by control rods, which absorb that has plagued the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . BestWeek subscribers can download a PDF (Portable Document Format) The de facto standard for document publishing from Adobe. On the Web, there are countless brochures, data sheets, white papers and technical manuals in the PDF format. copy of all full special reports or a combination of the report and all related spreadsheet files of the report data at no charge at www.bestweek.com. Nonsubscribers can visit www.bestweek.com for pricing information or call customer service for more information at (908) 439-2200, ext. 5742. Founded in 1899, A.M. Best Company is a global full-service credit rating organization dedicated to serving the financial and health care service industries, including insurance companies, banks, hospitals and health care system providers. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion