ACLI Fact Book Shows Life, LTC, Disability Sales on Rise.

The level of in-force life insurance rose by 7% in 1999 over the previous year to $15.5 trillion, while disability income insurance in force rose by 8% and sales of long-term-care insurance increased by 11%, according to the recently released version of the Life Insurers Fact Book.

The book, published annually by the American Council of Life Insurers, Washington, D.C., also reports that consumers are building their retirement assets through annuities more than ever before. The amount of money invested in annuities rose by 18% in 1999 over 1998, and for the first time, people invested more in variable annuities ($135 billion) than in fixed annuities ($125.9 billion).

The face amount of the average new individual life policy grew 5% to $119,900, but the actual number of policies purchased increased by only 1%. But growth was brisk in group life policies, with 26.9 million issued, a 32.4% jump over the previous year. "This may reflect employers' increasing reliance on life insurance as an employee benefit as well as the fact that the cost of life insurance is decreasing," said Paul Yakoboski, ACLI's director of policy research.

In 1999, premiums for disability income insurance reached 13 billion, 8% more than in 1998. Nearly 44 million disability policies were in force.

Nearly a half million long-term-care policies were sold in 1999, bringing the number in force in 1999 to more than 3 million. About 72% of long-term-care policies are individually owned; the remainder are group policies.

"Additional increases are expected in the individual long-term-care insurance market as the number of Americans over age 65 doubles to 70 million people in the next 30 years," Yakoboski said.