Swedish non-life/life insurance premium income increases by 50% in 10 years

Written by Adam Cadle

31/10/2019

Swedish non-life and life insurance premium income has increased by about 50% during the past ten years, according to a report published by Insurance Sweden.

For non-life insurance, premium income amounted to a total of more than SEK 88bn in 2018. For life insurance, premium income amounted to a total of almost SEK 295bn.

The four non-life insurance companies with the highest premium incomes were Länsförsäkringar, Folksam, If Skadeförsäkring, and Trygg-Hansa. These companies together accounted for about 80% of the market in terms of premium income. The four life insurance companies that received the most premiums were Alecta, Folksam, Skandia and SEB Pension. These companies accounted for almost 50 per cent of the market in terms of paid-in premiums

On average, in 2018 each individual in Sweden paid about SEK 7,000 in premiums for non-life policies and about SEK 29,000 in premiums for life insurance policies.

At the end of 2018, Swedish insurance companies owned financial assets of almost SEK 4,600bn, which was nearly equivalent to Sweden’s GDP. Most of the capital, almost 90%, is managed by life insurance companies, while the rest is managed by non-life insurance companies.

Swedish insurance companies mainly invest in Swedish and foreign equities, investment funds and bonds, but also in properties. For 2018, the total return on assets managed by Swedish life insurance companies amounted to around half a per cent. This is below the average annual total return on assets over the past ten years and is to a large extent due to the negative developments on the Swedish and international stock markets during the fall of 2018.

Despite the lower return in 2018, the average yearly return on the life insurance companies’ assets has been around 7% since 2009.

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