Growth in personal insurance in Québec in 2007
Organization Insurance
Montréal – The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) has released the 2007 report on insurance following its tabling today in the Québec National Assembly by Minister of Finance Monique Jérôme-Forget. The report notes that personal insurance companies operating in Québec wrote premiums for a total of $10.297 billion in Québec in 2007, compared with $9.747 billion in 2006, a 5.6% increase in written premiums.
Written premiums in accident and health insurance in 2007 were up 7.5% to $4.911 billion, while written premiums in life insurance rose 4.4% to $4.003 billion. Annuity contributions were up 3.1% in 2007 to $1.383 billion. However, sales of annuity products for Québec-chartered insurers fell 2.0%, pushing their market share in Québec to 52.9% in 2007, down from 55.6% in 2006. Individual annuity contributions rose 2.2%, while group annuity contributions fell 7.8%.
Benefits and dividends paid by insurers to Québec policyholders grew by 2.7% in 2007. This variation in benefits was not constant across all classes of insurance, with accident and health insurance and life insurance posting respective increases of 6.7% and 1.6%. Annuity products, meanwhile, decreased 2.5%.
The volume of life insurance sold in Québec reached $682 billion in 2007, consisting of $397 billion for individual insurance contracts and $285 billion for group insurance contracts. The average amount of coverage per individual insurance contract purchased in Québec totalled $88,645 in 2007, compared with $84,928 in the previous year.
Finally, based on overall activities in Canada, net earnings posted by personal insurance companies licensed to operate in Québec jumped to $9.561 billion, representing a 9.1% increase over 2006 results. In addition, assets in segregated funds held by these insurers in 2007 reached $387.5 billion on a consolidated basis.
| CLASS OF INSURANCE | PREMIUMS WRITTEN / 2006 | PREMIUMS WRITTEN / 2007 | PREMIUMS WRITTEN / VARIATION | BENEFITS PAID / 2006 | BENEFITS PAID / 2007 | BENEFITS PAID / VARIATION |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accident and health insurance | 4,570 | 4,911 | 7.5% | 3,153 | 3,362 | 6.7% |
| Life insurance | 3,835 | 4,003 | 4.4% | 1,723 | 1,751 | 1.6% |
| Annuities | 1,342 | 1,383 | 3.1% | 2,060 | 2,008 | -2.5% |
| TOTAL | 9,747 | 10,297 | 5.6% | 6,935 | 7,121 | 2.7% |
The 2007 report on insurance is available (in French only) on the AMF website.
The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) is the regulatory and oversight body for Québec’s financial sector.
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