Live from LIMRA: Life insurance execs ponder ways to boost sales to meet need

When the life insurance industry gathered in New Orleans for LIMRA’s big spring conference, there was plenty to celebrate — as well as some lingering hurdles.

The LIMRA and LOMA Life and Annuity Conference featured a heavy technology focus, particularly on artificial intelligence and big data, as well as regulatory changes and efforts to guard against fraud.

The three-day conference was co-hosted by the American Council of Life Insurers and the Society of Actuaries.

But it was the industry’s primary goal — attracting more consumers to acquire life insurance coverage — that took center stage and dominated virtually all sessions.

The conference featured takeaways from the 2025 Life Insurance Barometer, conducted by LIMRA and Life Happens. In a concerning but possibly addressable takeaway, consumers continue to wildly overestimate the cost of coverage.

The study found Gen Zers and millennials who rated themselves in excellent health overestimated the cost of a $250,000 level term life policy at anywhere from six to 10 times its actual cost, said Steve Wood, LIMRA research director, consumer markets.

The study also asked consumers how knowledgeable they are about life insurance and found that 41% of those surveyed said they aren’t knowledgeable about it.

“Although that sounds like a slightly alarming percentage, it’s probably more like 41% really don’t know the ins and outs of life insurance,” Wood said. “And with all the different types of policies, the regulations and the riders — who understands the underwriting and mortality tables and all that?”

The survey also showed that 48% of women said they are not knowledgeable about life insurance, as opposed to 31% of men who said their knowledge about the product falls short.

Gen Zers were more likely than those of any other age group to overestimate the cost of life insurance — by a lot, Wood said. He attributed that finding to Gen Zers being more familiar with the cost of auto and home insurance, products whose premiums have skyrocketed in recent years.

The percentage of consumers who reported owning life insurance remained steady at 51%, Wood said, with much of that coverage coming from employer-sponsored life insurance.

Social media continues to influence the life insurance purchasing decision, the study showed. Wood said 62% of all consumers and 80% of Gen Zers obtain information about life insurance from social media platforms such as TikTok as well as from podcasters.

Record-level premium

While much of the news surrounding the life insurance market paints a picture of frustration and unfulfilled sales, the numbers are actually pretty strong. Just days before the conference kickoff, LIMRA released final 2024 data showing total new annualized premium increased 3% in 2024, to $15.9 billion.

It is the fourth consecutive year of record-high premium. However, the 2024 policy count was level with 2023 results, LIMRA found.

About 100 million Americans say they need life insurance, noted Bryan Hodgens, senior vice president and head of LIMRA Research, who discussed the results during a late-April LinkedIn Live event.

“There’s a huge demand out there for this product,” he said.  “About a third of Americans say that they intend to buy life insurance every year. But historically, far fewer actually take action. Our 2024 results showed that just 9.4 million policies were sold in 2024 … and that’s pretty flat year over year.”

A new LIMRA-Bain study considers how the partnership between distribution and marketing can drive profitability and protect more families.

Life insurance-needy prospects who meet with an advisor end up buying in high numbers. But they tell LIMRA that education is crucial. Forty-eight percent of respondents “strongly agreed” that they “need to understand life insurance before they purchase” it, Hodgens said. Another 42% agreed.

“To me, that’s telling us that education is really important,” he said.

If they’re not getting information from a financial professional, LIMRA research shows that Americans are turning to social media. Sixty-two percent of all respondents are using social media for financial information, a figure that jumps to 80% with millennials and Generation Z.

“I think what’s interesting, though, is when you look at what they’re receiving,” Hodgens said. “There are a lot of influencers out there. There are a lot of people who are just posting information, and there might be some misconceptions. There might be some confusion as to what [consumers are] learning.”

Other news to know

Here are some other important news topics that InsuranceNewsNet covered from New Orleans.

John Carroll announces retirement

John Carroll is senior vice president and head of insurance and annuities at LIMRA and LOMA. He announced his retirement to colleagues during the Life and Retirement Conference.

Carroll, who had a long career at Merrill Lynch and Allianz Global Investors prior to joining LIMRA and LOMA, also sat down with InsuranceNewsNet for a lengthy video interview that can be viewed in three parts at insurancenewsnet.com.

Group life study reveals gradual improvement in mortality rates

A new joint study by LIMRA and the Society of Actuaries Research Institute finds improved mortality rates in the group life segment.

The 2024 Group Term Life Experience Study, released in December, collected data from insurers for group term life insurance policies in force from 2013 to 2021. Results were compared with the previous 2016 group term life study, which used a study period of 2010 to 2013.

Pete Miller, actuary, experience studies, with the Society of Actuaries, and Matt Sawyer, vice president at Gallagher Re, shared the study during the conference.

Group life is akin to individual life insurance and has a mortality rate about 30% to 40% lower than that of the U.S. population, Sawyer explained.

Sixteen companies contributed data to the study, which encompasses over 100 million exposures by headcount, over 186,000 life insurance claims and over 39,000 incidences of premium waiver from 2013 to 2021.

The A/E ratio compares the actual number of deaths (A) within a specific population or portfolio with the number of deaths expected (E) based on a defined mortality table. Key findings of the study include:

• Basic life A/E ratios compared with the 2016 study were 93% on a headcount basis and 107% on an amount basis. Supplemental life A/E ratios compared to the 2016 study were 108% on a headcount basis and 114% with an amount basis.

• Excluding the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, basic life A/E ratios were 88% on a headcount basis and 100% on an amount basis. Supplemental life A/E ratios were 102% on a headcount basis and 107% on an amount basis.

Political football

The topic of mortality rates is now heavily politicized, with many groups believing the COVID-19 vaccine contributed to elevated deaths that continue to be seen in some studies. The world’s top health experts have debunked those theories.

Still, troubling increases in certain ailments and diseases, along with rising health care costs, have worried some insurers and led to major losses in stop-loss coverage for several companies. Self-funded employers rely on stop-loss insurance to mitigate the financial risk of large claims, but as medical expenses grow, insurers may face higher payouts, affecting their profitability.

Near the end of their 35-minute presentation, the actuaries were asked point-blank what the study concluded vis-a-vis mortality.

“So, it sounds like you have an improved mortality versus 2016 with or without COVID?”

“Yes,” Sawyer responded.

Annuity distribution thriving, but many challenges remain

Annuity distribution is keeping up with demand, for the most part, but for how long?

The search for producers, potential disruption from in-plan annuities, and “irrational pricing” all are challenges to distribution channels. A panel of executive experts dissected those issues and more during the conference.

Insurance producers are an aging group and are not being replaced at a high enough rate. In simple terms, young people are not very interested in becoming insurance agents.

John Gies is head of MassMutual Financial Advisor brokerage sales at MassMutual. With a field force of 6,500 advisors that MassMutual hopes to grow to 8,000, Gies said the firm is stressing the positive and important work of financial planning.

“We’ve invested a lot into educating our field force and our firm, our agencies, around what they need to do around succession planning,” he said. “Providing the tools, providing the resources, providing the programs that enable a smooth succession.”

That goes hand in hand with treating new recruits with respect. The days of throwing a phone book at a young new agent and telling them they need to generate $20,000 worth of commissions by the end of the year are over, Gies said.

“This concept of team, where you can come in on an experienced team, learn from advisors, learn as you go, I think is a new model for bringing the future generation of advisors into the business,” he added.

‘Irrational pricing’

The free market premise is that competition will bring out the best values. That concept might not work as well when it comes to annuity rates, Gies said. In preparing for the LIMRA session, Gies said he asked a MassMutual annuity executive for a list of industry concerns. “Irrational pricing” was on the list.

In other words, some annuity sellers are offering ultra-attractive annuity rates just to get business. It’s a strategy that annuity sellers regretted in the past — notably, when a hot variable annuity market fueled a “living benefits arms race” in the 2006-08 time frame, Gies recalled. Many of those companies later regretted those guarantees.

More recently, PHL Variable Insurance Co. was placed in rehabilitation by a Connecticut court. Insurance Commissioner Andrew Mais expects to complete a rehabilitation plan for the financially troubled PHL Variable sometime this year.

“We’ve seen folks taking it up to the line, right in terms of what we’re offering out in the marketplace,” Gies said. “Leaning into that sales opportunity with responsible pricing is a mandate that we as an industry all carry.”

InsuranceNewsNet Senior Editor John Hilton has covered business and other beats in more than 20 years of daily journalism. John may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @INNJohnH.