Life offices make $3 billion in profit

The country’s life insurers made a collective net profit after tax of $3 billion over the year, an increase of 33.9 per cent on the previous corresponding period, according to APRA’s latest figures for the life insurance sector.

The life offices also experienced an 8.8 per cent increase in net premium income from $55.2 billion in September 2014 to $60.1 billion in 2015.

For life insurers’ net policy payments, the companies posted a collective $59.1 billion – an increase of 17.8 per cent on the previous corresponding period.

APRA also reported that life insurers experienced a decline in the number of policy “surrenders and terminations”, or lapses.

The life offices experienced a collective cost of $466 million over the 12-month period, down from $522 million for the year ending September 2014.