Whole Life Insurance Market Report 2025

This Whole Life Insurance market report provides a comprehensive analysis of the market’s characteristics, size, and growth, including segmentation, regional and country-level breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends, and strategies. It also tracks historical and forecasted market growth across various geographies.

The whole life insurance market size has grown strongly in recent years. It will grow from $3.92 trillion in 2024 to $4.26 trillion in 2025 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to policy stability and guarantees, long-term financial security, legacy and estate planning, inflation hedge, conservative investment option.

The whole life insurance market size is expected to see strong growth in the next few years. It will grow to $5.9 trillion in 2029 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.5%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to personalized solutions, increased longevity concerns, wealth transfer and estate planning, health and wellness incentives, shift in consumer preferences. Major trends in the forecast period include customization and personalization, innovative product offerings, tech integration in underwriting, evolving customer preferences, wealth transfer and estate planning.

The anticipated surge in the aging population is set to be a driving force behind the growth of the whole life insurance market. This demographic shift denotes an increase in the proportion of individuals aged 65 and above within a society. Whole life insurance emerges as a crucial financial tool for this demographic, providing lifelong coverage, cash value accumulation, and potential estate planning benefits. By October 2022, the World Health Organization projected a significant demographic change, estimating that by 2030, one out of every six individuals globally would be 60 years old or older. This demographic is expected to grow from 1 billion in 2020 to 1.4 billion by 2030, with projections doubling by 2050, reaching 2.1 billion. Thus, the expanding aging population propels the whole life insurance market.

The ongoing trend of urbanization is projected to drive the whole life insurance market. Urbanization signifies the transformation of rural areas into urban regions due to economic development and industrialization. Whole life insurance addresses the financial needs arising from urbanization by offering stable, long-term coverage and investment components, aligning with the evolving financial goals of urban residents. As of April 2023, over half of the global population resides in urban areas, and this figure is anticipated to grow to 6 billion by 2045, marking a 1.5 times increase. Hence, the surging urbanization contributes to the expansion of the whole life insurance market.

Leading companies in the whole life insurance sector are prioritizing the integration of advanced technologies to streamline operations and bolster their market presence. For example, Modern Life Insurance Group Inc., in December 2022, unveiled its latest technology platform. This platform equips life insurance advisors with an array of state-of-the-art tools and solutions within a new stack, facilitating comprehensive management of client needs and brokerage functions. These advancements include enhanced customer engagement, entirely digital applications, and comparison and pricing capabilities.

Prominent companies in the whole life insurance domain are offering comprehensive insurance products tailored to local customer needs. Specifically, insurance plans with incremental death benefits guarantee a progressively increasing death benefit payable to beneficiaries over time. In August 2023, China Pacific Life Insurance Company Limited introduced the 'Ever-growing Whole Life Insurance Plan.' This product features protection and savings functions, ensuring that the death benefit, if the insured passes away after the premium payment period, will not fall below a specified percentage of the Notional Amount, ensuring continuously increasing life protection. The plan offers flexible options such as Currency Conversion, Terminal Dividend Lock-in, and Regular Withdrawal, catering to individualized financial planning needs.

In January 2024, Obra Capital, a US-based general insurance company, acquired Unified Life Insurance for an undisclosed amount. This acquisition is intended to bolster Obra Capital's position in the insurance market by broadening its portfolio of financial products and services, improving operational capabilities, and offering a wider range of insurance solutions to better meet customer needs. Unified Life Insurance, also based in the US, specializes in whole life insurance and other life insurance products, enabling Obra Capital to diversify its offerings and explore new market segments centered on long-term financial security and wealth accumulation for its customers.

Whole life insurance, also known as permanent life insurance, refers to insurance plans that encompass an investment component and are intended to provide coverage until the policyholder's death. Unlike term life insurance, which covers a specific period, whole life insurance offers a death benefit upon the policyholder's demise, provided the required premiums are consistently paid. Premiums for a whole life insurance policy contribute to both an investment account and the policy's guaranteed death benefit.

The primary types of whole life insurance include non-participating whole life and participating whole life. Non-participating whole life insurance doesn't offer dividends to policyholders, typically leading to lower premiums. Various distribution channels facilitate the sale of these insurance plans, including agencies, brokers, bancassurance (selling insurance through banks), and digital or direct channels.

The whole life insurance market research report is one of a series of new reports that provides whole life insurance market statistics, including whole life insurance industry global market size, regional shares, competitors with whole life insurance market share, detailed whole life insurance market segments, market trends, and opportunities, and any further data you may need to thrive in the whole life insurance industry. This whole life insurance market research report delivers a complete perspective of everything you need, with an in-depth analysis of the current and future scenarios of the industry.

Major companies operating in the whole life insurance market include China Life Insurance Company Limited, MetLife Inc., Ping An Insurance Company of China Ltd., Allianz Life Insurance, Axa SA, Generali Group, Munich Re Group, Zurich Insurance Group Ltd., Nippon Life Insurance Company, Japan Post Holdings Company Ltd., Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Manulife Financial Corporation, China Pacific Insurance Co. Ltd., Chubb Corp., American International Group, Aviva Plc., Allstate Corporation, Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd., Prudential Financial Inc., New York Life Insurance Company, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, Ohio National Life Insurance Company, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Pacific Life Insurance Company, John Hancock Financial Services, Principal Financial Group Inc., Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.

North America was the largest region in the whole life insurance market in 2024. Europe is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the whole life insurance market report during the forecast period. The regions covered in the whole life insurance market report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa. The countries covered in the whole life insurance market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Spain.

The whole life insurance market includes revenues earned by entities by providing universal life insurance, and variable life insurance. The market value includes the value of related goods sold by the service provider or included within the service offering. Only goods and services traded between entities or sold to end consumers are included.

The market value is defined as the revenues that enterprises gain from the sale of goods and/or services within the specified market and geography through sales, grants, or donations in terms of the currency (in USD, unless otherwise specified).

The revenues for a specified geography are consumption values that are revenues generated by organizations in the specified geography within the market, irrespective of where they are produced. It does not include revenues from resales along the supply chain, either further along the supply chain or as part of other products.

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