Sales Efficiency in Life Insurance The Drivers for Growth in the German Market
Journal
The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice
ISSN
1018-5895
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2014-07
Author(s)
Abstract
German life insurers are facing consolidation tendencies as the major players increase their market
share. As a result, insurance companies are being forced to grow to ensure future prosperity. In the
past, the industry has shown that growth can be achieved while maintaining profitability. The
central question of our research is to detect factors for the generation of new business. In order to
determine what drives sales—and thus growth—in the German life insurance industry, we apply
different multi-linear regression models. We use panel data from 1998 to 2011 with characteristics
of German life insurers and mostly full market coverage. In our modelling, we distinguish
between sales success on the business unit level of life insurance and on the level of specific life
products. The sales success drivers for pension insurance as well as term life insurance are ana-
lysed. By doing so, we determine different significant drivers for sales success, which include the
total return granted to policyholders, commissions paid to sales partners, the solvency of the
insurer, company (financial) rating and firm size.
share. As a result, insurance companies are being forced to grow to ensure future prosperity. In the
past, the industry has shown that growth can be achieved while maintaining profitability. The
central question of our research is to detect factors for the generation of new business. In order to
determine what drives sales—and thus growth—in the German life insurance industry, we apply
different multi-linear regression models. We use panel data from 1998 to 2011 with characteristics
of German life insurers and mostly full market coverage. In our modelling, we distinguish
between sales success on the business unit level of life insurance and on the level of specific life
products. The sales success drivers for pension insurance as well as term life insurance are ana-
lysed. By doing so, we determine different significant drivers for sales success, which include the
total return granted to policyholders, commissions paid to sales partners, the solvency of the
insurer, company (financial) rating and firm size.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
No
Publisher
Palgrave Journals
Volume
3
Number
39
Start page
493
End page
525
Pages
32
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Additional Information
Prof. Wagner is Professor at the HEC Lausanne; http://people.unil.ch/joelwagner; joel.wagner@unil.ch
Eprints ID
255436