Global insurance market report [gimar]

3.3.2 Jurisdictional Developments
In the UK, since 1985, unit-linked business has 
risen from below 37% of premiums written to
a peak of nearly 82%. There has been a steep 
decline in premiums for non-linked business,
both with and without profit participation.
In the UK, the decline in the share of premiums 
was gradual for non-profit business (generally 
immediate annuities) in the 1990s, largely 
following the path of long-term interest rates. 
After 2000, however, the share of premiums was 
volatile but largely flat. After 2016, bulk purchase 
annuities, which tend to have large single 
premium payments, began to grow in popularity, 
which accounts for some of the volatility. 
Figure 3.3b:
European Economic Area life premiums by type of contract (2015 – LHS and 2016 – RHS)
Source: Insurance Europe
Unit-linked, 22%
Unit-linked, 26%
Non unit-linked, 78%
Non unit-linked, 74%

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The trend in the UK for with-profits business has 
moved in the opposite direction. Premiums for 
with-profits products grew over the 1980s and 
1990s, although market share was broadly flat. 
The widely publicised failure of Equitable Life in 
2000, combined with widespread miss-selling 
of mortgage endowments in the 1990s, largely 
discredited with-profits products in the UK. In 
2003 alone, new business premiums declined by 
nearly 56% and fell by another 45% by 2011.
In Germany, the share of unit-linked business 
has grown in 18 years, from representing less 
than 7% of premiums written to just under 19%, 
coinciding with premium growth of nearly 300%. 
While the share of premiums for ULIPs has grown 
quickly over the last 18 years, as shown below, it 
still represents a fairly small portion of the German 
life insurance market.