New life insurance business dropped in March Qtr

Partners Life also experienced a small drop in new business compared with the December quarter but still increased its market share.

The FSC figures show total new business written in the four major categories fell to $33.1 million in the March quarter, down 20% from $41.3 million in December quarter. It was down 10.6% compared with $37 million in the March quarter last year.

Partners Life's new business of $6.3 million in March was down 1.9% from December. However, its market share across the four products rose to 16% from 13.4%. Figures for the company are only available from the June quarter last year when it claimed 4.2% of the market.

The FSC figures show for a second successive quarter, lapses and surrenders in the four major categories exceeded new business - lapses totaled $41.9 million in the March quarter, about the same as in the December quarter and compared with $35.8 million.