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In 2018, the Milwaukee-based financial services company Northwestern Mutual collected more in life insurance policy premiums than any other U.S. provider, with a total of billion U.S. dollars in premiums being written.

Life insurance

Life insurance is a policy whereby the insurer agrees to pay a nominated beneficiary an amount of money in the event of the policy holder’s premature death. In 2017, around 28 million life insurance policies were purchased in the United States, making it the largest market globally. However, in terms of market penetration, the U.S. is far behind wealthy East Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, whose penetration rates are almost *** and a half times higher.

The global life insurance market

Given the high penetration rate of life insurance in East Asia, it is perhaps not surprising that many of the largest global life insurance providers are based in the region. However, with the exception of China, the U.S. and East Asian markets are very mature, with low-to-negative profit growth and generally stagnant premium prices in recent years. Conversely, over this time the developing markets of China and Latin America have seen significant growth in both areas.