Singapore's whole life insurance market: where participating products sit in new business, and the industry data

The market position of whole life insurance in Singapore can be summed up in one figure: in 2025, participating (par) products accounted for 24% of the industry's total weighted new business premiums (LIA, 2026-02-11). But the figure comes with two caveats about its basis: it is "weighted" premium, and it is disclosed across three product categories, participating, non-participating and investment-linked, without whole life being broken out separately. Understand the basis before reading the industry data, so that market data is not mistaken for a conclusion about a product.

First, the basis: what weighted new business premiums are

The data come from LIA (Life Insurance Association, Singapore), founded in 1962, the not-for-profit trade association of MAS-licensed life insurers and life reinsurers. LIA defines "weighted new business premiums" as premiums received on new policies, calculated in three parts: 10% of single-premium business, 100% of annual-premium business, and an adjusted value for business with a premium term of less than 10 years (for example, an annual-premium policy with a 7-year premium term counts at 70% of its annual premium; LIA, 2026-08-12). Two consequences follow: single premiums count at only 10%, so the actual premium volume of single-premium products is larger than their weighted figure; and limited-pay products with premium terms shorter than 10 years count at an adjusted value, so their weighted figure is likewise below their total premiums.

On product classification, LIA splits new business into participating, non-participating and investment-linked. MoneySense's definitions of the first two are: a participating policy shares in the profits of the insurer's participating fund, with bonuses not guaranteed; a non-participating policy provides only guaranteed benefits and no bonuses (2026-09-28). The participating category normally includes both participating whole life and other participating products such as endowments, and LIA does not break it down further, so 24% is not the share of participating whole life.

2025 full year at a glance

In its media release LIA attributed the growth mainly to annual-premium business; single-premium policies fell in the first half and recovered in the second (LIA, 2026-02-11).

Product mix: participating, non-participating and investment-linked

The participating and investment-linked amounts and growth rates are from LIA; the non-participating amount and the 2024 shares are this site's derivation from LIA's published total and the two other categories, indicative only and subject to rounding. Three things can be read from the table: participating products grew in absolute terms while their share was roughly flat (about 24%); the visible shift in 2025 shares came from a fall in non-participating and a rise in investment-linked, with the investment-linked share up about 5.7 percentage points on 2024 and non-participating down about 5.4 points; and LIA attributed the growth in investment-linked business to demand for "protection together with potentially higher investment returns", which is LIA's description, not a judgement on the merits of the products.

First half of 2026: the latest figures

LIA's slides Life Insurance Industry Results January to June 2026, published on 2026-08-12, cover new business in individual life and health insurance.

By fund type, the slides show the amounts in chart form; this site's readings are about S$903 million participating, about S$1,132 million non-participating and about S$1,590 million investment-linked, or roughly 25%, 31% and 44% (this site's calculation; chart readings are approximate). The participating reading for the same period a year earlier is about S$720 million, implying growth of about 25.4%, consistent with Insurance Business Asia's account of the LIA data. Death, total and permanent disability and critical illness claims on individual policies totalled about S$1.14 billion in the first half; maturity payouts totalled about S$8.02 billion (this site's sum of the two quarterly figures in the slides, consistent with Insurance Business Asia's account).

Distribution channel mix

(LIA, 2026-02-11 and 2026-08-12; FA representatives include representatives of affiliated FA firms that are wholly owned subsidiaries; the full-year and half-year figures cover different periods and should not be subtracted from each other.)

The same channel can look very different on a premium basis and a policy-count basis: bank representatives account for 33.9% of premiums but only 10.6% of policies, and online direct for 1.0% of premiums but 7.7% of policies. This does not show which channel is better: the premium basis is shaped by the 10% weighting of single premiums and by policy size, while the policy-count basis says nothing about premium size. The slides also show that in 1H 2025 banks accounted for 35.5% and FAs for 33.3%, and that in 1H 2026 FAs overtook banks. For 2025 as a whole, FA representatives contributed 45.3% of the growth in total sum assured and tied representatives 28.8%; as at 2025-12-31 the industry employed 9,411 people and had 12,389 representatives under tied-agency contracts.

Claims, payouts and the protection gap

In 2025 the life insurance industry paid a total of S$14.23 billion to policyholders and beneficiaries. Of this, death, total and permanent disability and critical illness claims were S$2.05 billion, up 5.5% on the previous year, and payouts on maturing policies were S$12.17 billion (LIA, 2026-02-11). On these two figures, maturity payouts were about 85.5% of the total and claims about 14.4% (this site's calculation). The total therefore cannot be read as "death claims paid": most of it is maturity payouts on policies reaching the end of their term.

On the protection gap, LIA's Protection Gap Study 2022 (2023-09-08) was carried out independently by Ernst & Young Advisory, covered economically active Singapore residents aged 20 to 69 with at least one dependant, used insurer data as at 2021-12-31 supplemented by a survey of 775 economically active people, and found a 2022 mortality protection gap of S$373 billion (21%) and a critical illness protection gap of S$579 billion (74%). Compared with 2017, the mortality gap edged down from 23% to 21% and the critical illness gap fell from 81% to 74%. LIA notes that the results reflect national averages and that individual protection needs should be analysed separately. The study is now more than three years old and serves as background only.

What these figures can and cannot tell you

Industry growth is sales data, not product returns. To judge a specific whole life policy, go back to the contract and the Policy Illustration: see What whole life insurance is, How participating whole life works and Six product types compared; the full list of sources used on this page is in the Master list of sources. If you would like these points interpreted for your own circumstances, you can register your request through the contact details on this site.