For almost 70 years the life insurance industry has been a smug sacred cow feeding the public a steady line of sacred bull. – Ralph Nader.
Life insurance is clearly an oxymoron.
I start there because so much we humans do is to avoid dealing with things we don’t want to and our mortality and that if our loved ones is a big one. Contemplating the meaning of life is still not a main, lifelong journey for most people, so the closest is dealing with our stuff. That does count. Handling our things and passing them on is a big business as well as meaningful.
Insurance is trillion dollar industry and “Life” takes up a large part of it. Let’s take a look.
“Life insurance and annuities were responsible for nearly half of the American insurance industry’s net premiums in 2021.”- Forbes
According to LIMRA, 52% of Americans have life insurance either individual or through an employer as of 2021. However it is down from 62% in 2011. This decrease is notable particularly when you look at earnings in this sector over the similar period. See the table below. Life insurance is a big moneymaker, though the practices getting peopme signed up are not without issues.
