Nearly half of consumers who have not purchased life insurance consider the product among their top five financial priorities, according to a survey by Deloitte Research, and 21% ranked it in their top three.
So why haven’t they bought? Among the leading reasons were that other financial priorities were more important (mentioned by 55 percent), coverage is too expensive (51 percent), and they have no dependents (50 percent).
Interestingly, a third of non-buyers said they have not purchased a life insurance because no one had approached them with an offer to sell a policy. Almost a quarter (23 percent) said they didn’t understand the benefits of life insurance or how it would help them.
Among all consumers who have not purchased life insurance, 62 percent said they received no offers to buy life insurance during the past year, while only 8 percent had been approached by an agent.
The survey identifies a large, untapped market for life insurance and indicates a need for improved consumer education and marketing by insurers, Deloitte concludes.
“From our survey it is clear that life insurance is very much on the minds of many consumers,” said Rebecca C. Amoroso, vice chairman and U.S. insurance leader for Deloitte. “A significant percentage of respondents have simply not been offered coverage recently; many also noted that they never shop for coverage on their own initiative. Not soliciting their business exacerbates this gap between insurers’ interests and consumers’ needs.”
The survey complements research by LIMRA, which found that 56 percent of U.S. households have no individual life insurance coverage.
