Staff Reporter
Published:
Photo from Freepik
Demand for health protection, among others, is expected to sustain the sector’s expansion.
The life insurance industry is expected to record premium growth of 13%-17% in 2026 before moderating to 7%-9% in 2027, according to S&P Global Ratings.
Total weighted new business premiums rose 21.4% year on year to $3.6b in the first half of 2026, data from the Life Insurance Association of Singapore showed.
S&P attributed the industry’s outlook to three long-term drivers: an aging population, increasing demand for comprehensive medical coverage and rising household wealth.
Citizens aged 65 and above accounted for 21.4% of Singapore citizens as of June, compared with 13.7% a decade earlier. The demographic shift is expected to support demand for retirement-income products and long-term care coverage.
Health insurance is also expected to remain one of the sector’s fastest-growing segments. Integrated Shield Plan and rider premiums increased 66.5% to $100.3m in the first half.
Consumers are seeking broader medical coverage, access to private healthcare and specialized protection such as multistage cancer plans.
Investment-linked products have meanwhile become a major source of premium growth as households combine insurance protection with market-linked returns.
The products accounted for 44% of weighted new business premiums in the first half, equivalent to $1.59b.
Singapore’s growing role as an international wealth-management center is also creating opportunities for insurers serving high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients.
Assets under management reached $6.7t in 2025, whilst the number of single-family offices increased to more than 2,000 from around 400 in 2020.
S&P said insurers could benefit from demand for wealth preservation, intergenerational transfers, estate liquidity and key-person protection. Competition in the affluent segment is nevertheless expected to intensify.
The ratings agency expects strong capitalization and healthy profitability to support stable sector performance.
However, insurers remain exposed to movements in interest rates and capital markets. Rising private-healthcare claims and medical inflation could also continue to pressure margins in health insurance.
Join Singapore Business Review community
Also Read
Join Singapore Business Review community
A NOTE FROM SINGAPORE BUSINESS REVIEW
Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.
Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.
We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.
If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.