Life-risk sector continues to surge forward
The life-risk sector has continued to post strong profits and growth, with net profit across the sector of $3 billion and total revenue of $40.3 billion for the 12 months to 31 March 2013.
Both of these figures are an increase on the previous 12 months, with net profit climbing by 17 per cent from $2.6 billion and total revenue more than doubling from $19.8 billion, according to the March quarterly data from Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority.
Much of the growth in revenue came through investment gains which contributed $25.4 billion, with $10.4 billion coming from investment income and the remainder from realised and unrealised gains.
The level of investment gains was dramatically higher than this time last year, when investment revenue was $6.6 billion after realised and unrealised losses wiped $7.6 billion from $14.2 billion of investment income.
The remainder of this year's revenue was drawn from net policy revenue and management service fees.
However, industry expenses also increased in line with profit and revenue figures, more than doubling from last year's figure of $16.3 billion in 2012 to $34.9 billion in 2013.
For the quarter ending March 31 2013, risk products showed a net profit after tax of $246 million, of which individual risk products contributed $229 million and group risk products contributed $18 million.
Revenue figures were shadowed by their expenses counterpart, with total revenue at $2.9 billion while total expenses were $2.6 billion. Of these, individual risk products contributed $1.9 billion in revenue and $1.6 billion in expenses, while group risk products contributed $1 billion to revenue and $985 million to costs.
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