A Firm Foundation: How Insurance Supports the Economy

Income replacement

Life insurance benefits and claims totaled $797.7 billion in 2022. This amount includes life insurance death benefits, annuity benefits, disability benefits and other payouts and compares with $790.9 billion in 2021. The largest payout in 2022 was $348.1 billion, for surrender benefits and withdrawals from life insurance contracts made to policyholders who terminated their policies early or withdrew cash from their policies.

Life/Annuity Insurance Benefits And Claims, 2018-2022

($000)

  2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Death benefits  77,076,010 76,038,700 87,669,214 97,191,604 $88,790,998
Matured endowments, excluding annual pure endowments 381,587 423,780 467,154 497,918 575,731
Annuity benefits 78,392,309 82,348,469 86,023,032 92,164,218 89,702,169
Disability, accident and health benefits (1) 131,440,728 140,558,797 136,617,538 146,250,809 139,597,931
Coupons, pure endowment and similar benefits  11,216 4,327 4,297 5,828 3,489
Surrender benefits, withdrawals for life contracts  350,278,913 339,640,132 323,347,674 362,681,903 348,077,068
Group conversions 26,702 25,499 13,980 17,343 15,771
Interest and adjustments on deposit type contracts  9,539,457 10,044,578 9,815,812 8,832,771 12,353,781
Payments on supplementary contracts with life contingencies  2,152,431 2,413,542 2,414,306 2,288,589 2,306,488
Increase in aggregate reserve  133,760,428 110,529,379 98,016,838 80,920,839 116,247,248
Total benefits and claims $783,059,441 $762,027,202 $744,389,844 $790,851,820 $797,670,675

(1) Excludes benefits paid by health insurance companies and property/casualty insurance companies.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

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