Life insurance sales tumbled 20% in the second quarter, LIMRA International says

Total sales of life insurance plummeted during the second quarter, falling 20% from a year earlier, according to a report from LIMRA International. The second-quarter slump followed a 26% decrease in sales during the first quarter versus the comparable period in 2008, according to LIMRA. Sales in the first half fell 23% from a year earlier, reflecting the sharpest six-month drop in individual life sales since 1942. Variable-life and variable-universal life led the decline. Annualized premiums for variable life policies fell 79% in the second quarter from a year earlier, while sales in the first half slid 72% from the first six months of 2008. Variable-universal-life premiums took a less drastic fall in the second quarter, with annualized premiums down 49% from a year earlier. Sales dropped 55% during the first half from a year earlier. Sales of other types of cash value insurance suffered as well, with annualized universal life premiums declining by 27%in the second quarter and 29% in the first half. That marks the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit declines for universal-life sales, hurt by the poor economy and a decline in sales to senior purchasers, LIMRA said in a statement. Annualized premiums for whole life policies dipped by 3% in the second quarter and 4% for the first half from the year-earlier periods. Finally, term life, the pure insurance product, also had a modest decline in annualized premiums, falling 3% in the second quarter and 3% in the first half from a year earlier.