Money Marketing, a financial services industry publication has released a financial strength survey on life insurance companies. They say that companies are still solvent, despite others in the industry having different opinions.
The survey was run in conjunction with the ratings agency Standards & Poors and looked at solvency and what 'free assets' were available. Free assets are those above all debts for the company.
Whilst the survey showed that all participants had met the solvency requirements, it did highlight that the amount of free assets had fallen. According to Money Marketing the company with the most free assets was National Farmers Union with 9.6%. AXA Sun Life followed with 7.9%, then Norwich Union (7.7%), Scottish Widows (5.5%) and Co-operative Insurance Services (4.9%).
Those with the lowest free assets were Canada Life and NPI, both with 1.1%, Sun Alliance & London Assurance with 0.6% and Scottish Provident with 0.2%. This also took into account an assumption for future profits.
There were six companies with negative free assets and these included Winterthur Life, Pearl Assurance and Britannic Assurance. However, these figures do not include any assumptions for future profits.