The statistics, released today, show protection sales data from The Exchange, IRESS’ online comparison quote and transaction portal and covers critical illness, income protection and multi benefit.
In the first three months of 2018, IRESS recorded 187,933 protection new business applications, as measured by click-through rates from The Exchange to provider applications, compared to 155,946 over the same period in 2017, representing a 20.5% rise.
The first three months of 2018 was a record breaking quarter with a monthly average of 62,644 new business protection applications, compared to Q3 2017 (the previous highest monthly average) of 51,744, an increase of over 21%.
Multi benefit products saw the sharpest increase from Q1 2017 to Q1 2018, with a material increase of 40% in new business applications.
Life term insurance was the second biggest increase in new business, from Q1 2017 to Q1 2018 with a rise of 33%.
Income Protection saw the third largest increase when comparing Q1 2017 to Q1 2018, up 15% in new business applications.
Dave Miller, IRESS executive general manager (commercial), said: “The increase in protection policies we have recorded in Q1 2018 is hugely encouraging. 2017 was already a record year in terms of protection new business applications and it looks as though 2018 is set to be even better.
“Much of this is continuing to be driven by the new trends, such as innovative new entrants and breakthrough initiatives that first emerged last year, which are all helping to reinforce the importance of protection.”