Development trends in life insurance

The aim of the dissertation is to give a comprehensive overview of development trends and the situation in life insurance. The first part focuses on the role of life insurance in terms of population aging and pension system inefficiency. The analysis shows that, while maintaining the current spending and tax policies, the situation in terms of increasing public spending is unsustainable in the long term. Life insurance should help to solve retirement situations and thus reduce the pressure on the state budget. However, at present, the role of alternative funding for the pension period is not fulfilled due to the poor performance of the financial markets and the problems of insurance distribution. In the following part of the thesis attention is paid to current trends in the life insurance market and factors that have an impact on the development in the field of life insurance. Furthermore, the thesis examines the causes of the decline in premiums written in analysed market area. The effectiveness of the financial intermediation in the life insurance sector is examined by analysing the number of portfolio contracts, the number of prematurely terminated contracts, the amount of insurance broker fees and by analysing client complaints. Attention is also paid to trade practices in the life insurance business and legislative measures for the segment. The results of the analysis show inefficiencies in distribution and the presence of information asymmetry in the life insurance market.