Wealth Management Opportunities in the European Life Insurance Industry
Abstract
The concepts of investing, saving, and wealth management encompass a broad set of services focused on managing clients’ wealth. Wealth management brings together not only managing clients’ assets but also other products such as tax planning, pension plans, real estate, art advisory, investments, and insurance.
In a new report, Wealth Management Opportunities in the European Life Insurance Industry, Celent provides an update on the life insurance industry in Europe, focusing on the distribution landscape and investment products related to insurance. The European life insurance market has experienced a period of turbulence in the past three years, and the main countries remain at different stages of development, as they were before the financial crisis.
“The recent financial crisis has triggered changes in the way insurers and insured perceive the value of investments and savings insurance products,” says Nicolas Michellod, Senior Analyst with Celent’s Insurance Group and coauthor of the report. “It seems that we have reached a crossroads, where investment and savings insurance products involving high market risk for individuals and insurers have become a second choice to protection products.”
“Life insurance companies are well positioned to distribute wealth management related products and be long-term retirement solution providers,” adds Isabella Fonseca, Research Director and coauthor of the report.
This report looks at IT spending levels by life insurers in Europe and evaluates technology trends. The report also provides a view of the main IT vendors active in the wealth management space that are targeting life insurance companies. It concludes with a prospective look at the future of the life insurance industry.