In the shadow of the pandemic and the subsequent volatile stock market, the yearly development of life insurance companies’ assets was strong compared with last year. In percentage terms, the value of the assets increased by 12 percent, which is the third largest increase in the past ten years, only about 2 percentage points less than in the record year 2014, when it was 14 percent.

Life insurance companies’ assets were valued at SEK 5 068 billion at the end of 2020, which is SEK 552 billion more than last year.

Investment assets in which the insurance holder carries the investment risk accounted for the single largest nominal increase (SEK 334 billion), followed by investment assets in which the life insurance company carried the risk, which increased by SEK 203 billion.

Premiums and assets of non-life insurance companies

National non-life insurance companies’ net premiums written amounted to SEK 85 billion, up by SEK 5 billion compared with the previous year. Total assets amounted to SEK 539 billion, compared with SEK 540 billion in 2019.

Large local non-life insurance companies reported net premiums written of about SEK 24 billion. The corresponding figure in 2019 was SEK 23 billion. The balance sheet total was SEK 146 billion, about SEK 10 billion more than a year ago. Results from insurance operations of large local life insurance companies amounted to just over SEK 1 billion, compared with 2019, when results from insurance operations amounted to virtually zero.

A more detailed presentation of this survey is available in table form.

Swedish insurance companies 2020 (xlsx)