Life Insurance - E-book - ePub

Between the mid-70s and the late 80s, the insurance market, pension plan and capitalization stood stagnantly. High inflation, inhibitory regulation of competition and national cultureunaccustomed to insurance were the main obstacles. Since1990, the market has changed a lot. Governments have giveninsurers greater freedom of pricing and other policy conditions, several international companies started operating in Brazil, thesupply of products has diversified and increased competitionhas brought benefits to consumers in the form of fallingpremiums.
With the reforms of the early years of the 90s, itbegan a period of growth that was even more pronouncedafter the success of monetary stabilization of 1994 ended withhyperinflation. The leading indicators of the insurance marketmore than doubled. The annual revenue from insurancepremiums and contributions to pension plans rose from $ 32per capita in 1990 to $ 443 in 2013, and the ratio of thatrevenue to GDP increased from 1.2% to 4.0% in the sameperiod (excluding health insurance). The importance of the sector exceeds, by far, the numericalexpression.
Indeed, daily life, as we know since the IndustrialRevolution, would be impossible without insurance. Companiescould not take risks as they do at present. Therefore, theirinvestments would be severely restricted and, with them, thefuture expansion of the economies. Whole markets wouldcollapse: just imagine what would happen with car sales, withthe credit market and foreign trade if there were no insurancesupport.
The insurance industry, increasingly, supplements theState in providing critical services in health and social securityand, in doing so, allows the state to focus attention andresources on meeting the needs of the poorest sections of thepopulation.