World Life Insurance Report 2025

Life insurers today face declining penetration rates in mature markets. Many consumers are at best only mildly interested in traditional life insurance products, and the industry is struggling to meet new and more challenging life insurance customer experience expectations – with legacy technology being a major barrier to driving meaningful change.

The World Life Insurance Report 2025 reflects the views of 6,186 life insurance customers in 18 countries, as well as insights from interviews with 213 leading life insurance company executives across 16 markets; both of these research initiatives gathered inputs from all regions of the globe – the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

Our report’s life insurance industry analysis suggests that only a small group of life insurers globally – five percent¹ – are delivering quantifiably outstanding customer experience (CX) and achieving “best-in-class” status. To get on board, key findings recommend the balance of mainstream life insurers need to:

• Address policyholder dissatisfaction challenges at every stage of the customer journey, including product offerings, onboarding, servicing, and claims experiences
• Lean into advanced technology to modernize legacy systems, streamline data management, and enable Gen AI
• Cultivate talent and partnerships to drive a customer-centric culture and increase efficiency across the value chain.

Our analysis shows that best-in-class insurers go beyond developing advanced capabilities – they effectively translate these into measurable business outcomes. They consistently outperform mainstream insurers by achieving higher customer satisfaction, lowering operational costs, and driving stronger revenue growth than the industry, demonstrating their ability to convert enhanced customer experiences into tangible business success.