Life
Growth
Amounts are always in euros: this changes how growth is measured, nothing else.
How growth is measured →By market
Premium in the line, its weight in each market, growth, the leader and the market's ratios after reinsurance (gross, marked, where insurers with half the line's premium give no net figures). Ratios marked ≈ are approximate and leave out expenses. Top three = the three largest insurers' share of the line. Select a heading to sort.
All figures
Five years
Premium, all markets
Combined ratio, largest markets
By market and year
Savings and protection
Life premium by kind
Savings share by year
Largest in savings and in protection
Profitability of life insurers
Insurers that write 90% or more of their premium in life, FY 2025: net profit, return on equity and net margin on each market's own definitions, the same figures as the "By type of insurer" table on its market page. Composites are left out: their accounts do not split profit between life and non-life.
Return on equity by market
Markets with two or more life insurers that report equity; the net margin under each.
The most profitable life insurers
Return on equity; insurers above €50m of premium that report their own accounts (no branches), as in the rankings.
Every market
| Market | Life insurers | Net profit €m | ROE | Net margin | Life expense ratio, all insurers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poland | 18 of 19 | 967.0 | 35.3% | 16.5% | 25% |
| Bulgaria | 9 of 10 | 52.4 | 16.7% | 16.0% | 19% |
| Romania | 6 of 6 | 43.5 | 30.0% | 6.9% | 32% |
| Lithuania | 5 of 5 | 40.9 | 17.6% | 14.6% | 24% |
| Hungary | 4 of 6 | 31.2 | 13.9% | 4.6% | 19% |
| Slovenia | 3 of 3 | 11.3 | 2.2% | 4.7% | 22% |
| Estonia | 5 of 5 | 11.0 | 15.0% | 12.0% | 21% |
| Latvia | 3 of 3 | 7.1 | 16.3% | 13.7% | 26% |
| North Macedonia | 6 of 6 | 4.8 | 10.0% | 9.3% | — |
| Montenegro | 4 of 4 | 3.8 | 8.8% | 12.2% | — |
| Albania | 4 of 5 | 3.6 | 13.5% | 16.8% | — |
| Croatia | 1 of 1 | 3.1 | — | 27.9% | 27% |
| Serbia | 4 of 4 | 2.5 | 9.0% | 5.0% | — |
| Kosovo* | 2 of 2 | 1.2 | 10.2% | 13.9% | — |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1 of 1 | 1.0 | — | 4.1% | — |
Net margin: net profit ÷ premium. Life expense ratio: acquisition and administrative expenses of all insurers' life business, composites included, over life earned premium (Solvency II reports; outside the EU the reports do not split expenses by life). Branches of foreign insurers report through their parent; a Baltic company counts in each country with that country's share of its premium (≈). Czechia, Slovakia and Moldova have no life insurer of their own that reports profit.
What's happening
Short notes on life in the region, in Polisa's words, each with its source and date. Updated 20 Oct 2026.
Life lags non-life. Premium in the life line (without the accident and health cover sold with life policies, which counts in those lines) grew 4.0% a year in euros from 2021 to 2025 (€11.4bn to €13.3bn), against 10.9% for the non-life lines; 2025 was its best year (+9%), led by Hungary (+28%) and Romania (+18%) in local currency.
Polisa figures · FY 2021–2025Polish life premiums outpace non-life. Life insurers wrote PLN 13.6bn in H1 2026, up 12.5%, while non-life grew 5.0%; single-premium business jumped 60.6%.
PIU · 26 Aug 2026Czech life new business up a third. Premium on new life policies rose 33% (CZK 1.7bn) in H1 2026; total life premium grew 7.6% on ČAP's count.
ČAP · 18 Aug 2026Hungary tightens unit-linked cost rules. Most of the central bank's Ethical Insurance 2.0 rules apply from 1 January 2026: funds must justify higher costs with higher expected returns, and clients see a personal cost indicator.
Világgazdaság · 13 Jan 2026EU value-for-money rules near a vote. The retail investment package, agreed in December 2025, would keep products that fail to offer value for money off the market; the Parliament plenary vote is set for 11 November 2026.
European Parliament · updated 20 Sep 2026
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Brussels pushes auto-enrolment. The Commission's November 2025 pensions package recommends automatic enrolment and proposes reworking the pan-European personal pension; only one in five working-age Europeans has a supplementary pension.
European Commission · 20 Nov 2025
Largest insurers in Life
All figures
Share of line = the insurer's share of this line in its own market. Ratios after reinsurance (net claims and expenses over net earned premium, S.05.01) where the insurer gives them, else gross, marked; lines under €1m earned are left out. Life ratios are not shown because life claims include maturities and surrenders.