mylife.ie · Research

Working Paper Series

Original consumer-facing analysis of the Irish life assurance, mortgage protection and serious illness markets. Published to inform Irish consumers, policymakers and the wider research community.

The mylife.ie Working Paper Series is published by SMP Financial Ltd, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (C42382). Papers are written by Donal Milmo-Penny QFA FLIA and are available without restriction. They do not constitute regulated financial advice.

MWP-2026-06·September 2026

Serious Illness · Conditions Lists

The Concentration of Value

Condition-list length and the computed value of serious-illness cover in Ireland

The five domestic offices market serious-illness lists of 70 to 112 conditions. Valued on the MWP-2026-05 engine, three illness families — invasive cancer, heart attack and stroke — carry 97.1 to 98.1 per cent of every policy's computed head, and no admissible re-ranking of the wordings takes that share below 89.9 per cent. The remaining headings are bounded and in large part contractually capped: the length of the list is a poor guide to the value of the cover.

70–112

Marketed conditions per office

97.1–98.1%

Head value in three families

89.9%

Lowest floor, any ranking

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MWP-2026-05·July 2026

Serious Illness · Fair Value

Serious Illness Cover in Ireland

Claims, definitions and fair value for consumers

Serious-illness cover pays on a contractual definition, not a diagnosis alone. Mapping each domestic office's policy conditions to a common disease classification and valuing them against independently sourced Irish incidence for ten representative lives, the fair-value index varies across offices by several times more than premium does; no office leads across the whole age range; and under unisex pricing an identical contract at an identical premium delivers less expected benefit to a woman than to a man.

0.34–0.85

Market fair-value range (avg buyer)

0.05–0.28

Male–female value gap

Representative lives valued

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MWP-2026-04·July 2026

Longevity · Solvency II

Longevity Insurance

for the Irish ARF and vested PRSA market

A neutral technical assessment. A regular-premium deferred whole-of-life annuity for the Irish ARF and vested-PRSA market is specified, priced and reserved under the Solvency II standard formula. The pricing works and the design is fair to buy on a right-sized commission; but holding SCR coverage at every valuation date requires about €36,780 of day-one own funds per policy against €3,913 of lifetime margin, and the Article 138 longevity stress delivers 0.545 of a stochastic 99.5% charge for this liability.

€36.8m

Day-1 own funds / 1,000 policies

€9.40

Capital per €1 of margin

0.545

Art. 138 ÷ CBD 99.5%

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MWP-2026-03·June 2026

Product Design · Solvency II

The Decreasing-Term Anachronism

Schedule mismatch in Irish mortgage protection and three modernisation candidates

The standard Irish mortgage-protection product is a decreasing-term assurance whose sum-assured schedule is fixed at policy inception to a notional 6% amortisation curve.

€14,332

Mean over-insurance

€22,292

Peak over-insurance

Notional rate convention

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MCR-2025·June 2026

Claims & Quality

Life Insurance Claims in Ireland — 2025

A comprehensive whole-of-market report and analysis (second annual edition)

The second annual whole-of-market study of Irish claims experience. The five domestic offices — Irish Life, New Ireland, Zurich, Aviva and Royal London Ireland — paid more than €919m in protection claims across 18,200+ individual claims in 2025, up 8.4% on 2024. Life-cover paid rates cluster at 97–99%; the meaningful differences sit in specified serious illness.

€919m+

Claims paid in 2025

18,200+

Individual claims

Offices covered

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MWP-2026-02·May 2026

Pricing · Distribution

The Bank Premium

Tied bancassurance distribution and mortgage-protection pricing in Ireland

Irish pillar lenders distribute mortgage protection through single tied life offices. Whole-of-market quotation reveals a typical premium gap of 20–30 per cent — costing Irish households an estimated €28 million per year.

20–30%

Bank premium gap

€28m

Annual household cost

€56m

30-year vintage cost

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MWP-2026-01·April 2026

Switching · Cost

The Mortgage Protection Switching Gap

Why Irish mortgage-protection policyholders do not switch, and what it costs them

Switching mortgage protection after origination can reduce the annual premium by approximately 27.5 per cent for a representative borrower. Yet switching rates remain far below the level predicted under standard rational-consumer assumptions.

27.5%

Typical saving on switch

€3,000+

Lifetime saving (30yr term)

Low

Observed switching rate

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MCR-2024·April 2026

Claims & Quality

Life Insurance Claims in Ireland — 2024

A comprehensive whole-of-market report and analysis (first annual edition)

The first annual whole-of-market study of Irish claims experience. The five domestic offices — Irish Life, New Ireland, Aviva, Zurich Life and Royal London Ireland — paid at least €847.7m in protection claims across 17,475+ individual claims in 2024. Life-cover paid rates run 98–99%; serious-illness paid rates are structurally lower, and cancer dominates the serious-illness book.

€847.7m+

Claims paid in 2024

17,475+

Individual claims

Offices covered

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Series author

Donal Milmo-Penny QFA FLIA

Research Lead, mylife.ie

More than twenty years of experience in Irish financial services, protection and client advisory work. Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA) and Fellow of the Life Insurance Association (FLIA). Former Chairman of PIBA and Director of Brokers Ireland.

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Working papers are published for information only and do not constitute regulated financial advice. SMP Financial Ltd t/a mylife.ie is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland (C42382). Registered office: 55 Ailesbury Road, Dublin 4, D04 F8C0. CRO: 315830.