Life insurance risk inflows increased by more than 10% in 2011, with new premium sales up 17% as virtually all companies experienced growth in risk business, according to new figures from Plan for Life.

The rise took total inflows to $10.3bn across the year with AIA Australia (33.5%), CommInsure (16.2%), Zurich (14.0%), BT/Westpac (13.4%) and TAL (10.1%) achieving some of the highest growth rates.

The largest growth in inflows came from the Individual Risk Income Market, covering income protection, sickness and accident, and business expenses insurance.

Inflows in this market were up 10.8% year on year, influenced by both the price and profitability of the small business sector, according to Plan for Life (PFL). BT/Westpac led with growth of 24%, followed by OnePath growth of 17.7% and AIA growth of 16.6%.

In the Group Risk Market forming the insurance component of super funds, master funds, wrap accounts and credit risk insurance, AIA (38.2%), CommInsure (32.5%) and AMP (15.6%) achieved the best results in inflows. Sales jumped dramatically however by more than a quarter in 2011, with many insurers reporting triple digit growth albeit from low bases.

The most modest growth came from the Individual Risk Lump Sum Market, covering term life, total and permanent disablement and trauma insurance, although this was still robust with a 10% increase in inflows and a 9.4% sales increase.

Suncorp (34.4%), AIA (24.3%) and BT/Westpac (13.6%) led in sales growth while AIA (22.1%), Suncorp (11.9%) and TAL (11.0%) topped premium inflow growth.

AMP Group still sits at the top of the chart in total risk premium inflows in absolute terms with $1.66bn for the year ended December 2011, while CommInsure led total risk premium sales in absolute terms with $390 million for 2011.