British Virgin Islands

Axco provides details on the life insurance sector including local market participants, reinsurance and distribution channels. The reports describe classes of business from both individual and group life such as whole life, endowment, term life and unit-linked.
The report provides information on non-life classes for example critical illness and private medical insurance.

The life and benefits report describes the public and private healthcare system in Australia, the scope of cover, accessibility financing and provides an analysis of how the public and private systems complement each other.

Axco reports on the three pillars of pension provision.

• State pension benefits including benefit calculations and eligibility criteria 
• Workplace pension provision; types of schemes calculations eligibility and; tax implications
• Voluntary individual pension provision, type of products and tax implications

The Hong Kong report provides an in-depth analysis of the regulatory framework governing social security as well as details on financing and eligibility. Information includes but is not limited to

• state pensions,
• permanent disability benefit
• occupational accident and disease
• maternity and paternity payments 

Summary & Trends

BVI is a mature Caribbean local market with historic roots in the British insurance market tradition and in its practices based on English law. There are no locally incorporated dedicated life, pension or healthcare insurers; most of this business is transacted with a few players from the US or UK through local agencies or brokers. In October 2020 there were 37 licensed domestic insurance companies, split broadly evenly between those majoring in non-life business and those covering life and healthcare classes, including mutuals as well as joint stock companies. 

Life premiums fell significantly in 2018 from USD 7.09mn to USD 1.33mn largely caused by lost jobs, reducing group and individual sales. The health sector reduced significantly upon the introduction of universal healthcare in 2016. It had seen an income of USD 61.40mn in 2016 but this had fallen to USD 7.49mn in 2018.

Summary & Trends

There is no formal private pension market although local agents and brokers have access to retirement plans and annuities from licensed and offshore players, although these tend to be sold to high net-worth individuals representing a tiny section of the population. Regulation relating to this sector that is contained in taxation legislation and in the Pensions Act

Summary & Trends

NHIS legislation, under Social Security (Amendment) Act, 2014, came into force 1 December 2015, going live 1 January 2016, universal in nature, accessible to all subject to registration. It should be noted that, albeit not within the insurance market itself, the government purchases reinsurance for the NHIS.