Life Insurance is a simple necessity in modern times that are dominated by stress and worry over money issues in the current economical crisis that is decimating families all across the world. Trouble continues to ensue however after even life insurance companies begin to struggle. The news broke today that AIG, a popular life insurance provider, posted an astonishing $9 billion loss and decided to sell their Asia Branch to Great Britain’s Prudential PLC for a speculated $35.5 billion. Just what does it mean when life insurance companies are also suffering in the global economical crisis and what could this mean for the future?
While the current announcements that are all over the news state that the deal was in the best interest of American taxpayers, there could be much more to the story than meets the eye. AIG’s situation when it comes to its losses became so dire in December of 2009 that it was pretty much a given that action needed to be taken in order to progress and that is when they decided to sell large stakes in its insurance business in a failed attempt to cut their losses. This evidently failed as on Sunday , February 28th, 2010, negotiations were reportedly in process negotiating the sale of the company, which was of course confirmed on Monday, March 1st, 2010 to British Prudential.
It seems that the economical crisis is indeed still in tact after many months of suspected return to the norm. Even huge business empires such as AIG have fallen victim to the global recession that has decimated the economy now for over two years and evidently is showing no signs of slowing down. When the recession first hit, smaller businesses such as pubs and retailers were the first to fall victim, but as time went on, even global chains such as Woolworths fell victim as people continued to refuse to spend money and now it seems even AIG has fallen victim, possibly due to the aforementioned reasons and people withdrawing their life insurance savings to spend on bare necessities, simply not able to afford the payments.
The deal has been announced to restructure the company and provide the leading insurer in South East Asia after aligning with British Prudential and AIA. The deal could mean a variety of things for Asia and the companies involved, but at first glance, it seems like Life Insurance policies may soon become more affordable and more prominent as the company attempts to cut its losses and progress with a new range of policies, outlooks and prices. While more information is currently not yet available, it is safe to assume that the company has every intention to simply progress with popularizing life insurance policies and bringing them back to mainstream public attention.