Ecuador

Axco provides details on the life insurance sector including Ecuadorian 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.
Information on non-life classes for example critical illness and private medical insurance.

The report describes the public and private healthcare system in Ecuador, 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 Ecuadorian 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 Ecuador 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 

According to Axco Global Statistics, in 2019 Ecuador ranked 63 worldwide in life premiums, where amongst other Latin American countries Uruguay was 57 and Panama 67. Total life market premium was USD 431.4mn, up 5.2% on the previous year. Group life business, representing 90.8% of the total, grew by 5.6%, individual life by 2.2%. As the non-life market contracted by almost 18% from 2014 through 2019, life insurance premiums grew by almost 45%, with group life now second only to motor in terms of market premium income (ahead of property). Companies have increasingly sought to diversify away from non-life into group life at least and possibly other life classes.

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Although the administration of President Moreno did not follow slavishly the policies of his predecessor, it remained socialist in tone, maintaining an environment in which many politicians and trade union activists were opposed to any private sector involvement in the provision of pensions. Unless and until this situation changes it is difficult to see the private pensions market becoming a significant part of the financial sector.

There is very little private or company pension provision in Ecuador: insurers do not tend to be involved with the business except in ....

The public health system undoubtedly improved over the decade of the Correa administration through 2017 as the government focused on social issues. Access to Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS) treatment is not means-tested and contributors who might previously have been expected to purchase private cover became more prepared to rely on the public system. Government departments, once an important source of business for the private market, were understood to be using the state system as a matter of policy. More recently, however, there were signs of strain in the public system, with private medical insurance (PMI) becoming more desirable for those looking for speedier attention to their problems, as well as the existing sector which wants the opportunity to access ....