Life insurance no longer popular in Belgium

Belgians are falling out of love with life insurance, figures from AG Insurance suggest, after the company saw sales fall by 20% in the first half of 2013. Delta Lloyd, for its part, suffered a 11% drop in sales of life insurance policies, De Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg report. Interest rates are so low that people opt for a savings account instead. "This is mainly due to the increase in the tax on insurance premiums, which rose this year by 1.1% to 2%, and also to very low interest rates for life insurance," says Gerrit Feyaerts, spokesman AG Insurance. ING, for its part, didn’t provide specific figures for Belgium, but noticed a decline of at least 64% in life insurance sales throughout  the Benelux for the first half of 2013.