By Life Quotes, Inc. Staff

For the first half of 2010, life insurance sales broke with the general economic trends and posted a nearly 10 percent increase in sales, according to statistics from LIMRA, an industry umbrella group.

Whole-life policies were among the most popular products sold in the market sector, according to LIMRA, accounting for nearly a third of all sales. This, the group notes, is the highest figure for this type of product since 1998.

In contrast to the growth in whole-life policies, term-life sales trended downward by 11 percent in the second quarter of 2010, the organization said.

LIMRA product research analyst Ashley Durham warned, however, that the growth numbers came after a disastrous 2009, a year “which experienced the steepest six month drop in individual life insurance sales in almost 70 years. Still, things appear to be looking up.”

Durham added that more than three-quarters of the top 20 life insurance firms posted improved numbers during the studied period, and that more than half of all such companies were doing better than they had.

This article was originally published by Life Quotes, Inc.