Some insurers register 50% growth
Four companies told Lusa today that Portugal’s pet insurance market is growing rapidly, with some insurers registering 50% growth in the volume of policies.
Fidelidade, Generali Tranquilidade, Mapfre, and Ageas are among companies offering pet insurance in Portugal. They describe rapid growth rates but still believe up-take could be higher, considering the number of Portuguese households with pets.
As of the end of July, a source for Fidelidade revealed that the company has a portfolio of 82,000 policies in force and sustained growth of around 50%.
Generali Tranquilidade has also seen the volume of policies increase “by almost 50% since 2022 – already representing more than a million euros”, said a source.
Ageas Portugal, which began in 2009, has “approximately 20,500 pet insurance policies, distributed through the following channels: Bancassurance, through the Ocidental brand (55%); Agents and Brokers, through the Ageas Seguros brand (37%); and directly on petis.pt (%)”. This year saw “a growth of 41 % in the number of new policies”, according to Bruno Vaz – responsible for the group’s Non-Life offer.
Mapfre entered the animal insurance market in 2011 and currently has more than 20,000 policies, having grown by an average of 20% per year. “Our portfolio has remained stable since 2022,” said Carla Quinteiro, Mapfre’s technical and operations director.
The insurers’ business is definitely beginning to recognize this segment’s importance.
“In terms of premium volume, at the end of 2023, pet insurance in the Ageas Portugal Group accounted for approximately 11% of the Civil Liability branch,” said Bruno Vaz.
Fidelidade agreed that “more than half of the customers (for pet insurance) are new to the company (51%) and many purchase plan 3 (the most complete and expensive), which is an excellent indicator of the potential that this product brings at various levels, both from the point of view of portfolio renewal and value, as they are potential customers with greater purchasing power”.
For Mapfre, the weight of this branch “is small in relation to the total volume of business”, said Carla Quinteiro, which is still much more heavily focused on the Portuguese non-life insurance market, health, motor and fire insurance and multi-risk (damage to property).
Further afield, insurance online insurancenews.net reports on what it calls “deep analysis by Emergen Research” which expects the global pet insurance market to continue rapid growth as owners become increasingly aware of the benefits it can bring, particularly when it comes to “unexpected veterinary costs”.
Source material: LUSA
