Zurich Financial Services said Thursday that it is to buy 50% of the general and life insurance companies of Spanish firm Caixa d’Estalvis de Sabadell for $360 million (227 million euros).

There is also an earn-out option of up to $150 million depending on the future performance of the two units.

In 2007, premiums written by the two Spanish companies reached $366 million.

Zurich’s chief executive for Global Life Insurance, Mario Greco says: ‘The transaction represents a high potential growth opportunity for us to expand in one of our key growth areas.’

There is an increasing number of British Soldiers wanting life insurance. Members of the Armed Forces who are currently serving in places such as Iraq are taking out more accident and life insurance, according to industry experts.

It is thought this is an attempt by servicemen and women, to increase Ministry of Defence (MOD) compensation pay-outs should anything happen to them whilst their on duty.

Keith Simpson, a conservative MP, said: ‘The question you have to ask is why do soldiers feel that what the Government offer as compensation is not enough. You also wonder what the premiums must be.’

An MOD report that was leaked last year revealed that soldiers could end up paying nearly £1,000 a year for life cover.

Life assurer Friends Provident, that is currently a takeover target, has entered a new phase of the long-running saga of its courtship by JC Flowers.

An offer of 150p a share (valuing the company at £3.5 billion) has been rejected by Friends Provident, with the backing of Scottish Widows, their biggest shareholder.

However, according to a Sunday Times report, Centaurus Capital which holds a 3% stake in Friends Provident, is pushing for negotiations to be re-opened, as they believe the rejected offer is close to an acceptable figure.

Centaurus’ action follows speculation that JC Flowers is willing to walk away from the proposed deal before the Takeover Panel deadline expires.

Indexation can now be added at a fixed rate between 2% and 5% for life cover or critical illness cover on guaranteed rates or linked to the retail price index.

Bright Grey has also increased the maximum term for life cover or critical illness cover from 30 to 40 years.

Kevin Stevens, Head of intermediary sales said: ‘Adding indexation offers excellent value for money by maintaining the true value of a client’s protection. It also means that cover can be increased every year without the need for medical information.’

He adds: ‘Indexation is an immensely valuable option in the adviser’s toolkit. Selecting the indexation option, at no extra cost, gives their clients the added piece of mind that should they be ill during the term of the plan, they still have the ability to increase their cover.’

The Sunday Times has reported that JC Flowers is working on a revised takeover bid for Friends Provident.

Last week, the Takeover Panel intervened after the US private equity group’s informal offer of £3.5 billion was rejected by Friends Provident.

JC Flowers has until the end of the Month to table a forma bid and has been in conversation with a number of groups who may be interested in buying parts of the business.

Following last year’s failure of its merger negotiations with Resolution, Friends has been undertaking a strategic review that has led to the auction of its Lombard division.

Friends Provident has been up for sale since January.

Recent research has found that 20 million adults in the UK are without life cover or income protection insurance. The reason is not because it is unaffordable, but is simply due to apathy.

More than a third (37%) of people who responded to the Norwich Union survey said they did not have life cover because they haven’t got round to it or they have not thought about it.

The results of this survey are not at all suprising. Insurers and advisers are well aware that people do not wake up in the morning with the desire to purchase income protection or life cover. It is only when they take out a mortgage or become aware of someone who has suffered an illness that they might think about life or critical illness insurance.

Even then the uptake is poor, according to research by AXA, the average family is under-insured by £176,776 and three quarters of UK adults are under-insured by an average of £96,927.

The Health Insurance & Protection magazine suggests that one place protection could be encouraged is within the workplace:  ‘Using employers to actively target people’s protection needs seems like the next logical step’.

Over the last year, Legal & General have paid out £110m in critical illness claims.

The critical illness claim average was for £60,000, and for a serious condition such as heart attacks, multiple sclerosis or even a terminal illness, the figures reveal almost 90% of claims were successful.

In 2006 the success rate was 83.3%, and this rose 88.2% in 2007.

Critical illness claims not paid out due to non-disclosure fell from 12.1% two years ago to just 7.7% in 2007.

The increase both in successful critical illness claims and the overall amount paid out is a strong sign of Legal & General’s commitment to lessening the number of claims declined, according to Bernie Hickman, the firm’s MD of Protection.

Such an approach should assist customers in believing that insurers will treat them fairly, Hickman has stated.

As well as the critical illness payouts, £179m was paid out in life insurance, at a rate of 96.3%.

Standard Life have reported a 43% profit rise in 2007.

The insurance company secured new business in high margin products while at the same time lowering costs.

Pre-tax profit rose 32%, to £714 million, despite investors withdrawing £249 million from policies that had not reached their maturity dates.

In reporting the results, Standard Life was also able to assure investors that it held no direct exposures to the US mortgage market.

Standard Life’s Chief Executive said: ‘We have beaten all our profitability and efficiency targets for 2007 and achieved record sales, a platform which we will build upon for further growth in years to come. Against an uncertain economic backdrop we have made a good start to 2008 and are working to improve our core profitability.’

According to a leading insurance company, smoking is taken in to account when calculating life insurance premiums.

Sarah Horner, a spokesperson for Norwich Union said: ‘A non-smoker can pay around half the premium as their smoker counterpart.’

Industry experts have suggested the smoking ban that was introduced in July 2007 would encourage more people to quit smoking. However, Miss Horner believes it will take some time before these people will enjoy lower life cover premiums.

‘At Norwich Union we ask that people have been free from using tobacco products for 12 months or more before they are classed as non-smokers.’

‘It is probably too early to tell the full impact of the smoking ban, but the savings for non-smokers can be significant, so it is quite possible that in July we may see people requesting fresh quotes for their policies as non-smokers.’

A leading finance company has conducted research, finding people would rather get rid of non-essential items such as mobile phone contracts, before surrendering their payment protection or Life Cover policies.

Only one in ten would choose to give up their life insurance policy due to a tighter budget and over a third of people cited Life Cover as their most important policy.

According to this research the second most important policy, came in as Income Protection .

And interestingly the first thing people would cut out instead of Life Insurance Cover would be TV subscriptions, followed by mobile phone contracts.