Singapore's domestic general insurance sector recorded gross written premiums of S$6.09 billion in 2025, up 8.4% year on year and crossing the S$6 billion mark for the first time, according to figures released by the General Insurance Association of Singapore (GIA) and reported by The Business Times. Including offshore business, combined premiums rose 3.7% to S$11.2 billion (please verify current figures against GIA's official release).
The growth came alongside higher claims. Net incurred claims for the domestic segment rose 8.7% to S$1.8 billion, with motor claims up around 11% despite what GIA described as stable accident rates — a pattern the association linked to more severe accidents and a 10-year high in road traffic fatalities cited from Singapore Police Force data. Health insurance claims rose 6.4% to S$409.4 million, and property claims jumped 60.5%, partly on a rise in fire incidents.
For households, the useful signal is not the record headline but what sits underneath it: the cost of the risks we routinely carry — driving, owning a home, needing medical care, travelling — is rising faster than general inflation in several categories. That does not mean everyone needs more insurance. It means the assumptions behind existing policies are worth revisiting, because the same coverage today may not do the same job in five years.
At StickieMonies, the conversations we're having with clients in light of these numbers usually cover four things. First, motor and home cover: are sums insured and excesses still appropriate given current repair, replacement and legal-liability costs? Second, health and hospitalisation: how well does the current Integrated Shield Plan and rider structure sit alongside the household's cash buffer, especially with medical inflation running high? Third, travel cover: with outbound trips at record levels, is annual multi-trip cover a better fit than one-off policies? Fourth, employer-side risk for business owners: work injury compensation and public liability lines matter more as claims severity rises.
A few caveats worth stating plainly. Rising industry premiums do not automatically mean your own premium will rise by the same amount — pricing depends on your risk profile, claims history, insurer and product. And more coverage is not always the right answer; sometimes the right move is to keep the current policy and top up an emergency cash buffer instead. Insurance decisions carry trade-offs — cost, liquidity and the non-guaranteed nature of some features — and are best discussed with a qualified financial adviser against your own circumstances.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes on how your household's general insurance and health cover stack up in this environment, we're happy to walk through it. The original Business Times report is linked below.