The Swiss firm, which provides services including wealth management solutions, reported a rise in adjusted profits for 2015.

Swiss Life, the Zurich-listed financial services group providing services including wealth management solutions, said adjusted profit from operations in 2015 were SFr1.3 billion ($1,29 billion), a year-on-year rise of 17 per cent.

All units of the business contributed to growth, the firm said in a statement. Net profit increased by 7 per cent year-on-year to SFr878 million.

The firm is one of those insurers that provide solutions for high net worth individuals and other clients, such as through private placement insurance and other structures. This is a segment of the wealth management market that this news service explored, for example, here.

Fees rose by 36 per cent to SFr342 million; premium income, at SFr18.9 billion, equated in local currency terms to a rise of 5 per cent but a fall of 1 per cent when calculated in the Swiss franc.
Swiss Life Asset Managers drew in net new assets from its third-party business at SFr7.2 billion (2014: SFr4.5 billion). Swiss Life logged a net investment return of 3.7 per cent (2014: 3.8 per cent). 
The firm’s board of directors proposed to raise the dividend from SFr6.50 to SFr8.50. 

"Low and negative interest rates are not the only challenges facing financial providers. The whole sector is confronting an unstable global economy, restrictive regulatory requirements, rapid technological advances and, last but not least, changing customer behaviour. All of which made it anything but certain that we would be able to continue gaining momentum this past year, and enjoy profitable growth," Patrick Frost, chief executive. "The pleasing results are an expression of the great work done by our employees in recent years, and provide an excellent basis for the Swiss Life Group to develop further,” he added.

Regions
In the home market of Switzerland, premium volume rose by 5 per cent to SFr10.5 billion. In group life business Swiss Life saw a 6 per cent increase in premiums to SFr8.9 billion.
In France Swiss Life grew premiums by 2 per cent to SFr4.2 billion. The proportion of unit-linked solutions rose to 60 per cent, a result the firm said it is “pleasing”. In Germany there was a 2 per cent decline in premiums to €1.3 billion: The planned reduction of traditional business was largely offset by the increase in the share of modern savings products as well as disability and long-term care insurance solutions, Swiss Life said.

Swiss Life International, a business including regions including Asia, posted premium growth of 14 per cent to €2.3 billion. 

As at 31 December 2015, Swiss Life Asset Managers had a total of SFr185 billion under management, up 1 per cent on a year earlier; this figure includes SFr39 billion in real estate.