Great overview of the impact of recent global events on the life insurance market from Petra Hielkema, Chair of EIOPA. 

The speech also sets out EIOPA’s 5 key considerations when examining whether unit-linked products offer consumers value for money:

1. Pricing – manufacturers should be able to present a structured pricing process with clearly identified and quantified costs and no undue charges
2. Complexity – consumer information in insurance-based investment products to be simpler, shorter, more visual and free of unnecessary jargon 
3. Testing – before market introduction, after significant adaptations and whenever needs, objectives and characteristics of the target market or the risks have changed significantly 
4. Monitoring – manufacturers should regularly review their unit-linked products to identify events that could materially affect the main features, the risk coverage or the guarantees
5. Supervision – national supervisory authorities should monitor manufacturers’ efforts to offer fair value for money to their customers

Navigating low rates, the pandemic and inflation – shifting patterns in life insurance | Eiopa (europa.eu)

Value for money issues are closely linked to product oversight and governance rules and it’s important to make sure that consumer needs are taken into account throughout the entire product lifecycle, from design to distribution.

https://www.eiopa.europa.eu/media/speeches-presentations/speech/navigating-low-rates-pandemic-and-inflation-%E2%80%93-shifting-patterns_en?source=search