Insurance Searches for Growth Drivers

There's Growth. But Not the Right Kind

Russia's insurance market posted record premium collections of around 4 trillion rubles in 2025, up 7% from the previous year. At first glance, the industry appears to be showing steady growth, but Russia still lags far behind developed markets. Insurance premiums as a share of GDP remain at 1.9%, while in OECD countries this figure ranges from 6 to 9%.

We spoke with insurance companies and experts and asked them to explain: what's behind the numbers, and when will Russian insurance become truly mass-market?

Half the Market Isn't Really Insurance

To understand the nature of the growth, we need to break down the structure of those 4 trillion rubles. Life insurance accounted for 2.2 trillion rubles (about 57% of the total market), confirming its status as the largest segment. Non-credit life insurance (Накопительное страхование жизни and Инвестиционное страхование жизни) grew by 11.2%, while all other segments combined added just 2.2%. In other words, Russia's insurance market is largely growing not where insurers cover actual risks—property losses, health impairment, unforeseen expenses. It's growing where it competes with bank deposits.

Director of the Strategic Analysis Center at IngosstrakhEvgenia Vasilyevaexplains this dynamic plainly: demand for НСЖ surged due to tax arbitrage between life insurance and deposits. Simply put, people were chasing tax breaks, not insurance protection. This doesn't mean that ИСЖ and НСЖ are low-quality products.

"It's a genuinely long-term protective savings product with transparent returns, guarantees, and a clear insurance component,"Vasilyeva emphasizes.

But herein lies the explanation for why market growth doesn't translate into increased actual insurance coverage for citizens. One trillion in a quasi-deposit (НСЖ or ИСЖ) and one trillion in home insurance are fundamentally different things for the risk economy.

Where Protection Is Needed, Growth Is Modest

While life insurance enjoys double-digit growth, segments directly related to protecting citizens' property and health are growing significantly slower.

Property insurance for individuals grew 8.5% in 2025 to 136.9 billion rubles, while corporate property insurance showed +12.9%, reaching 170.3 billion rubles. The numbers are good, but in a 4 trillion ruble market this is a niche story—and the double-digit growth stems from a low base effect. According to VSK analysts, only 15% of homeowners in Russia have property insurance policies, which keeps this market segment extremely limited.

The situation with voluntary health insurance is more complex. Total voluntary health insurance premiums in 2025 amounted to 323.7 billion rubles, but nearly all of this is corporate: companies insuring their employees. The largest segment—corporate voluntary health insurance—grew 14.2% to 258.2 billion rubles, with the number of insured employees increasing by 0.9%. Personal voluntary health insurance, which individuals purchase for themselves, remains "exotic." This is a systemic problem: insurance works where it's embedded in HR packages, not where people make independent purchasing decisions.

Vice President of RESO-GarantiaIgor Ivanovsees a deeper cause behind this: namely, the structure of household spending and the absence of insurance incentives.

"Expenses on food, utilities, medicine, clothing, and other urgent needs are absolutely top priorities for too many households. And there are very few tax incentives for policyholders who are willing to take on the costs of insurance protection for their property and health."

When most of the budget goes to basic needs, home insurance or personal voluntary health insurance simply don't enter the financial planning horizon.

Paternalism as a Structural Barrier

There's another factor that insurers call systemic, and it's not low income. It's the expectation that the state will come to the rescue in any difficult situation.

"In our country, a paternalistic character of relations between citizen and state developed under Soviet rule and persists to this day," saysIgor Ivanovfrom RESO-Garantia. According to him, the belief that the state is obligated to provide new housing to replace what was lost in a fire or natural disaster largely determines attitudes toward the institution of insurance itself—why pay for protection if you'll be helped anyway in a crisis?

Telega Strakhovshchika describes the same problem among a range of factors:

"In aggregate—low incomes, short planning horizons, low trust. And also—people's expectation that the state should come to the aid of any citizen."

This isn't abstract sociology: this is precisely why emergency home insurance is one of the most systemically underdeveloped segments of the Russian market, despite the fact that climate and natural risks in Russia are objectively high. And this is also confirmed by expert calculations: excluding mortgage policies, the share of housing insured specifically against emergency risks amounts to just 3-7%.

"Insurers Don't Pay": Myths That Live in Society

Beyond paternalism and spending patterns, the market faces another barrier—reputational myths that industry representatives link to stereotypes and the famous Russian "avos'" (maybe it won't happen).

Director of Analytics and Strategic Planning at AlfaStrakhovanieMikhail Stepanovidentifies two key consumer misconceptions: "Nothing will happen to me" and "Insurers don't pay anything." In his observation, understanding the value of insurance in many types can only come from experiencing a real loss. That's why segments with frequent events work well—travel insurance, OSAGO. But home or health insurance involves experiences too rare to generate sustained demand.

"The record for OSAGO payouts today is less than an hour instead of several days or even weeks required for the whole process just a few years ago. And in flight delay insurance, just 16 seconds and no document collection".

Vice President of RESO-GarantiaIgor Ivanovreminds us of the importance of media imbalance:

"Positive information about how insurance works is only accessible to professionals. In mass media, information about insurance is overwhelmingly negative—stories of scandals and complaints, very often unfounded. But stories from clients grateful to insurers can, alas, only be placed for money—as advertising."

Telega Strakhovshchika expands the set of myths: insurance is expensive, insurers never pay, and why get insured if the state will help in difficult times. "Each of these is unfounded and deals a blow to the insurance market," the channel states.

Where the Real Growth Potential Lies

If we remove ИСЖ/НСЖ from the agenda as a separate quasi-banking market and focus on insurance as a protection tool—where is the real growth potential? Experts identify several areas that remain untapped.

Voluntary health insurance for small and medium businesses.Corporate voluntary health insurance is growing confidently in large companies—there it's already become an HR package norm. But SMEs are barely involved in this market. Evgenia Vasilyeva from Ingosstrakh identifies key conditions for scaling: affordable packages for small companies, telemedicine, electronic document management with clinics, and a predictable tax regime for employers.

Cyber attack insurance.AlfaStrakhovanie sees great potential in this segment for legal entities. It's still a relatively new product in the Russian market, but demand from businesses will only grow—as the number of cyber attacks increases and economic activity becomes more digitized.

Home insurance with catastrophic risks.RESO-Garantia Vice President Igor Ivanov names this as one of the key priorities alongside life insurance and professional liability. Ingosstrakh also highlights citizens' and small businesses' property "with a catastrophic risk component" as an area with clear untapped potential. The insurance market occupies a niche here that government programs cover poorly and inconsistently.

Personal voluntary health insurance and pension insurance. Telega Strakhovshchika views these segments as a long-term reserve: "Development of personal, rather than collective or corporate voluntary health insurance, development of pension life insurance with policy terms of 30+ years"—this is precisely what could deliver a real shift in market structure. But both segments require what most citizens lack: a long planning horizon.