THE pension market is now larger than the traditional life assurance market, according to Mr Michael Brennan, managing director of Eagle Star Life Assurance. "Significantly, for the industry as whole, new pension premiums exceeded new life premiums for the first time in 1995," he said.

The pattern is backed up by Eagle Star's own new business figures published this week. Sales of annual premium pensions were up 36.7 per cent to £7.11 million while sales of single premium pension products grew by 57.2 per cent to £27.92 million.

Annual premium life products sales fell by 18.4 per cent to £4.3 million while single premium life products sales were down by 55.2 per cent to £13.02 million.

The trend is good news for Eagle Star, believes Mr Brennan, as its pension funds have outperformed competitors over the last five years.