Direct life, health and medical insurance carriers — NAICS 52411 industry report

01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–429244%

5–98713%

10–19579%

20–4910616%

50–99254%

100–199142%

200–499477%

500+305%

Of 658 Canadian establishments with employees, 58% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario24237%

Quebec16024%

British Columbia8613%

Alberta8112%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Finance and Insurance, US · opened 2020

85.2%

1 year

65.1%

3 years

53.8%

5 years

38.4%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 524, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

national competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 524 Insurance carriers and related activities

Carrying risk needs regulatory capital. Brokerage is the enterable side — a recurring-commission book that is bought and sold at known multiples and is being rolled up by private equity.

Who sets the price: Carriers set rates and commissions; regulators approve.
The software it runs on: Carrier core systems; broker management systems for agencies.

03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 5241 Insurance carriers covers it.

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 5241

Insurance Carrier Core SystemsStructure decides

binding constraint: entry cost

Incumbent Guidewire (NYSE: GWRE)

Policy administration, billing and claims for a carrier is the insurance equivalent of a core banking replacement: multi-year, regulator-visible, and undertaken about once a generation. Guidewire's 25–30% share of Tier 1 and 2 carriers rests on that replacement cycle rather than on product superiority, and the mid-market is already contested by a Vista-backed Duck Creek and two international challengers. Distinct from the broker-side study at 524210 — different buyer, different system, an order of magnitude more capital.

NAICS 52415 vendors named5 sourced figuresOpen →

04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

Vertical softwareScreenedfiled at 5241 Insurance carriers

Insurance Carrier Core SystemsStructure decides

binding constraint: entry cost

Incumbent Guidewire (NYSE: GWRE)

Policy administration, billing and claims for a carrier is the insurance equivalent of a core banking replacement: multi-year, regulator-visible, and undertaken about once a generation. Guidewire's 25–30% share of Tier 1 and 2 carriers rests on that replacement cycle rather than on product superiority, and the mid-market is already contested by a Vista-backed Duck Creek and two international challengers. Distinct from the broker-side study at 524210 — different buyer, different system, an order of magnitude more capital.

NAICS 52415 vendors named5 sourced figuresOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

05

Who works here

The occupations employed in Finance and insurance, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Insurance, real estate and financial sales occupations Mostly one sector 51.9%

Auditors, accountants and investment professionals Mostly one sector 43.1%

Computer, software and Web designers and developers Mostly one sector 7.6%

Managers in engineering, architecture, science and information systems Mostly one sector 6.4%

Judges, lawyers and Quebec notaries One industry 3.2%

Library, correspondence and other clerks Mostly one sector 3.1%

Service supervisors Mostly one sector 2.8%

Electrical, electronics and computer engineers Mostly one sector 2.8%

College and other vocational instructors One industry 2%

Cashiers and other sales support occupations One industry 1.8%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Accounting, insurance and related business administrative occupations Across the economy 25.8%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 23.9%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 13.8%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 9.1%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 8.9%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 8%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 7.2%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 6.6%

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 5.5%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 4.5%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

06

Inside this industry

2 rows sit directly beneath 52411. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
524111	Direct individual life, health and medical insurance carriers	416	screened at 5241
524112	Direct group life, health and medical insurance carriers	242	screened at 5241

Alongside it, under 5241 Insurance carriers

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
52412	Direct insurance (except life, health and medical) carriers	953	screened at 5241
52413	Reinsurance carriers	75	screened at 5241