At the end of 2023, Swedish insurance and occupational pension companies had financial assets of nearly 7,000 billion SEK, which is larger than Swe-den's gross domestic product (GDP). These assets are invested in Sweden or abroad. Most of the assets, about 90 per cent, are managed by life insurance and occupational pension companies, while the remaining part is managed by non-life insurance companies.
The large assets held by life insurance and occupational pension companies are a result of premiums being saved over many years and the capital grow-ing due to return on the assets. The assets of life insurance and occupational pension companies are primarily related to traditional life insurance, but de-posit and unit-linked insurance products have seen an increase in recent years. In deposit and unit-linked insurance, policyholders choose which funds their capital should be invested in and bear the financial risk. This dif-fers from traditional insurance, where companies choose how to manage the capital and bear the financial risk. Of the investment assets held by life insur-ance and occupational pension companies, 60 per cent were tied to tradi-tional insurance at the end of 2023, while nearly 30 per cent were tied to unit-linked insurance and under eleven per cent to deposit insurance.
