Attitudes towards insurance: the role of propensity to hold liquid assets

There’s a lack of research on the relationship between families’ attitudes toward insurance and their financial behavior. The Italian insurance market appears weak with regard to non life and non motor insurance: Italy ranks only 18th in Europe in terms of the ratio between non life and non motor premiums and GDP. The propensity to subscribe to an insurance contract appears largely to depend on geographical area, qualification and job activity. Regardless of their wealth, families subscribing to a non life and non motor insurance policy show a significantly lower propensity for financial liquidity. This relationship suggests an opportunity: selling insurance products to high liquidity families offers financial industry the possibility to sell them new financial assets too. There is a final benefit for Italian families, whose high liquidity indicates risk adversity while their propensity not to buy insurance exposes them to great real risks: buying more insurance products they will be less exposed to real risks and have a better return on their financial investments.