Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How insurance carriers and agents use video, and the market they sell into: our own count of video and YouTube links on the homepages of 133 SEC-reporting insurance companies; the agent, adjuster and agency workforce from BLS and the Census Bureau; premiums, distribution and advertising spend from the NAIC and insurers' 10-K filings; how people shop for insurance and research it on YouTube, from LIMRA and J.D. Power; photo, video and virtual claims; the advertising and call-recording rules; and where three popular insurance marketing numbers came from.
On November 1, 2026, 24.4% of the 119 readable homepages of SEC-reporting insurance companies had a video player and 17.6% a click-to-play video, but 42.9% linked to a YouTube channel (our count). (Our count)See details
Brokers lead on homepage video (57.9%) and life and health insurers trail (13.9%); the larger half of the frame linked a YouTube channel 57.8% of the time against 25.5% for the smaller half (our count). (Our count)See details
Progressive spent $5,133 million on advertising in 2025, 3.2 times its $1,600 million in 2023 (our calculation); Allstate's personal and commercial lines segment spent $2,100 million. (Progressive and Allstate 10-Ks)See details
47% of U.S. auto insurance buyers bought through digital channels in 2025 and 35% through agents (J.D. Power), but only 25% of adults would buy life insurance entirely online and 53% want to speak with an advisor (LIMRA, 2026). (J.D. Power, LIMRA and Life Happens)See details
62% of U.S. adults use social media to research financial or insurance products, and YouTube (66%) is the top platform for it (LIMRA and Life Happens, 2026). (LIMRA and Life Happens)See details
49% of home insurance claimants sent photos used to estimate or pay the claim in 2026, but only 11% used digital tools for every step in 2022 (J.D. Power); Lemonade automated roughly 55% of its claims by 2025. (J.D. Power, Lemonade 10-K)See details
479,100 people worked as insurance sales agents on U.S. payrolls in May 2025; BLS projects agent jobs to grow 3.3% by 2035 while claims adjuster jobs shrink 5.5%. (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)See details
Two popular numbers do not hold up: the median insurance agent is 45.1, not 59 (BLS, 2025), and "74% buy insurance online" is J.D. Power's 2016 share of shoppers who got quotes online; 25% bought online. (BLS, J.D. Power)See details
How many insurance companies put video on their homepage?
About one in four, and more link to a YouTube channel than show a video. On November 1, 2026 we opened the homepages of every SEC-reporting company with an insurance SIC code that filed a 10-K since January 2025, 133 companies with a median revenue of $1.70 billion, in a headless browser. 119 were readable. 24.4% of the readable homepages had a video player and 17.6% had a video a visitor would click to play; 10.1% ran a muted background loop. Yet 42.9% linked to a YouTube channel. Nobody else publishes this count; the method and every company's result are below.
On the homepage (SEC-reporting insurance companies, Nov 1, 2026, n = 119 readable)
Insurers host their video in several places. Of the 29 homepages with a player, 48.3% used a self-hosted file, 27.6% Vimeo, 6.9% YouTube, 6.9% Brightcove and 6.9% Vidyard; 0 used Wistia. For 27.6% of them a background loop was the only video. No readable homepage mentioned a virtual inspection or a photo or video claim: those tools live on claims pages and in apps, not on the homepage. Careers links are more common than any video, on 82.4% of homepages.
By segment (readable homepages)
Video player
YouTube channel link
"Find an agent"
Agents and brokers (SIC 6411), n = 19
57.9%
47.4%
10.5%
Life and health insurers (SIC 6311, 6321, 6324), n = 36
13.9%
52.8%
16.7%
Property-casualty, title and surety (SIC 6331, 6351, 6361, 6399), n = 64
20.3%
35.9%
25.0%
Larger half by revenue, n = 64
25.0%
57.8%
Smaller half by revenue, n = 55
23.6%
25.5%
Brokers use homepage video most, and size makes little difference to video but a large one to YouTube links: the larger half of the frame linked a channel more than twice as often as the smaller half. The broker group is small, so treat its share as indicative.
Method. The frame is every company on EDGAR with SIC code 6311, 6321, 6324, 6331, 6351, 6361, 6399 or 6411 that filed a 10-K between January 1, 2025 and November 1, 2026 and appears in the SEC's XBRL revenue frames, minus 8 subsidiaries that share their parent's website and 2 others (one with no website of its own, one merged into a company already in the frame). That gives 36 life and health insurers, 72 property-casualty, title and surety companies and 25 agents and brokers. Some file from Bermuda, Switzerland or Ireland, and EDGAR's SIC codes are kept as assigned, so Berkshire Hathaway is in. Each homepage was opened once in headless Chromium after checking its robots.txt, with no clicks, forms or bot-wall workarounds. Of the 14 not read, 5 showed a bot wall, 5 returned errors, 3 were skipped for robots.txt and 1 domain no longer resolved (14 in all). A hand check of 30 randomly drawn homepages agreed with the video flag on 96.7% and with the agent-locator flag on all 30; one missed video tile means the video shares are a slight undercount. Two Vimeo background loops inside iframes were counted as click-to-play, so click-to-play is slightly overstated. Every company's result is in homepages.csv, with the run summary in crawl-summary.json.
How many insurance agents are there in the U.S.?
About half a million on payrolls, plus a large self-employed tail. U.S. employers counted 479,100 wage-and-salary jobs for insurance sales agents in May 2025, at a median wage of $62,280 and a mean of $81,480 (BLS OEWS). Counting the self-employed, BLS puts the occupation at 572.6 thousand jobs in 2025, of which 67.5 thousand were self-employed (BLS Employment Projections). Insurance agencies and brokerages employed 360.9 thousand of those agents, 63.0% of the occupation, and insurance carriers directly employed 80,630 (BLS OEWS).
Census counts the sole operators separately: 314,503 insurance agencies and brokerages had no paid employees in 2024, up from 305,281 in 2023 and 292,012 in 2019 (Census Nonemployer Statistics). In 2023 that made 2.3 agencies without employees for every one of the 133,728 agency and brokerage establishments with paid employees in County Business Patterns (our calculation), which had 818,561 employees and $74,350,546 thousand in annual payroll (Census CBP).
Insurance occupations, United States, May 2025 (BLS OEWS)
Selling is the only insurance job BLS expects to grow. Agent employment is projected to rise 3.3% from 2025 to 2035, with about 43.1 thousand openings a year, mostly to replace people who leave (BLS). The claims side shrinks: adjusters by 5.5%, with 20.9 thousand openings a year, and auto damage appraisers by 8.7% (BLS). The claims-adjuster mean wage was $80,470 in May 2025 (BLS OEWS).
How big is the insurance agency and brokerage industry?
About a million employees and 162,000 workplaces. BLS's Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages counted 161,995 private establishments in insurance agencies and brokerages (NAICS 524210) in 2025, with an annual average of 1,007,253 employees and average pay of $109,158 (BLS QCEW). Ten years earlier, in 2015, it counted 140,245 establishments and 760,880 employees, and 847,804 employees in 2020 (BLS QCEW 2015; 2020). QCEW covers only employers in the unemployment-insurance system, so it leaves out the self-employed.
Across all occupations, agencies, brokerages and related services (NAICS 5242) employed 1,401,270 people in May 2025, of whom 378,790 were insurance sales agents (BLS OEWS). QCEW's count for the same sector was 1,398,282 employees in 2025, and BLS projects it to grow 3.6% by 2035 (QCEW; Employment Projections). Carriers themselves employed 1,215,820 people in May 2025 (OEWS) and 1,197,465 in 2025 by QCEW's count, against 1,177,518 in 2015: while employment at agencies and brokerages rose 32.4% over the same decade (our calculation) (BLS OEWS; QCEW 2025; QCEW 2015). Direct property and casualty insurers alone had 452,362 employees (QCEW). The Insurance Information Institute, using BLS data, puts total insurance employment at 3,013.3 thousand in 2025, with agencies and brokers at 1,003.0 thousand, up from 783.5 thousand in 2016 (Triple-I).
Independent claims adjusting firms (NAICS 524291) had 8,598 establishments and 62,548 employees in 2025, up from 56,201 employees in 2015, at average pay of $100,629 (BLS QCEW).
Florida
Florida had 47,560 wage-and-salary insurance sales agents in May 2025, at a median wage of $59,790 (BLS OEWS). QCEW counted 12,507 agency and brokerage establishments in the state in 2025 with 80,111 employees (BLS QCEW), Census counted 10,837 employer establishments in 2023 (Census CBP), and 40,995 Florida agencies had no employees in 2024 (Census Nonemployer Statistics).
How old is the average insurance agent?
45, not 59. The median age of employed insurance sales agents was 45.1 years in 2025, three years above the 42.1 median for all U.S. workers, in the BLS Current Population Survey (BLS CPS table 11b). About 67 thousand of the 618 thousand agents in the survey were 65 or older. Claims adjusters, appraisers, examiners and investigators had a median age of 43.4 (BLS CPS). Women were 52.4% of insurance sales agents and 58.2% of claims adjusters and examiners in 2025 (BLS CPS table 11). The CPS is a household survey, so its 618 thousand agents differs from the employer counts above. The popular "average agent is 59" is traced in the last section.
How big is the U.S. insurance market?
About $2.17 trillion a year in direct premiums across the two halves of the industry, by our sum of the NAIC's figures below. U.S. property and casualty insurers wrote $1.11 trillion of direct premiums in 2025, by the NAIC's count, and the 25 largest groups held 65.71% of it (NAIC P&C market share report). State Farm led with a 10.5% share, by the Insurance Information Institute's tally (Triple-I), and Progressive was second with 7.59% (NAIC). Measured as net premiums written, the Triple-I puts P&C at $980.3 billion in 2025, up from $933.6 billion in 2024 (Triple-I).
Life and fraternal insurers collected $1.06 trillion in life, annuity and accident-and-health direct premiums in 2025: $210.2 billion in life insurance premiums and $618.3 billion in annuities, almost three times as much (NAIC life market share report). New York Life was the largest life group with a 7.40% share of life premiums (NAIC). Life and annuity insurers paid $85.5 billion in commissions in 2025, up from $65.2 billion in 2021 (Triple-I), and took in $798.0 billion of premiums, considerations and deposits on the Triple-I's measure (Triple-I). LIMRA put individual life new annualized premium at a record $17.5 billion in 2025 (LIMRA); independent broker-dealers sold 24% of individual annuities, the largest channel (Triple-I, citing LIMRA).
Do people still buy insurance through agents?
Most premium still goes through an agent, but direct sales are growing fastest in personal auto. Independent agencies placed 62% of all U.S. property and casualty premiums in 2025, 39.5% of personal lines and 87.7% of commercial lines, according to the Big "I" market share report (Big "I"). The Big "I" is the independent agents' trade association, so it counts its own channel.
Carriers' annual reports show the split moving. Independent agents wrote 43% of Progressive's personal vehicle premiums in 2025, down from 46% in 2023, and its direct channel wrote 57% (Progressive 10-K): $39,631 million direct against $29,825 million through agencies (Progressive 10-K). Agents still wrote 72% of Progressive's home and renters premiums, and about 10% of its core commercial auto premiums came direct (Progressive 10-K). Progressive works with more than 40,000 independent agencies (Progressive 10-K).
Allstate new auto applications by channel (Allstate Protection, 10-K)
Allstate's direct channel issued 1,632 thousand new auto applications in 2023; by 2025 that was up 83.0% (our calculation), nearly matching its exclusive agents (Allstate 10-K). Allstate still sells through over 27,400 exclusive agents and licensed sales professionals and about 58,700 independent agent locations, against about 2,200 contact-center sales representatives (Allstate 10-K). Mercury General sells through about 8,510 independent agents, who brought in about 88% of its direct premiums (Mercury General 10-K); Selective uses about 1,680 independent distribution partners (Selective 10-K). Lemonade, which sells only through its app and website, had 2,984,513 customers at the end of 2025 (Lemonade 10-K).
Independent agencies
The Big "I" estimates there are about 37,000 independent agencies in the U.S. in 2026, a small drop from 2024, averaging 9.9 staff each (Big "I" Agency Universe Study). Selective's 10-K, citing the 2024 study, put the count at about 39,000 (Selective 10-K). The 2026 study surveyed 1,376 agencies in spring 2026; it is funded by a coalition that includes carriers selling through agents.
How much do insurers spend on advertising?
Billions, and the biggest auto insurers more than tripled it between 2023 and 2025. Progressive expensed $5.13 billion on advertising in 2025, against $4.0 billion in 2024 and $1.6 billion in 2023 (Progressive 10-K), 3.2 times more in two years (our calculation). Allstate's personal and commercial lines segment recorded $2.1 billion of advertising expense in 2025, up from $1,863 million in 2024 and $638 million in 2023 (Allstate 10-K); advertising took 3.6 points of that segment's expense ratio in 2025, against 1.3 in 2023 (Allstate 10-K).
Not every insurer prints the number. Root reports only sales and marketing, $174.8 million in 2025, driven by a $26.9 million increase in direct performance marketing (Root 10-K; same filing). Berkshire Hathaway gives no advertising figure for GEICO; it says GEICO's expense ratio rose 2.7 points to 12.4% in 2025 because of higher advertising and other acquisition costs (Berkshire 10-K). The last GEICO figures Berkshire printed are in Warren Buffett's letters: $502 million in 2005, up from $31 million in 1996, and $900 million in 2010 (2005 letter; 2010 letter).
How big are insurers' YouTube channels?
Small next to their ad budgets. On November 1, 2026, GEICO's official YouTube channel showed 1.85M subscribers, State Farm's 289K, Liberty Mutual's 217K, Progressive's 114K and Allstate's 100K (YouTube, GEICO). These are live counters that YouTube rounds, read once on that date (State Farm), (Liberty Mutual), (Progressive), (Allstate).
The platforms' own insurance case studies report results for single campaigns, chosen by the platform. Google says Australian insurer Youi's YouTube series drew 4.5M views with a 27% view-through rate, lifted brand favourability by 7-10% and cost about $0.10 a view (Think with Google, 2018). TikTok says German insurer LVM's creator campaign aimed at 18-to-34-year-olds lifted ad recall 15.2% and brand awareness 7.5% (TikTok for Business); the "up to 240%" in the same study is the most-exposed group only (TikTok). TikTok also reports a 300% higher return on ad spend and a 52% lower cost per purchase for travel insurer Faye after it added image-to-video ads (TikTok), and a 21% lower cost per lead for Next Insurance after it worked with 20 creators (TikTok). LinkedIn reports a 175% rise in qualified leads for India's HDFC Life (LinkedIn Marketing Solutions). None of these case studies has a control group a reader can check.
How do insurance agents use social media and video?
Most independent agencies market on social media, mainly Facebook. In the Big "I" 2026 Agency Universe Study of 1,376 agencies, 70% used Facebook as a marketing channel, 46% Instagram and 35% LinkedIn, and 47% ranked social and digital marketing as their top marketing activity (Big "I" Agency Universe Study; study page). The average agency marketing budget rose from $14,300 in 2024 to $20,600 in 2026 (Big "I"), and 78% of small agencies got no marketing support from their carriers in 2025 (Big "I").
The share ranking social media first has moved: about 56% of agencies included social media in their marketing in 2015, up from 48% in 2013 (Big "I" 2016 study), and 56% called it a top activity in 2024, down from 62% in 2022 (Big "I" 2024 study). Agencies on social media use it mainly to build the agency's brand (87%) and attract prospects (79%) (Big "I" 2024).
The Big "I" study pages disagree on AI: the press release says 46% of agencies used AI in 2026, up from 15% in 2024, with marketing content the top use (Big "I" release), while the study's landing page says 54% (Big "I" landing page). We print both; the release and the full report give 46%. In a 2026 consumer survey commissioned by the Big "I", 61% of U.S. consumers said they were more likely to choose an agent who uses AI and other modern technology, and for routine questions they preferred a phone call (28%) to email (23%) or text (21%) (Big "I" consumer survey). 86% of independent agents prefer that customer service go through the agency by phone or other non-online methods (Big "I").
Do people buy insurance online or through an agent?
For auto insurance, digital channels now lead; for life insurance, most people still want a person. J.D. Power found that 47% of U.S. auto insurance policy buyers in 2025 purchased through digital channels, 35% through agents and 17% through call centers (J.D. Power 2025 Insurance Digital Experience Study). In 2024, 53% of first-time auto buyers started with the insurer digitally and 29% through an agent (J.D. Power 2024). Shopping is at a high: 57% of auto insurance customers actively shopped for a new policy in the past year, the most in the 19 years of J.D. Power's shopping study (J.D. Power 2025 Insurance Shopping Study). J.D. Power sells research and consulting to insurers.
Life insurance is different. In January 2026, only 25% of U.S. adult financial decision-makers said they would research and buy life insurance entirely online; 43% would research online and buy in person, and 53% prefer to speak with an advisor, in person, by phone or by video, when they are ready to buy (LIMRA and Life Happens 2026 Insurance Barometer). The Barometer surveyed 5,237 adults in January 2026; LIMRA is the life insurance industry's research association. Its earlier waves show the online preference rising from 17% in 2011 to 29% in 2020, while the in-person preference fell from 64% to 41% (LIMRA 2020 release). In 2023 the two crossed: 32% preferred online and 29% in person (2024 Barometer infographic), after 33% in person and 31% online in 2022 (same source).
Life insurance buying preference by generation (2024 Insurance Barometer)
Satisfaction does not favor the agent channel. Life insurance customers who bought directly from a carrier scored 57 points higher on J.D. Power's 1,000-point satisfaction scale than those who bought through an agent or adviser, and 58% of agent relationships were disengaged or transactional; only 19% were described as trusted (J.D. Power 2025 Individual Life Insurance Study). Overall auto insurance satisfaction was 644 out of 1,000 in 2025, with 38% of customers in the bottom segment (J.D. Power 2025 Auto Insurance Study).
Do people research insurance on YouTube and social media?
Yes, and YouTube is now the most used platform for it. 62% of U.S. adult financial decision-makers use social media when researching financial or insurance products, up from 59% in 2024 (2026 Insurance Barometer; 2024 Barometer). YouTube, at 66%, overtook Facebook as the top platform for financial information in 2026 (LIMRA toolkit). LIMRA's own figures for Facebook disagree: the toolkit gives 62% and its April 2026 conference deck gives 56%, with Instagram 48% and TikTok 40% (LIMRA conference deck). 32% of social media users say they rely on it more than half the time instead of company websites (2024 Barometer).
Younger buyers listen to people on those platforms. Among Millennials and Gen Z who use social media for money information, 45% follow financial advisors and 33% follow financial influencers, and 49% say recommendations from experts, influencers or spokespeople are extremely or very important (2025 Barometer deck). In 2020, 45% of consumers on social media used it to keep in touch with their insurance agent or financial adviser (LIMRA 2020).
How many people are underinsured?
About four in ten adults by LIMRA's measure. 52% of U.S. adult financial decision-makers owned life insurance in January 2026 (2026 Barometer). In 2020 it was 54%, 9 points lower than a decade earlier (LIMRA 2020). 38% had a need gap in 2026, against 42% in 2024 (2026 Barometer), and 18% of owners said they did not have enough coverage (2026 Barometer). In people, LIMRA's own two documents disagree: the member toolkit says about 92 million adults (LIMRA toolkit), its conference deck 74 million who need coverage plus 24 million who need more (LIMRA conference deck).
Cost and confusion are the stated reasons. Among people with a need gap, 45% cited cost (2026 Barometer); 46% admitted their estimate of the price was a gut feeling or wild guess (2026 Barometer), and only 32% called themselves very or extremely knowledgeable about life insurance (2026 Barometer). Ownership ran from 29% of households earning under $50,000 to 64% of those earning $150,000 or more, and only 44% of Gen Z adults owned a policy (2026 Barometer; same).
Outside life insurance: 8.3% of Americans, 28.0 million people, had no health insurance in 2025 (CDC NCHS, National Health Interview Survey), and 11.6% of adults aged 18 to 64 (NCHS). The National Flood Insurance Program had nearly 4.7 million policies in force in March 2025 (Congressional Research Service), while 56% of homeowners in a 2021 NAIC survey believed their homeowners policy covered flood, which standard policies exclude (NAIC CIPR).
How many insurance claims are handled with photos and video?
About half of home claims now use customer photos. In J.D. Power's 2026 property claims study, 49% of homeowners insurance claimants sent photos that were used to estimate or pay the claim, and 38% reported the loss through a digital tool (J.D. Power 2026 Property Claims Satisfaction Study). The study surveyed 5,093 claimants. Fully digital claims are still rare: in 2022 only 11% of home claimants used digital channels for every major step, including photos for the estimate (J.D. Power 2022). Those who did had repairs start nine days sooner and scored satisfaction 33 points higher than claimants who used no digital tools, while claimants who sent photos and still had to arrange an in-person inspection scored 47 points lower (J.D. Power 2022). Insurers leaned on photos and video during the pandemic, and fully digital claims cut time to payment by up to 5.5 days in 2020 (J.D. Power 2021).
On the auto side, CCC Intelligent Solutions, whose software insurers and repair shops use for auto estimates, says it receives nearly 800 million photos a year (CCC 10-K) and that more than 27% of claims on its platform in 2022 were started with digital photos (CCC). More than 125 U.S. insurers were using its AI tools in production in 2025 (CCC 10-K), and its touchless estimating product was used by insurers representing 50% of U.S. auto claim volume in February 2023 (CCC). CCC sells these tools to insurers. In J.D. Power's surveys, 24% of auto claimants reported the claim digitally in 2023 (J.D. Power 2023), and claimants who stayed in the insurer's app to send photos and get updates scored 775 out of 1,000, the highest of any digital path, but were only 13% of claimants (J.D. Power 2024).
Lemonade, which sells only through its app, says in its 10-K that customers record a video explaining the claim and that its claims bot can pay "in as little as two seconds" (Lemonade 10-K). The bot took the first report of a claim without a human 96% of the time at the end of 2025, and roughly 55% of claims were automated from start to finish (Lemonade 10-K), up from about a third at its 2020 IPO, when it also reported 96% first-notice handling (Lemonade S-1). Allstate, Progressive, Travelers, Root and Hippo name their photo and virtual estimate tools in filings but print no share of claims handled that way.
How long claims take (J.D. Power surveys of U.S. claimants)
Speed drives satisfaction. Homeowners whose claim was done within 10 days scored 762 on J.D. Power's 1,000-point scale in its 2025 study of 2024 claims, against 595 when repairs took more than 31 days (J.D. Power 2025), and overall home claims satisfaction rose to 702 in 2026 (J.D. Power 2026). Auto claimants whose claim was approved and routed automatically scored 912 in J.D. Power's 2022 study (J.D. Power). Total losses made up 27% of auto claims in J.D. Power's 2025 survey (J.D. Power 2025); CCC's platform data put total loss frequency at 23.1% in 2025, a record, counting a different population (CCC Crash Course 2026).
Comfort with digital claims splits by age. 87% of Gen Z and Millennial home claimants say they are comfortable handling a whole claim digitally, while nearly 40% of Boomers and older are not (J.D. Power 2025), and 32% of Boomer and older auto claimants disagreed that they are comfortable doing so (J.D. Power 2024). In 2022, 34% of auto claimants said they prefer people to digital contact (J.D. Power 2022). Only 36% of auto and 31% of home claimants got status updates in the insurer's app in 2025, and 52% of claimants who rated their digital experience poor or just OK were likely to leave, against 4% of those who rated it excellent (J.D. Power 2025 Claims Digital Experience Study; same study).
What do regulators say about virtual inspections?
Several states now require an in-person inspection when a policyholder asks for one. Florida lets property insurers investigate with photos, video or video calls but requires any physical inspection within 30 days of the proof of loss, a copy of the adjuster's estimate within 7 days, and payment or denial within 60 days (Florida Statutes 627.70131). From October 18, 2026, Washington requires an auto insurer to inspect in person within five business days when a claimant disputes a virtual inspection (Washington State Register); its commissioner adopted the rule on August 18, 2026 after reports that insurers were moving from on-site examination to AI and photos (Washington OIC). Vermont first limited virtual adjusting of auto claims in Bulletin 206 on December 5, 2019 and extended it to all lines in 2026 (Vermont DFR). Oregon's draft 2026 bulletin warns of civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation and says sending someone only to take photos is not an adjuster's inspection (Oregon DFR, draft).
After hurricanes, insurers rely on remote claims. State Farm had almost 10,000 Florida claims from Hurricane Milton by October 13, 2024 and offered virtual inspections (State Farm newsroom); a week after Hurricane Laura in 2020 it had more than 35,300 claims and used drones and virtual inspections (State Farm newsroom). Across the country, 5.3% of insured homes had a homeowners claim in 2023, and the average claim was $20,062, up from $13,884 in 2019, by ISO/Verisk data published by the Triple-I (Triple-I; Triple-I).
What rules apply to insurance videos and recorded sales calls?
A video ad is an advertisement under insurance law, and the strictest recording rules are in Medicare sales. The NAIC's model regulations, which states can adopt as their own rules, define advertising to include audio-visual, television and internet material. Under the accident and sickness model, insurers keep every advertisement on file for 4 years or until the next examination report, whichever is longer (NAIC Model #40); under the life and annuity model, for 5 years after it stops being used (NAIC Model #570). Both models make the insurer keep the claim facts behind any testimonial: 4 years for accident and sickness, 5 for life (Model #40; Model #570). The life model fines up to $1,000 per violation (Model #570), and the Unfair Trade Practices Act model, which makes deceptive insurance advertising an unfair practice and dates from 1947, caps aggregate penalties at $100,000 unless the violation is flagrant (NAIC Model #880; NAIC).
The Medicare rules are the clearest case of recorded insurance sales. A Scope of Appointment is valid for 12 months (eCFR, 42 CFR 422.2264); the "48-hour wait" that many agent guides still describe is not in the current regulation text. Agents selling Medicare Advantage must pass annual testing at 85% or higher (eCFR), referral fees are capped at $100 per Medicare Advantage referral (eCFR), and materials filed with CMS are deemed approved if CMS has not ruled within 45 days (eCFR). Complaints rose before CMS tightened these rules: it received 15,497 marketing complaints about Medicare Advantage and Part D plans in 2020 and 39,617 in 2021, excluding December, as quoted by the Senate Finance Committee's majority staff (Senate Finance Committee report).
Endorsements and testimonials. The FTC's Endorsement Guides, last revised and published in 2023, treat videos and social media posts as endorsements (eCFR, 16 CFR Part 255), and its 2024 rule on reviews and testimonials bans fake ones (eCFR, 16 CFR Part 465). FINRA, which covers variable insurance products sold by registered representatives, first issued social media guidance in 2010 (FINRA Notice 10-06) and says social media business communications must be kept for three years (FINRA Notice 11-39). Florida fines unfair insurance trade practices, including false advertising, up to $100,000 per willful violation, and up to $200,000 during a declared state of emergency (Florida Statutes 626.9521; same statute).
Calling leads. Under the FCC's telemarketing rules, a request to stop calls or texts must be honored within 10 business days and a company-specific do-not-call request for 5 years (eCFR, 47 CFR 64.1200; same rule). The "one-to-one consent" requirement often described in lead-generation guides is not in the current text of the rule.
What the popular insurance marketing numbers really say
Insurance marketing guides, agency-software blogs and video vendors repeat a small set of numbers. We traced each one to the organization that produced it. Pages that repeat a claim are linked only as dated evidence of how it spread, never as a source for the number.
"74% of consumers want to buy insurance online"
This is a 2016 figure about getting quotes, not buying. In J.D. Power's 2016 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study, 74% of auto insurance shoppers used insurer websites or aggregators to get quotes and research (J.D. Power 2016 release, reprinted by Insurance-Canada.ca). The same release says only 25% bought online, while 50% bought through an agent and 22% through a call center (same release). The study covered more than 17,000 auto insurance shoppers who had requested a quote in the previous 9 months, fielded April 2015 to January 2016 (same release). A 2026-titled marketing roundup still prints 74% and 25% with no year (Invoca); a web agency repeats 74% crediting that roundup instead of J.D. Power (CyberOptik), and a 2025 list loosens it to 74% who "start their insurance journey online" (Amra and Elma).
Older numbers point the other way. A 2009 Accenture survey of 1,005 U.S. insurance owners found 73% preferred to buy through agents and other trusted sources (Accenture via PLANADVISER; same report). The Insurance Information Institute's "70 percent" is about viewing policies online: 70 percent of policyholders in a November 2015 poll wanted to view their policies online (Triple-I).
Use instead: J.D. Power 2025: 47% of auto policy buyers bought through digital channels and 35% through agents. For life insurance, LIMRA 2026: 25% would research and buy entirely online.
"Agents who use video close more" or "get 66% more leads"
We found no study that compares insurance agents who use video with agents who do not. The numbers in agent guides come from cross-industry surveys or single vendor clients. "Video could increase qualified leads by 66% or more" appears on a video production company's page for agents with no study named (Beverly Boy Productions); Wikipedia's article on Aberdeen carries the same line with a "citation needed" flag (66%, Wikipedia). The original is Aberdeen Group's May 2016 report on marketers in general: video marketers saw a 66% greater year-over-year increase in marketing-qualified leads, 11.19% growth against 6.74%, among 223 marketers surveyed in late 2015 (Aberdeen Group report; same; same; same). It compares growth rates; it is not 66% more leads, and it is not about insurance. Our video advertising statistics page has the full trace.
"Boost your revenue up to 49% faster" on the same agent page (Beverly Boy Productions) is Aberdeen's July 2015 survey of 168 organizations in all industries, where companies using video reported 13.3% revenue growth against 8.9% (Aberdeen Group report): a self-reported correlation. An AI-video vendor's 2026 guide for agents cites "industry data" for an 80% engagement lift (Genra) and models a close-rate rise from 25% to 32% that it does not measure (Genra).
The insurance-specific results are single vendor cases with unnamed or self-selected comparisons: "policies sold up 40%" from personalized quote videos, written in December 2021 by a personalized-video vendor's revenue chief with no insurer, sample or period (Insurance Thought Leadership); a 30% pipeline increase in a gated case study for an unnamed insurer (Hippo Video); an 8% renewal-rate rise for an unnamed life insurer (KPOINT); renewal 12% higher among customers who chose to watch a personalized video than among those who did not (Forrester); and an 8x conversion increase for one AXA campaign (Idomoo). Each vendor sells the video it measured.
Use instead: what buyers report doing. 62% of U.S. adults use social media to research financial or insurance products and 66% of them use YouTube (LIMRA, 2026).
"The average insurance agent is 59" and "a quarter will retire by 2018"
Every repeat we read credits "a report" or "a white paper" from McKinsey & Co. with no title, date or population, and we found no McKinsey publication that states it. The earliest dated repeat we could read is Insurance Business America on April 28, 2014, which already reported an Insurance Information Institute economist doubting McKinsey's suggestion that one-fourth of the industry's workforce would retire by 2018 (Insurance Business America). Insurance Business America then printed an average agent age of 59 with a quarter of agents gone by 2018 (Insurance Business America), as did a November 2014 LifeHealthPro column at 59, beside a LIMRA figure of 56 for life and health producers (LifeHealthPro via Wink), and Insurance Business America again in February 2015 at 59 (Insurance Business America). A 2023 agency-software paper gives 45.9 instead, sourced to a careers website (Zywave). We could not run a Wayback search for these pages because the Internet Archive's search index returned nothing to our queries on November 1, 2026, so the McKinsey document may exist offline; none of the repeats links to it.
Use instead: the BLS Current Population Survey. The median employed insurance sales agent was 45.1 in 2025, 13.9 years younger than the repeated 59 (our calculation; a median, not an average), against 42.1 for all workers, and about 67 thousand of 618 thousand agents were 65 or older.
We started from the questions people search for about insurance video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 328 figures from 50 publishers.
On November 1, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (through the BLS data API), Employment Projections, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and the Current Population Survey (through Internet Archive copies, because bls.gov refuses automated requests); Census County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics (through the Census data API); NAIC market share reports and model regulations; the 10-K filings of Progressive, Allstate, Berkshire Hathaway, Lemonade, Root, Hippo, Mercury General, Selective and CCC on EDGAR; the Insurance Information Institute; the Big "I" agency studies; LIMRA and Life Happens Insurance Barometer releases and presentations; J.D. Power press releases (through Internet Archive copies); eCFR, FINRA, Florida, California, Washington, Vermont and Oregon rule texts; CDC NCHS and the Congressional Research Service; YouTube, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn pages about their own platforms; and the pages behind each popular claim. The homepage figures are our own reading of the 119 readable homepages of 133 SEC-reporting insurance companies in a headless browser on November 1, 2026. We left out J.D. Power's 2026 shopping study and 2025 home insurance study (unreachable to scripts and archives), LIMRA's full member reports (behind a login), the NAIC's producer-licensing counts (no working public page) and percentages of virtual claims that circulate only in trade press.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
153 insurance-SIC CIKs in the XBRL revenue frames -> 143 with a 10-K filed 2025-01-01..2026-11-01 and no 20-F/40-F as latest annual report -> minus 10 subsidiary co-registrants = 133; by SIC {'6311 Life insurance': 20, '6321 Accident and health insurance': 5, '6324 Hospital and medical service plans': 11, '6331 Fire, marine and casualty insurance': 57, '6351 Surety insurance': 8, '6361 Title insurance': 5, '6399 Insurance carriers, NEC': 2, '6411 Insurance agents, brokers and service': 25}
count(video_player = true) / count(status = readable) = 29 / 119; a player element >= 150x80 px, a labelled click-to-play control or a hidden video-host embed
count of pages whose video_hosts includes 'native <video>' / count(video_player = true) = 14 / 29; all host counts: {'native <video>': 14, 'Vimeo': 8, 'click-to-play (host not identified)': 5, 'YouTube': 2, 'Brightcove': 2, 'Vidyard': 2, 'other': 1}; a page with two hosts counts under each
count of pages whose video_hosts includes 'YouTube' / count(video_player = true) = 2 / 29; all host counts: {'native <video>': 14, 'Vimeo': 8, 'click-to-play (host not identified)': 5, 'YouTube': 2, 'Brightcove': 2, 'Vidyard': 2, 'other': 1}; a page with two hosts counts under each
count of pages whose video_hosts includes 'Vimeo' / count(video_player = true) = 8 / 29; all host counts: {'native <video>': 14, 'Vimeo': 8, 'click-to-play (host not identified)': 5, 'YouTube': 2, 'Brightcove': 2, 'Vidyard': 2, 'other': 1}; a page with two hosts counts under each
count of pages whose video_hosts includes 'Brightcove' / count(video_player = true) = 2 / 29; all host counts: {'native <video>': 14, 'Vimeo': 8, 'click-to-play (host not identified)': 5, 'YouTube': 2, 'Brightcove': 2, 'Vidyard': 2, 'other': 1}; a page with two hosts counts under each
count of pages whose video_hosts includes 'Wistia' / count(video_player = true) = 0 / 29; all host counts: {'native <video>': 14, 'Vimeo': 8, 'click-to-play (host not identified)': 5, 'YouTube': 2, 'Brightcove': 2, 'Vidyard': 2, 'other': 1}; a page with two hosts counts under each
count of pages whose video_hosts includes 'Vidyard' / count(video_player = true) = 2 / 29; all host counts: {'native <video>': 14, 'Vimeo': 8, 'click-to-play (host not identified)': 5, 'YouTube': 2, 'Brightcove': 2, 'Vidyard': 2, 'other': 1}; a page with two hosts counts under each
count(youtube_channel_link = true) / count(status = readable) = 51 / 119; a youtube.com link whose first path segment is a channel, handle or user (not watch/embed/shorts)
count(agent_locator = true) / count(status = readable) = 24 / 119; visible text or link text matching find an/your/a local agent, broker, advisor, financial professional or representative, or agent/broker locator/finder/search
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Nobody counts insurance video directly. Government data counts agents, agencies and premiums, not what they publish. Our homepage count covers SEC-reporting insurers and brokers only, which are larger than the typical agency, and only the homepage.
Several sources sell to insurers. J.D. Power and CCC sell research and software to insurers; LIMRA is the life industry's research association and the Insurance Barometer is industry-funded; the Big "I" represents independent agents and its studies are funded by carriers that sell through them.
Platform case studies are chosen by the platform. The Google, TikTok and LinkedIn insurance results describe single campaigns with no published control group.
Advertising lines are not comparable across companies. Progressive reports total advertising costs, Allstate one segment's expense, Mercury a net figure, and GEICO none at all.
Some figures are old. The best-known online-buying claim dates from 2016, and the most detailed fully-digital-claims figure from J.D. Power's 2022 study.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/insurance-video-statistics#DRV-005. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Insurance Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 1, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/insurance-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 1). Insurance video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/insurance-video-statistics
MLA
“Insurance Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 1 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/insurance-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Insurance Video Statistics.” Last modified November 1, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/insurance-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_insurance_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Insurance Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/insurance-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-01}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
Insurance Thought Leadership (byline: Yaron Dishon, CRO of Idomoo USA, a personalized-video vendor), The New Mandate: 'Video or Vanish' (2021-12-15). Accessed 2026-11-01.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 1, 2026: First published with 328 figures from 50 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many insurance companies use video on their website?
In our November 1, 2026 count of the 119 readable homepages of SEC-reporting insurance companies, 24.4% had a video player and 17.6% a click-to-play video, while 42.9% linked to a YouTube channel.
Do people buy insurance online or from an agent?
For auto insurance, J.D. Power found 47% of policy buyers bought through digital channels in 2025 and 35% through agents. For life insurance, only 25% of U.S. adults would research and buy entirely online, and 53% prefer to speak with an advisor (LIMRA, 2026).
Do people research insurance on YouTube?
Yes. 62% of U.S. adults use social media to research financial or insurance products, and YouTube is the most used platform for it at 66% (LIMRA and Life Happens 2026 Insurance Barometer).
How many insurance agents are there in the U.S.?
U.S. employers counted 479,100 wage-and-salary insurance sales agents in May 2025. Including the self-employed, BLS puts the occupation at 572.6 thousand jobs, and Census counted 314,503 agencies with no employees in 2024.
Is the average insurance agent 59 years old?
No. The BLS Current Population Survey puts the median age of insurance sales agents at 45.1 in 2025. The 59 is credited to an unnamed McKinsey paper that no repeat links to.
How much do insurance companies spend on advertising?
Progressive expensed $5,133 million on advertising in 2025 and Allstate's personal and commercial lines segment $2,100 million, according to their 10-K filings. Berkshire Hathaway does not disclose GEICO's figure; it says higher advertising helped lift GEICO's expense ratio to 12.4% in 2025.
Can insurers inspect claims by photo or video?
Yes, and 49% of home insurance claimants sent photos used for the estimate in 2026 (J.D. Power). Some states limit it: Florida requires any physical inspection within 30 days, and Washington requires an in-person auto inspection within five business days when a claimant disputes a virtual one.
