Do sustainability attributes play a role for individuals' decisions regarding unit-linked life insurance? A survey research on German private investors

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relevance of sustainable product attributes as compared to ongoing costs and risk-return profiles when individuals choose funds underlying unit-linked life insurances. Regarding sustainability attributes, we focus on the product classification according to the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation as a European regulatory transparency standard, and on sustainable investment strategies. We conduct two choice-based conjoint analyses using a German panel for unit-linked life insurances as well as fund savings plans as a financial product comparison. We estimate the relative importance, part-worth utilities, and the marginal willingness to pay for changes in product attributes. Our results suggest that private investors of unit-linked life insurances value sustainable product attributes and that they result in a slightly higher marginal willingness to pay, but risk-return indicators and especially ongoing costs are currently more relevant. We find further indications that sustainability attributes are less relevant in the setting of a unit-linked life insurance as compared to a fund savings plans setting.