Capgemini Study: 70% of Adults Under 40 View Life Insurance as Essential Despite Delaying Major Life Milestones

Nearly 70% of adults under the age of 40 consider life insurance essential for a healthy financial future, according to a Capgemini report shared exclusively with Fortune in September 2025. The study, conducted jointly with LIMRA, surveyed more than 6,100 people aged 18-39 across 18 markets and included input from 200 senior insurance executives in those same markets.

It also incorporated macroeconomic forecasts developed in collaboration with Oxford Economics.

Gen Zers and millennials are delaying major life milestones such as buying a home or becoming a parent, driven by rising housing costs and wages that fail to keep pace with inflation. Samantha Chow, global leader for life insurance, annuities, and benefits sector at Capgemini, told Fortune that these generations will opt for life insurance if it is super cheap or free.

She added that the idea of paying for it while still unable to afford a home does not make sense to them.

“They’re getting married later, having children later, not [making] financial decisions like [buying] a home or something of that nature,” Chow said. The report found that 63% of consumers aged 18-39 have no immediate marriage plans, while 84% of both single and married people in that age group have no immediate plans to have a child.

Chow, who has worked in the insurance industry for more than 25 years, noted that instead, these individuals tend to save more aggressively.

“They tend to either put more away, like in the 401K, or they tend to open up their own type of investment accounts and take that extra money and put it away,” Chow said. A traditional life-insurance policy functions as a financial contract between an individual and an insurance company, where the user makes regular payments in return for death benefits paid to beneficiaries upon the insured's death.