The protection market has started to recover over the last year, but it is being propped up by resurging critical illness sales, according to FSA figures.
Sales of pure protection products dipped just 0.2% to 597,986 between April 2009 and March 2010, a difference of 1,217 in the previous year.
This is a significant strengthening from 2008/09 when the total fell by 69,509 from the year before.
And it appears advice is still vital to the protection sales process as 92% of contracts were arranged on an advice basis (93% in 2008/09).
The data also showed that 86% of all pure protection contracts were sold through non-providers (85% last year).
However, fears voiced by protection advisers about the dominance of just a few providers will have been reinforced by an increasing (60%, from 57%) volume of business being conducted through the top five insurers.
This is the fifth year that the FSA has conducted the study, but the previous torrid economic conditions mean it is the first that has seen a rise in sales of any of the three product types.
Over these five years, pure protection sales have crashed 39%, from the giddy heights of 981,715 in 2005/06, to the new low of 597,986 in 2009/10.
Pure protection products are defined as CI sold as a rider benefit to mortgage protection and term assurance, income protection (IP) and standalone critical illness.
Both strands of CI saw an increase last year, with rider figures rising 2% to 452,082 from 441,930, and standalone sales boosted by 5% to 41,802 from 39,896.
Although IP continued its slump as annual sales decreased 11% to 104,102 from 117,377, this product range has fared marginally better than the others, seeing an overall fall of 31% since 2005/06.
Standalone CI has been hardest hit, more than halving (56% lower) its sales total in the first year of the study, from 96,060 to the present level.
CI rider products have shrunk by more than a third during that time, dropping from 734,309.
The report suggests this difference maybe explained by the fall in employment levels.
"It is likely that the deterioration in the labour market (with an increase in the unemployment rate of 2.6 percentage points between January 2008 and April 2010) has led to the reduction in income protection sales," it says.
"It may also be the case that the recent spike in income protection claims leading to rising premiums may be putting people off purchasing cover."
Data was provided by 534 firms, with 65 reporting on pure protection products.
