Young adults are just as aware of the need to protect their income and health as their elder peers, but fall behind when it comes to life insurance and critical illness (CI).
According to research from Ageas, Britons aged between 18 and 34 are just as likely to own income protection (IP) as those aged 35 to 54 with.
It also found that that sales of life and CI are around half those of 35 to 54-year-olds.
The results are likely to prove bittersweet to the industry.
While it will be pleasing that marketing and awareness messages appears to be reaching people of all ages equally, it will be disappointing to note that just 6% of respondents in each category claimed to own the product.
Those aged over 55 were far less likely to buy IP (1%), but many people in this age group will have already retired from work.
The divide in sales of life and critical illness is perhaps to be expected as many of these contracts are triggered by mortgage applications.
Only one in five (19%) young adults hold life insurance and just 7% own critical illness, with both these figures being around half for those aged 35 to 54 (39% and 13% respectively).
Ageas also enquired about other insurance products owned and found that a quarter 24% of 18 to 34-year-olds don't own any insurance at all.
However, only 11% of 35 to 54-year-olds and 7% of those over 55 said they did not have any insurance coverage at all.
Encouragingly for the medical insurance sector, 8% of 18 to 34-year-olds own PMI compared with 10% of 35 to 54-year-olds and over 55-year-olds.
