About 22 percent of U.S. households shopped for life insurance in 2011 and 39 percent remember having an opportunity to do so in the last two years, according to LIMRA's 2011 Life Insurance Buyer/Non-buyer study.

Life insurance agents are effective when selling coverage personally, the report indicates, since face-to-face meetings resulted in a 74 percent likelikood of purchasing coverage, compared to 67 percent when interacting in other ways and a 36 percent chance that consumers would buy a policy when they only shopped online.

Online shopping is becoming more common, researchers suggest, which may explain why an 11 percent increase in the number of households shopping for life insurance since 2003 coincided with a drop in the percentage of shoppers who actually bought coverage, from 70 to 54 percent. Most households which did not purchase coverage cited further research as their reason.

Single adults and families were very close in terms of the probability they bought a policy when an opportunity presented itself, with 51 and 58 percent respectively reporting purchases. While only 26 percent of single adults recalled having a chance to shop for policies, 74 percent of married couple responded that they had a chance. This suggests that single adults may be a demographic that requires more focus, LIMRA suggested.