The work is a short overview of what insurance is. It is an exploration of the insurance business by providing a short historicity as well as its different definitions with an empirical analysis of the performance determinants in Tunisian life insurance companies. Results of this work indicated that the bank size, age and growth and are the most significant determinants of performance. However, with the emergence of the new kind of baking namely the Islamic banks, the issue of performance is questioned again and its measures are reconsidered.