According to a survey conducted by industry research group LIMRA, American life insurance executives are optimistic about the coming year but nearly half are also worried about the effect new players could have on the industry.

The LIMRA survey revealed that 47% of financial executives in the United States believe an outside source such as Google or Amazon will enter the life insurance market within the next five years and become a "disruptive force" in the business.

Executives were also asked to name the single biggest challenge they expect the financial services industry will have to face in 2015; 37% of respondents said that it would be to reach the underserved market, while 35% of respondents picked low interest rates as their top concern.

In general, insurance executives were optimistic about how the US economy would perform this year, with more than 90% expecting it to be as good or better than 2014. They were also upbeat about the prospects for their own companies, with 94% of respondents believing that their operating results will be as good or better in 2015 than they were last year.