U.S. life insurance application activity continues to grow at a steady pace with year-to-date (YTD) activity up +4.1%, according to the November MIB Life Index.
Year-over-year (YOY) growth continued but slowed to +1.6% in November. While this is the smallest YOY gain since June, it continues a positive YOY growth trend for 2020 that started in May. On a monthly basis, November grew over October by +5.0%, the second largest Month-Over-Month (MOM) gain since the pandemic.
Continuing a trend seen since the pandemic started, YOY growth was largely driven by younger applicants with submissions in the 0-44 age group at +3.5% and the 45-59 age group at +2.4%. In contrast, the 60 and over age group continues on a downward trend with submissions at -5.0% YOY.
November’s YOY growth for ages 0-30 was driven by an increase in submissions of 7% for face amounts of $250,000-$2.5M. Declines continued (-20% or more) for age groups 61+ with submissions of face amount of $1M-$2.5M and also face amounts at or above $5M+.
November vs. October month-over-month submits showed significant swings by product lines with double-digit growth in activity for Term Life for the 31-70 age group and double-digit declines for permanent products for ages 51+. Term products have also continued to impact YTD numbers with declines (-4.5%) driving overall downward trends in the 60+ age group (-1.9%).
The MIB Life Index from Braintree, Mass.-based MIB Group is the life insurance industry’s timeliest measure of application activity across the U.S. The monthly Index is based on the number of searches member company underwriters perform on the MIB Checking Service database.
Since the vast majority of individually underwritten life premium dollars in the U.S. include an MIB Check as a routine underwriting requirement, the MIB Life Index provides a reasonable means for estimating new business activity.
To view the entire archive of historical reports, visit www.mibsolutions.com/regLI.
