Baby Boom Good for Life Insurance (Registered Rep.)

A January report from Demographic Intelligence projects the U.S. fertility rate will increase from 1.93 children per woman in 2010 to 1.98 children per woman in 2012, thus signaling an end to the “baby bust.” Keeping in step, total life insurance sales grew 4% in new annualized premiums in 2011, and insurers issued 2% more individual policies than they did in 2010, according to LIMRA. The MIB Group reports that life insurance applications were up 6% in 2011. People are buying life insurance, but they’re playing it safe with whole life instead of universal or variable universal coverage, according to LIMRA data. “The biggest driver of individual life insurance growth was whole life,” said Ashley Durham, LIMRA’s senior research analyst. “IT’s the only product to produce positive growth in each of the past five years.”