MIB Index: U.S. life insurance activity up in September

U.S. application activity for individually underwritten life insurance was up 1.5 percent in September, year-over-year, all ages combined. The accelerated pace of activity is particularly encouraging since it took place in two fewer business days than in September 2011.

MIB Group, Inc., Briantree, Mass., published the finding in its MIB Life Index, a measure of life insurance application activity in the U.S. Released monthly, the Index is based on the number of searches MIB life member company underwriters perform on the MIB Checking Service database.

The traditional summer lull seems to be over with September activity up 8.9 percent from that of August; a more robust than usual jump as the year winds down. However, the reverberations of the summer lull are still being felt with third quarter results down 0.8 percent compared with 2011. There have been, notably, positive numbers in six of the last nine months, rendering the Index up 1.7 percent year-to-date.