Where Did the Young Life Insurance Applicants Go?
On the bright side: Older consumers are still buying life insurance.
Young Americans’ life insurance application activity continued to cool in December, as older Americans’ application activity soared.
Application activity for consumers of all ages was fairly strong, and roughly comparable, through September, according to application activity data from MIB Group Inc.
Activity began to plummet for consumers ages 0 through 44 and climb for consumers ages 60 and older starting in October, according to the MIB data.
(Related: Young Consumers Shun Life Market: MIB)
MIB is a nonprofit group that helps member insurers share information used in the review of applications for life insurance, disability insurance and other medically underwritten products.
MIB has estimated that members use its databases to check about 90% of medically underwritten applications.
In December, here’s how year-over-year activity changes broke down by age group:
- Ages 0-44: -7.4%
- Ages 45-59: -0.9%
- Ages 60 and older: +10.5%
Here’s what happened to full-year activity levels:
- Ages 0-44: -2.7%
- Ages 45-59: -0.7%
- Ages 60 and older: +3.3%
Overall activity for consumers of all ages was down 1.1% in 2018. In 2017, overall activity fell 1.8%.
Lee Oliphant, MIB’s chief executive officer, said in a statement that he believes life insurers continue to have problems with reaching younger consumers, in spite of efforts to reinvent the insurance purchasing process.
“Our discussions with MIB members confirm the year-end challenges life insurers experienced, particularly those with younger-age buyers,” Oliphant said.
— Read Life Application Activity Rises. For ALL Age Groups, on ThinkAdvisor.
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