Life Application Activity Continues to Recover: MIB
Growth was strongest in the 60-and-older market segment.
Strong demand from consumers ages 45 and older is continuing to act as chicken soup for the U.S. life insurance market.
Overall application activity was 1.9% higher in September than in September 2018, according to new activity data from MIB Group Inc.
(Related: Life Activity Rises: MIB)
The increase for September follows a 0.5% year-over-year increase in August.
In July, sales sank 3.2%.
The MIB Activity Index
MIB is a nonprofit organization that helps the member U.S. and Canadian life insurers exchange some of the information used to verify insurance policy applications that go through a medical underwriting process.
MIB bases its life application activity index on how often life insurers use its databases to check applications.
Age Wave
U.S. baby boomers were born from 1946 through 1964, with the oldest boomers turning 73 this year, and the youngest turning 55.
That means that about half of the boomers have already flowed into MIB’s oldest activity index age group, the age group for people ages 60 and older.
Application activity trends in the 60-and-older have tended to be stronger than trends in the two younger age groups for years.
That could be due partly to the aging of the boomers, partly due to boomers’ use of life insurance as a substitute for stand-alone long-term care insurance, and, possibly, partly due to the rise of the life settlement market.
In September, the 60-and-older age group continued to be the best performer. The 45-59 age group also showed some growth.
Here’s how September life application activity looked when broken out by age group:
- Ages 0-44: Down 2.2%
- Ages 45-59: Up 2.7%
- Ages 60 and older: Up 12.5%
Resources
A copy of the latest MIB life activity update is available here.
— Read Where Did the Young Life Insurance Applicants Go?, on ThinkAdvisor.
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