Life Application Activity Acceleration Slows: MIB
Activity for people ages 60 and older fell. Trends for the two younger age groups converged.
U.S. life insurance application activity continued to increase in August, but the rate of growth slowed.
MIB’s overall life application activity index was 9.1% higher in August than in August 2019.
The year-over-year increase is much higher than the 3.9% overall year-to-date increase, but it’s down from a 14.1% year-over-year increase for July.
Resources
- A copy of the latest MIB life application activity report is available here.
- An article about the MIB life application activity figures for August is available here.
MIB is a Braintree, Massachusetts-based organization that helps life insurers share some of the data used in the underwriting process.
The activity index figures reflect the application verification activity level at MIB’s databases.
MIB breaks its public summary data down into three age categories: ages 44 and younger: ages 45 to 59; and ages 60 and older.
For years, the oldest age group showed the most growth. Application activity for the youngest age group usually shrank.
Fear of COVID-19, and pandemic-related changes in the way life insurer sell and underwrite policies, have reversed that trend.
Here are the MIB activity numbers for each age group for August:
- Ages 0-44: Up 12.4%
- Ages 45-59: Up 10.1%
- Ages 60 and older: Down 0.3%
The activity level increase was lower in August than it was in July for each age group.
The activity level for the young applicants was down from 18.9%; for applicants in the middle age group, down from 12.9%; and for applicants in the oldest age group, down from an increase of 4%.
Correction The activity level change for people ages 45 through 59 was given incorrectly in an earlier version of this article. The correct change percentage is 10.1%.
— Read Michael Fosbury to Lead MIB, on ThinkAdvisor.
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