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Life Health > Life Insurance > Permanent Life Insurance

U.S. Life Application Activity Gets the Chills

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U.S. individual life insurance application activity dropped in December, MIB Group reported Tuesday.

The Braintree, Massachusetts-based industry organization said overall application flow fell 4.2% when compared with application flow for December 2021.

That compares with a year-over-year activity decrease of just 0.2% in November 2021, and a decrease of 5.5% for the year.

Whole life activity has been especially weak: It was 12.7% lower for all of 2022 than in 2021. Term life activity was down 4%, and universal life activity was down 3.9%.

What It Means

Most working clients with families use life insurance to protect their families against the loss of a breadwinner, and some wealthy clients use whole life insurance and universal life insurance in income planning.

Some life insurers have talked about having problems with getting new agents licensed because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agent training and testing programs, especially in 2020.

Falling life application activity could be the result of tough comparisons with the application boom that occurred early in the COVID-19 pandemic, the effects of inflation on consumers’ ability to pay for life insurance, and, possibly, a decrease in consumer access to life insurance advisors.

Activity by Age

Here are the activity change figures, for December, for applicants in five different age groups:

  • Ages zero-30: -3.4%
  • Ages 31-50: -3.5%
  • Ages 51-60: -5.6%
  • Ages 61-70: -6.0%
  • Ages 71 and older: -3.7%

The Policygenius Price Index

Web broker Policygenius publishes a monthly term life price index that draws on its own sales data. Its index is based on pricing information for 20-year, level-premium term life coverage.

The lowest-priced coverage included is for a 25-year-old female nonsmoker who needs $250,000 in death benefits, and the highest-priced coverage is for a 55-year-old male smoker who needs $1 million in death benefits.

This month, the lowest price in the Policygenius price tables, for the 25-year-old female nonsmoker seeking just $250,000 in coverage, held steady at $14.19.

The highest price, for the 55-year-old male smoker seeking $1 million in coverage, fell slightly, to $1,011.92, from $1,011.93.

(Image: Adobe Stock)


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