March Calendar Skews Life Activity Numbers
Applications per day increased, but the most recent month had fewer workdays than in 2023.
MIB Group has a lesson for any company that’s about to try to compare the new monthly results with year-earlier results: March 2024 had just 21 business days in it, compared with 23 business days in March 2023.
The Braintree, Massachusetts-based life insurance industry underwriting services group said the 8.7% fewer business days can make growth look like a decrease.
MIB develops U.S. individual life insurance application activity reports based on the number of applications that insurers send through its application-checking systems.
The number of inquiries per business day increased between March 2023 and the latest month, but total activity for the month and per calendar fell 6.6%.
What it means: Comparisons of average daily performance figures for March may be more forgiving than full-month comparisons.
Age breakouts: Here’s how U.S. life application activity changed between March 2023 and the latest month for five age groups, without any adjustments for missing business days:
- Ages 0-30: -4,8%
- Ages 31-40: -6.0%
- Ages 51-60: -9.8%
- Ages 61-70: -8.8%
- Ages 71 and older: -4.9%
Coverage costs: Policygenius, a web broker, creates monthly price charts based on the prices that term life issuers offer Policygenius customers.
The lowest price is for a 25-year-old female nonsmoker who needs $250,000 in death benefits. The highest price is for a 60-year-old male smoker who needs $1 million in coverage.
The cost for the young, female nonsmoker with just $250,000 in coverage increased to $14.44, from $14.39. The cost for the 60-year-old male smoker with a $1 million policy is $1,621.84.
In 2023, the highest age included in the Policygenius index table was 55. For 55-year-old male smokers, the cost of $1 million in coverage increased to $1,006.89, from $1,006.87.
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