Hartford Sees High Mortality for Next Few Years

Chris Swift, the chief executive officer of Hartford Financial, on Friday confirmed what government statistics seem to be showing: The U.S. death rate continues to be noticeably higher than it was before early 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic came to light.

Swift talked about the effects of the higher U.S. mortality rate on the company’s group life insurance business Friday during a conference call with securities analysts.

He noted that mortality was much lower in the first quarter than in the first quarter of 2023, but that it was still somewhat higher than the pre-pandemic average.

“The trends are downward,” Swift said. “But we believe that we’re still operating in an endemic state of mortality, which means it’s going to be higher than normal, and we think that will continue for at least the next the next couple of years. We’ve been pricing our product with that view.”

What it means: The impact of the pandemic on U.S. mortality and uncertainty about U.S. mortality is still affecting the assumptions that at least some life insurers are building into life and annuity product pricing.

The earnings: Hartford held the conference call to go over earnings for the first quarter.

The company is reporting $753 million in net income for the first quarter on $6.4 billion in revenue, up from $535 million in net income on $5.9 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2023.

Group life: Hartford sold its individual life and annuity businesses years ago.

The group life business reported an 82.6% loss ratio for the latest quarter on $645 million in premium revenue, compared with a 86.7% loss ratio on $643 million in revenue for the year-earlier quarter.

But group life sales fell to $153 million, from $227 million.

Although the group life loss ratio was down, year-over-year,  it was up from 81.3% in the first quarter of 2019 and up from 80.9% in the first quarter of 2018.

The thinking: Swift acknowledged the group life sales decrease during the conference call.

“We are being disciplined with pricing and underwriting in this competitive marketplace,” he said.”

He noted that group life sales are down partly because some other competitors have a different view of mortality.

Jonathan Bennett, Hartford’s head of group benefits, said U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures show that mortality is still higher than it was before the pandemic started.

“Looking forward, you need to make a call on where you feel the mortality will be in the next three to five years,” Bennett said. ”We have our conviction about where we think things are going. But the range right now in the marketplace in pricing is about as wide as it’s ever been, because of all of the ambiguities.”

Chris Sift. Credit: Hartford Financial