Consumers may have reacted to the results of the November general elections and year-end blahs by putting off life insurance purchases.
MIB Group says its U.S. life insurance application activity index was 7.3% lower in December than in December 2023.
Activity was down at least 4% for every age group MIB tracks.
Overall activity for all of 2024 was about 0.1% lower than in 2023.
In 2023, overall activity was 2.9% higher than in 2022.
What it means: If you had a sense that many people were just going through motions of looking busy in December, MIB has figures to support that impression.
The drop in December application activity level could also reflect the impact of the rocky annual enrollment period for 2025 Medicare Advantage plan coverage and 2025 Medicare Part prescription drugs plan coverage on some insurance agents' and brokers' ability to focus on life insurance sales.
The annual enrollment period ended Dec. 7, and many consumers received extra time to sign up for plans. The affected producers may be shifting back to a focus on life insurance sales later than usual.
Details: MIB gets the activity numbers by tracking how many life insurance policies flow through its application-checking systems.
Age breakouts: Here's what happened to activity for each age group between December 2023 and the latest month:
- Ages 0-30: -10.3%
- Ages 31-40: -4.3%
- Ages 51-60: -8.1%
- Ages 61-70: -10.8%
- Ages 71 and older: -7.7%
Full-year activity increased the most — 3.8% — for applicants ages 70 and older.
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