U.S. Life Activity Springs Back Up

U.S. life insurance application activity jumped up in April, after drifting through months of weak year-over-year performance.

Shoppers submitted 10.3% more applications last month than in April 2023, according to new data from MIB Group.

MIB, a Braintree, Massachusetts-based life insurance industry underwriting support group, bases its monthly activity reports on its application checking systems’ processing volume.

Application for the oldest consumers in the public reports, those ages 71 and older, climbed more than 10% both for term life and for whole life, MIB says.

What it means: One possibility is that the end of the Medicare Advantage annual enrollment period, which runs from Oct. 1 through Dec. 7 every year, and the Medicare Advantage open enrollment period, or plan switching period, which runs from Jan. 1 through March 31, may have freed some agent and brokers to devote more attention to selling individual life insurance.

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: +9,8%
• Ages 31-40: +9.8%
• Ages 51-60: +7.1%
• Ages 61-70: +12.7%
• Ages 71 and older: +22%

Coverage costs: Policygenius, a web broker, creates monthly price charts based on the prices that term life issuers offer Policygenius customers.