While U.S life insurance application activity is down 2.8% year-over-year through October according to the latest report from MIB Life Index, there is one demographic that has been shown fairly consistent growth since March: Older Americans.
Ages 60+ U.S. life insurance application activity solidly led all others in October, up a significant 8.3% compared to last October and a healthy 2.3% year to date. October marked its strongest divergence year-over-year from the 0-44 age group so far in 2018. Applications for consumers ages 60 and older also increased 4.4% in August and 3.3% in September.
Overall, U.S. life insurance application activity slid in October, off -2.8% compared to last year, but month-to-month activity was strongly positive with October applications up 3.4% from that of September (despite September being Life Insurance Awareness Month). YTD the composite index lost ground in October off -0.5%, after four consecutive months of generally flat activity (-0.2%).
Just one year ago, application activity for ages 0-44 led all others. But in October, activity for ages 0-44 was off sharply – down -7.3%, year-over-year. Year-to-date losses doubled from last month for ages 0-44, off -1.4%.
Activity for ages 45-59 was off slightly at -0.7% in October compared to last year, and is off -0.5% year-to-date.
The MIB Life Index is the life insurance industry’s timeliest measure of application activity across the U.S. Released in the second week of each month, the Index is based on the number of searches member company underwriters perform on the MIB Checking Service database. Since the vast majority of individually underwritten life premium dollars in the U.S. include an MIB Check as a routine underwriting requirement, the MIB Life Index provides a reasonable means for estimating new business activity.
Industry analysts and insurance executives use the Index as a definitive source for capturing monthly activity levels and evaluating industry trends. Each month the MIB Life Index examines activity levels by three age groups, quarterly, monthly, and year-to-date comparisons.
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