Individual Life Applications Rise in March, Closes ‘Strongest Quarter Yet,’ MIB Reports
April 12, 2016 by Dennis Gorski
BRAINTREE, Mass. – Applications for individual life insurance policies in the United States rose 4.9% in March, compared with a year ago, according to market research from MIB Group.
The month also concluded the “strongest quarter yet of the current expansion,” the group said in its monthly MIB Life Index, and outshone last year’s first quarter by 5.4%, the group reported. “Since its initial positive breakout in Q3-2014, the MIB Life Index has been progressively stronger in each successive quarter,” the group said in a statement.
March 2016 was 1.2% lower than February’s application activity, however.
Although U.S. life insurance application activity increased across all age groups, MIB said, January to March 2016 is the fourth-consecutive quarter where younger-age life insurance activity has led all others.
In March, young applicants — those up to age 44 — accounted for a 6.5% increase over a year ago, MIB said, while applicants ages 45 to 59 drove a 3.1% rise in their cohort compared with a year ago. Applications from those age 60 and older went up 2.9% year-over-year, MIB said.
According to the index, at the close of the first quarter this year, individually underwritten life insurance applications to age 44 were up 6.9%; ages 45 to 59 were up 3.5%; and ages 60-plus were up 3.6%, compared with the same quarter last year.
The index is based on the number of searches MIB life member-company underwriters perform on the MIB Checking Service database.
According to BestLink, the top five writers of total life business in the United States, based on 2015 direct premium written, are MetLife with $12.5 billion; Northwestern Mutual, $10.0 billion; New York Life, $8.7 billion; Prudential, $8.5 billion; and Lincoln Financial, $$6.6 billion.
Organized in 1902, MIB Group Inc. is a membership corporation owned by approximately 430 member insurance companies in the United States and Canada.
(By Dennis Gorski, managing editor-online, BestWeek: Dennis.Gorski@ambest.com)
