Life Application Activity Cools

By Allison Bell

February 13, 2018 at 01:22 PM

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MIB Group Inc. says life insurance application activity was 4.4% lower in January than it was in January 2017.

Activity for people ages 45 to 59 was especially weak: Application flow for people in that age group fell 6.3%.

Activity dropped 3.7% for people ages 0 to 44, and 3.6% for people ages 60 and older.

(Related Young Consumers Keep Buying Life Insurance: MIB)

MIB is a Braintree, Massachusetts-based insurance industry group that collects data that life insurers can use to screen applications for life insurance and other forms of insurance for evidence of errors, or fraud. Issuers feed about 90% of medically underwritten applications through MIB systems.

The group reported earlier that overall application activity was 1% in December 2017 than in December 2016.

That was the first, and only, year-over-year increase in monthly activity that MIB reported for 2017.

For 2017, for all age groups, activity fell 1.8%.

Lee Oliphant, MIB's chief executive officer, said in a video statement that activity for people under 45 has done the best, overall, over the long-term, because of the large size of the Millennial generation, and because of life insurance company investments in accelerated underwriting programs that appeal to younger consumers.

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