A substantial rise of 3.3% in life insurance applications during June gave a nice boost to the MIB Life Index, putting it into positive year-to-date territory for the first time in 2019.
The gain was the largest single-month percentage rise and capped a bumpy ride that characterized the early half of the year, with the MIB Life Index gaining 0.2% YTD at the close of the second quarter.
In fact, the second quarter was up 1.5% overall compared with Q2 2018 and offset a drop of 1.0% in Q1 compared with Q1 2018, and June's applications showed a gain of 2.2% over May.
The trend is continuing among older buyers to dominate the market. Even though there was improvement among buyers 44 and under, it continued in negative territory at the end of Q2, off by 1.3% from June 2018. The situation was more positive among ages 45 to 59, up 4.1% for June year on year, and even stronger among the 60-and-older crowd at 15.6% for June year on year.
