Life Activity Rises: MIB

By Allison Bell

News September 11, 2019 at 04:17 PM

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U.S. life insurance application activity increased in August, after falling sharply in July, according to new activity data from MIB Group Inc.

In August, MIB says, overall activity was 0.5% higher than in August 2018.

(Related: Life Activity Slumps: MIB)

That compares with a year-over-year decrease of 3.2% in July, and a year-over-year decrease of 0.2% for the period from January through August.

MIB's Activity Index

Life insurers created MIB to serve as a vehicle for sharing some of the information used to check applications for life insurance and related products.

The MIB life application activity index is based on the number of applications MIB systems check every month.

Age Groups

Life insurers have reported much stronger application numbers for older applicants than for younger applicants throughout the year, possibly because of factors such as the aging of the baby boomers and boomers' use of life insurance-based products to protect themselves against long-term care risk.

That trend continued in August.

Here's how August life application activity looked when broken out by age group: