Early figures suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a big increase in individual life insurance claims as well as in group life insurance claims, according to a new analysis.
The number of individual life claims was probably at least 7% higher than the historic average in the third quarter of 2021, the analysts report.
From the second quarter of 2020 through the second quarter of 2021, the number of individual life claims was probably at least 17% higher than the historic average.
A team working through the Society of Actuaries — the Individual Life COVID-19 Project Work Group — has published those figures in a review of very early life claim data.
The team included actuaries from the SOA, LIMRA, Reinsurance Group of America and TAI.
The analysts used data from 32 insurers that accounted for 72% of the life insurance in force during the period included in the analysis.
The analysts emphasize that finalizing life claims can take nine months or more.
"The Individual Life COVID-19 Project Work Group would like to stress that, due to delays in the reporting and recording of claim information in the insured data, the more recent data submitted for this research is considered preliminary and will change with subsequent data submissions," the analysts write in a section on the analysis limitations.
