U.S. individual life insurance application activity dropped in December, MIB Group reported Tuesday.
The Braintree, Massachusetts-based industry organization said overall application flow fell 4.2% when compared with application flow for December 2021.
That compares with a year-over-year activity decrease of just 0.2% in November 2021, and a decrease of 5.5% for the year.
Whole life activity has been especially weak: It was 12.7% lower for all of 2022 than in 2021. Term life activity was down 4%, and universal life activity was down 3.9%.
What It Means
Most working clients with families use life insurance to protect their families against the loss of a breadwinner, and some wealthy clients use whole life insurance and universal life insurance in income planning.
Some life insurers have talked about having problems with getting new agents licensed because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agent training and testing programs, especially in 2020.
