Term Life Applications Rose 14% in September

By Allison Bell

News October 14, 2024 at 10:36 AM

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Overall U.S. individual life insurance applications flattened out in September, but some types of products did a lot better than others.

Consumers filed 14% more applications for term life coverage than they filed in September 2023 but 27% less for universal life, according to MIB Group.

Whole life application activity was up 2.6% year over year.

Overall application activity rose 1.1%. That was up from a 5% decrease in August.

What it means: One reason for the activity split could be shifts in interest rates or insurer appetite for absorbing certain kinds of risk.

Another reason could be tougher scrutiny on universal life performance illustrations and sales practices.

The numbers: MIB is a group that helps life insurers share some of the information used in the medical underwriting process.

It bases the monthly activity reports on its own policy review system volume.

Age breakouts: Here's what happened to activity for each age group between July 2023 and the latest month:

Ages 0-30: +2.6%
Ages 31-40: +2.5%
Ages 51-60: -2.6%
Ages 61-70: -2.3%
Ages 71 and older: +2.3%

Policygenius: A web broker, Policygenius, now prepares monthly term life price index charts. The lowest price shown is for a 25-year-old female nonsmoker who wants $250,000 in death benefits.

The highest price is now for a 60-year-old male smoker who wants $1 million in coverage. The highest price present in both 2023 and this year is for a 55-year-old male smoker who wants $1 million in coverage.

For the 25-year-old, the lowest rate fell to $14.30, from $14.59.

For the 55-year-old smoker, the highest rate rose to $1,010.11, from $1,006.88.

Image: Adobe Stock

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