The numbers are in and Massachusetts-based MIB Group Inc. has released its full year 2022 MIB Life Index report, showing declines of 7.2 per cent or 1.8 per cent in application activity, depending on how the data is interpreted.
The firm says the number of applications reported without indicating a product type jumped during the year. In the composite analysis, these are assumed to be life insurance products. Using this assumption, the firm says Canadian life insurance application activity finished 2022 down 7.2 per cent, year-to-date when compared to 2021 activity. When looking solely at submissions explicitly identified as life insurance products, activity finished 1.8 per cent lower year-to-date when compared to 2021.
December activity was down 4.9 per cent, year-over-year. Throughout the year only August saw year-over-year growth, September activity was flat, and activity declined in all other months – in the double digits from April through June. MIB says the declines can be attributed in part to corresponding growth, particularly in the second quarter of 2021.
In 2022, activity for ages 61 through 70 ended flat while all other age bands showed declining application activity.
“The most consistent patterns were for ages 31 to 50, which had the lowest performance across age bands for all months except December, and ages 61 to 70 which had the highest performance for eight out of 12 months,” they write. The firm adds that applications made for policies up to and including $500,000 made up more than 67 per cent of total activity. Double-digit declines in the number of applications made for these lower face amounts were offset by double-digit year-to-date growth in applications for face amounts over $1-million. Despite this, the composite still declined overall in 2022.
By product, universal life made up 12.1 per cent of all application activity in Canada, whole life represented 25.9 per cent and term life represented 32.2 per cent. “The remaining 29.9 per cent reflects activity where a product type was not provided to MIB,” they write. They add that universal life application growth was significant during the year, jumping 26 per cent. Whole life activity declined 1.9 per cent and term life activity decreased 9.2 per cent.
