Canadian life insurance application activity achieved record growth in March, year-over-year, reversing the trend where life insurance application activity had been on the decline since the beginning of 2021.
According to Massachusetts-based, MIB Group Inc., year-over-year application activity was up 7.4 per cent in March, “representing the highest gain for any month on record,” MIB stated in its most recent report on the Canadian MIB Life Index. “The positive trends in March bring year-to-date activity for Q1 to a flat 0.2 percent, reversing the trend of declines of two per cent or more on record since the beginning of 2018. While the difference in year-over-year activity can be somewhat attributed to the early effects of COVID in 2020, activity for March 2021 is also higher than March 2019 by 5.1 per cent.”
March, they add, is the first month since September 2019 where all age bands had positive year-over-year growth. They say March year-over-year growth was driven by applications for face amounts up to and including $2.5-million, and over $5-million. The highest gains however – 16.2 per cent – were recorded for face amounts between $500,000, up to and including $1-million. “Face amounts up to $250,000 and over $5-million also showed double digit growth at 10.4 per cent and 13.1 per cent respectively,” says MIB.
When examining activity patterns where a product type was submitted to the company, MIB says term life application activity rose 4.1 per cent, universal life was up 48.6 per cent and whole life sales were up 26.7 per cent when compared to March 2020 figures.
