MIB Group has just launched the MIB Life Index for Canada. “We are excited to share with you a version of MIB's Life Index Report, focused exclusively on application data from our Canadian members!” Andrea Caruso, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of MIB Group, announced on December 11, 2020.
Funded by North American life and health insurance companies, MIB Group centralizes the medical data that customers submit in their life insurance applications. Member insurers can use this data to assess an applicant's risk. The MIB index is based on the number of searches that insurers perform on the MIB Group database. According to its index report, more than 95% of life insurance applications in North America are accepted following an MIB search.
11.7% increase in the under-30 age group
Between November 2019 and November 2020, life insurance applications in Canada rose by 9.1%. The 50 and under cohort was the main driver of this growth, the MIB Life Index for Canada reports. The index finds a 10% increase in activity related to applicants in this age group. Specifically, the number of applications in the 30 and under age group climbed 11.7%, compared with a 10.5% rise for the 31 to 50 age group.
During the same 12-month period, the number of life insurance applications in the 51 to 60 age group rose by 3.4% and the number of applications in the 61 to 70 age group was up 6.3%. The number of applications in the 71+ age group declined by 5.7% over the same time period.
Upward trend for the year?
The number of applications in the first 11 months of 2020 represents a 1.2% decrease from the same period in 2019. The growth trend in the index that started in June is continuing, and has now offset the "double-digit (percentage)" negative patterns in April and May, MIB comments in its report. Application volume grew by 3.85% between October and November 2020.
More robust data wanted!
MIB Group is asking for insurers’ help to obtain more robust and accurate data from the Canadian life insurance business. In a letter to members, Andrea Caruso says that this will enable MIB to “continue to provide these reports and ensure the data within accurately reflects the Canadian market.”
“We have identified significant gaps with missing face amounts and product type information from data submitted to the Checking Service. In order to ensure that the Life Index analysis provides you with the most critical information to understand trends, we ask your cooperation in working with us to close these gaps," says MIB Group's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.
MIB has taken advantage of recent management changes to take a fresh look at the type of data it provides to its members and intensify its efforts to partner with the industry to improve it," Caruso told the Insurance Portal, "Beginning in mid-2020, we began to include additional trends in the U.S. report that focus on product mix, as well as broader age and sum insured ranges. Our goal is to do the same by leveraging the Canadian data," she added.
