Depending on how you stack the data, Canada’s life insurance application activity finished 5.6 per cent higher year-to-date when compared with 2022, or it ended on a flat note, declining 0.8 per cent, according to Massachusetts-based, MIB Group.
“During 2023, over 34 per cent of total life index volume for Canada did not include a product type. We believe the vast majority of these submissions are for life insurance applications and have included them in the composite analysis,” the MIB Group writes in its most recent MIB Life Index report for Canada. (All told, according to this analysis, Canadian life insurance application activity finished 2023 up 5.6 per cent year-to-date when compared with 2022.) “When looking solely at submissions identified as for life insurance products, Canadian activity finished 2023 flat at -0.8 per cent year-to-date compared with 2022.”
Considering the composite analysis, the 5.6 per cent growth figure in 2023 is the first time since 2016 that Canadian application activity ended the year in positive territory. “2023 saw year-over-year growth for 10 out of 12 months, in the double digits in July, August and October, ending the year with December activity up 2.7 per cent compared to December 2022,” they write.
“Activity for ages zero to 30 was up 2.3 per cent year-to-date, ages 31 to 50 up 3.1 per cent, ages 51 to 60 up 5.2 per cent, ages 61 to 70 up 16.4 per cent and ages 71+ showed the highest growth of 61 per cent,” they write.
Overall, they add that application activity was up for face amounts up to and including $250,000 and amounts over $1-million. Policy applications declined for amounts between $250,000 and $500,000 and activity was flat for amounts between $500,000 and $1-million.
In Canada, they say growth was driven by whole life – application activity increased 4.4 per cent and by universal life which jumped a notable 29.5 per cent. Term life applications declined 16.3 per cent during the year.
