COVID-19 Blamed For 2.2% Decline In March Life Insurance Activity

The COVID-19 pandemic is being blamed for a -2.2% year-over-year decline in U.S. life insurance application activity for March, according to the MIB Life Index.

The poor month interrupted a strong two-month growth trend.

March’s MIB Life Index application activity was off -6.7% from that of February. February’s month-to-month activity suggests pandemic-related demand for life policies with application activity at its highest for a January-February period since 2015, MIB reported.

For the Q1 March close, the MIB Life Index composite remained up 1.8% year-to-date, some -2.2% off from February’s 4% YTD close.

The March MIB Life Index age groups showed modest activity: ages 0-44, up 0.3%; ages 45-59, down -4.2%; and ages 60+ were off -6.2%.

The small positive percent change in ages 0-44 (54.2% of the Index) helped temper losses in the composite Index, MIB said. Year-to-date, ages 0-44 are up 3.4%, ages 45-59 are off -0.7% and ages 60+ are up 0.9%.