Fear of COVID-19 may not have been not strong enough in March to
overcome sales headwinds.
U.S. life insurance application increased a
little for young consumers in March but fell for older consumers, according to
MIB Group Inc.
The Braintree, Massachusetts-based group says
overall application activity was 2.2% lower last month than in March 2018.
Here are the MIB activity numbers for each age
group for March:
·
Ages
0-44: +0.3%
·
Ages
45-59: -4.2%
·
Ages
60 and older: -6.2%
MIB is a nonprofit industry group that helps
life insurers share some of the information used in the underwriting process.
The application activity figures reflect
trends in use of MIB databases.
Market Forces
About three-quarters of the U.S. consumers now
in the 45-59 age group are members of the small “Generation X” generation, or
people born from 1965 through 1980.
Sales of products to adults under age 45 may
benefit from the fact that members of the relatively large Millennial
generation, or people born from 1981 through 1996, are now in their prime
insurance buying years.
Life insurers recently completed a shift to
use of new mortality tables and new reserving rules, and that shift may be
affecting prices and application flow.
Life insurance marketers are also looking to
see how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect life insurance sales.
The pandemic could help sales by making
consumers more aware of the risk of sudden death.
Life insurance publications reported in 1919
and 1920, for example, that the catastrophic 1918 influenza pandemic led to a
strong increase in consumers’ hunger for life insurance.
The COVID-19 pandemic could also hurt sales,
by pushing life insurers to tighten underwriting standards and processes;
forcing interest rates lower and life insurance premiums up; reducing
prospects’ income; and disrupting traditional, face-to-face sales efforts.
Allison Bell,
ThinkAdvisor's insurance editor, previously was LifeHealthPro's health
insurance editor. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington
University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill
School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached at
abell@alm.com or on Twitter at @Think_Allison.
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