North American Life Insurance Activity in November Declines for 2nd Consecutive Month

(Westwood, Mass. � December 11, 2002) Applications for life insurance in North America fell for the second straight month in November, declining 6.9% compared to the same period last year. Both U.S. and Canadian application activity were off 7.8% and 0.6% respectively year-over-year. For U.S. companies, November’s drop comes on the heels of this past October’s 2.6% decline; averaging a 5.1% decrease in application activity for the two months combined compared to 2001 levels.

According to The MIB Life Index SM November’s overall decline in U.S. application activity was concentrated in the younger demographic; individuals below age 45 experienced an 11.2% decrease, nearly twice the 6.5% decrease by applicants age 60 and over.

“In the U.S. marketplace, November’s activity has lagged October’s in six of the past seven years,” states Stacy J. Gill, Vice President and Chief Knowledge Officer at the MIB Group’s e-Services Corporation. “However, this year’s drop of 14.6% is the second largest October-to-November decline since 1997,” continues Gill.

The MIB Life Index

The MIB Life IndexSM. is released in summary form to the media each month, providing a monthly snapshot free of charge to the industry.

  Monthly Percent Change vs 2001
US Canada Total
November 2002 -7.8% -0.6% -6.9%
October 2002 -2.6% 5.2% -1.9%
Oct – Nov 2002 -5.1% 2.2% -4.3%


  Monthly Percent Change vs Previous Month
US Canada Total
November 2002 -14.6% 0.8% -12.6%

About MIB Group, Inc.

MIB Group, Inc., headquartered in Westwood, Massachusetts, is the leading provider of database and information management tools to the global risk management community, and is a leading facilitator of electronic insurance commerce via dedicated networks and Internet-based systems. MIB member companies underwrite more than 95 percent of the premium dollars of individual life insurance written in the United States and Canada. More information about MIB Group, Inc. is available at www.mib.com

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