(Westwood, Mass. � February 16, 2005) Applications for life insurance in North America were slightly positive up +0.9% year-over-year, marking the Index�s first monthly increase since August 2004. Compared against the prior month, January�s activity declined -5.8%. A decrease in activity for January versus December has occurred for the last three years.
January�s U.S. MIB Life Indexsm was up +0.9% year-over-year. Applications by age demographic were mixed with the 60+ age group up solidly at +6.7%, and ages 0-44 and 45-59 were statistically flat at +0.2% and +0.6% respectively, year-over-year. Activity in ages 60+ for January was virtually unchanged relative to December, registering a +0.1% increase.
Canada�s +0.8% increase was distributed by age differently than the U.S. increase: age 0-44 was flat at +0.3%, age 45-59 increased up +2.1%, and age 60+ was flat at +0.4%.
| Monthly Percent Change | |||
| US | Canada | Total | |
| January ’05 vs. Jan ’04 | +0.9% | +0.8% | +0.9% |
| December ’04 vs Dec. ’04 | -9.2% | -5.2% | -8.7% |
| Monthly Percent Change vs Previous Month | |||
| US | Canada | Total | |
| January 2005 | -5.8% | -5.5% | -5.8% |
About the MIB Life Index
The MIB Life Index is the life insurance industry’s timeliest measure of application activity across the U.S. Released to the media each month, the Index is based on the number of searches life member company underwriters perform on the MIB Checking Service database. Since the vast majority of individually underwritten life premium dollars in North America include an MIB search as a routine underwriting requirement, the MIB Life Index provides a reasonable means to estimate new business activity.
About MIB
MIB is the life and health insurance industry’s most trusted resource for risk information and analytical services. Owned by the industry it has served for more than a century, MIB is uniquely positioned to aggregate industry insights in order to develop products and services for our members that improve their risk management decisions. MIB, Inc. and MIB Solutions, Inc. are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the MIB Group, Inc. Visit www.mib.com.
