U.S. Mid-Year 2024 Life Insurance Application Activity Flat Compared to 2023
U.S. life insurance application activity ended the first half of 2024 flat at +0.6% Year-to-Date (YTD), with activity in June down -6.4% Year-over-Year (YOY). When taking a historical lookback, 2024 mid-year YTD activity was up +4.9% compared to 2022 and flat at -1.5% compared to 2021. On a quarterly basis, activity during Q2-2024 was flat at +0.9% compared to Q2-2023. Additionally, in a pattern consistent with historical seasonal trends, Q2-2024 was down compared to Q1-2024 by -12.8%.
Trends across age bands have fluctuated during the first half of 2024. However, ages 71+ lead in YOY growth in all 3 months of Q2, ending the half as the only age band at growth YTD. For the month of June, ages 71+ saw YOY growth while all other age bands declined. On a quarterly basis, when comparing Q2-2024 to Q2-2023, ages 0-30 was up +2.5%, ages 31-50 flat at -0.7%, ages 51-60 down -2.7%, ages 61-70 up +3.4%, and ages 71+ up +12.2%. On a YTD basis, activity through mid-year was at growth for ages 71+, flat for ages 0-50 and 61-70, and declined for ages 51-60.
June 2024 saw YOY growth for all face amounts over $500K and declines for amounts up to and including $500K. When comparing Q2-2024 activity to Q2-2023, all face amounts over $250K saw growth, in the double digits for amounts over $500K, and amounts up to and including $250K saw flat activity. Similarly, when comparing YTD activity through the end of Q2-2024 to 2023, all face amounts over $250K saw growth, in the double digits for amounts over $500K, and amounts up to and including $250K saw declines.
When including age bands comparing Q2-2024 to Q2-2023, ages 0-30 saw growth for all face amounts over $250K, in the double digits for amounts over $500K, and amounts up to and including $250K saw flat activity. Ages 31-50 saw double-digit growth for all amounts over $500K, declining activity for amounts up to and including $250K, and flat activity for amounts over $250K up to and including $500K. Ages 51-60 saw double-digit growth for amounts over $250K and declining activity for amounts up to and including $250K. Ages 61-70 saw growth for all face amounts, in the double digits for amounts over $250 up to and including $1M and amounts over $2.5M up to and including $5M. Ages 71+ saw double-digit growth for all face amounts.
When examining product type and comparing Q2-2024 to Q2-2023, Whole Life saw double-digit growth of +14.7%, largely driven by a spike of double-digit growth in April and May, while Term Life was flat at +1.3%, and Universal Life saw declines of -18.6%. When including age bands, Whole Life saw growth for all age bands, in the double digits for ages 61+. Term Life saw growth for ages 0-30, flat activity for ages 31-50, and declines for ages 51+, in the double digits for ages 71+. Universal Life activity saw double-digit declines across all age bands. When looking at mid-year 2024 YTD, Whole Life and Term Life saw growth while activity for Universal Life declined in the double digits.
For the mid-year report, we are including an analysis on application activity by gender. Females accounted for 49.6% of total application activity while males accounted for 50.4% as of mid-year 2024 (based on activity where gender was reported to MIB). These results represent and interesting shift since from 2019 through 2022 females accounted for a slightly larger percent of application activity than did males, and in 2023 the percent of total applications for males vs females had an even 50/50 split. Interestingly, for ages 61+ there are more applications for females than for males in the first half of 2024, whereas for ages 0-60 there are more applications for males than females.
Consistent with 2023’s mid-year analysis, males saw higher YTD growth than females through June 2024, with activity for males up +1.7% and activity for females flat at -1.0%. It is interesting to note that this pattern is in contrast to long term trends which have seen year-end YOY growth in activity for males outpace females only twice in the last 10 years.
YTD growth in activity for males outpaced females across all age bands in 2024, with the highest gender-based variance seen for ages 51-60 and 71+.
When examining face amount activity by gender, we saw similar YTD activity patterns for males and females, with growth for face amounts over $250K. Amounts up to and including $250K saw flat activity for males and declines for females. For amounts over $1M up to and including $5M, YTD growth for females outpaced males. However, these face amount categories account for less than 5% of total application activity in aggregate. Growth for males slightly outpaced females for all other face amounts.
When adding product type to our gender analysis, growth for male activity outpaced that for females across all product types, with the greatest difference showing for Term and Universal Life. Growth was seen for both males and females in application activity for Whole Life, as well as for males for Term Life. Activity for females for Term Life was flat. Additionally, activity for Universal Life declined in the double digits for both males and females.
