Canadian life insurance application activity declined slightly in February, with YOY activity off -1.9% according to the MIB Life Index. On a monthly basis, a positive trend was seen as February 2021 activity was up +15.9% over January. However, Year-to-Date (YTD) activity was down -4.3% in February 2021 compared with 2020.

Declines in February YOY focused on ages 51-70 who were down -7.1% for ages 51-60 and -5.2% for ages 61-70. All other age groups had relatively flat activity in February YOY.

The composite YOY decline in February was largely driven by lower face amounts up to and including $250K at -3.9%. Face amounts over $250K up to and including $2.5M grew YOY, driven by ages 31-50, while activity for amounts over $2.5M were relatively flat in aggregate. When looking at age bands, ages 0-30 increased YOY for amounts over $250K up to and including $1M and also for amounts over $2.5M. Age 31-50 increased for amounts over $250K up to and including $2.5M, but decreased for all other face amounts. Age 51-60 increased for amounts over $500K up to and including $1M while declining for amounts under $250K and remaining relatively flat in all other categories. Ages 61-70 grew for face amounts over $2.5M, yet decreased for all face amounts under $2.5M. Ages 71+ grew YOY for face amounts up to and including $500K as well as those over $2.5M up to and including $5M, while declining for all other face amounts.

Over 30% of total Life Index volume for Canada in January and February did not include a product type. We believe the vast majority of these submissions are for Life Insurance applications and have included them in the composite analysis presented in this report. Missing product type information has a significant impact on Canadian analysis. When looking solely at submissions identified as for Life Insurance products, activity is up +5.8% YOY for Canada in February 2021 and up 5.8% YTD in 2021 over 2020.

When examining activity patterns where a product type was submitted to MIB, we see declines in Term Life of -4.8% in favor of strong increases in Universal Life of +37.8% and Whole life which was up +14.3%. Term Life dropped for all age groups, with the exception of ages 31-50 where activity was flat. Universal Life saw significant growth in ages 0-50, declined slightly for age groups 61-70 and was relatively flat for other age groups. Whole life grew for all age groups, in double digits for ages 0-50 and 71+.

Note: Due to frequent missing information regarding the applicant’s country of residence, effective January 2021 we are now identifying Canadian activity based on the company country.

Contact: Betty-Jean Lane, MIB Group,Inc., 781-980-0017, BLane@mib.com