Canadian life insurance application activity showed a decline of -8.4% Year-over-Year (YOY) in February 2022 compared to February 2021, reflecting a continuing pattern of YOY declines that began in July 2021, and leading to a -9.0% decline on a Year-to-Date (YTD) basis. However, growth on a Month-Over-Month (MOM) basis reflects a seasonal positive trend with February 2022 showing an increase of +17.4% compared to January 2022.

⁠February saw declining or flat Year-Over-Year (YOY) activity across all age groups, including double-digit declines for age 31-50. Activity for ages 0-30 was down -5.7%, ages 31-50 down -11.4%, ages 51-60 down -8.7%, ages 61-70 flat at +1.0%, and ages 71+ down -5.8%.

February saw YOY double-digit declines in application activity for face amounts up to and including $500K and growth for all other face amounts, in the double digits for face amounts over $1M up to and including $5M.

When examining age bands, ages 0-30 saw double-digit declining YOY activity for face amounts up to and including $500K, double-digit increases for face amounts over $500K up to and including $1M as well as for amounts over $2.5M, and triple-digit increases for face amounts over $1M up to and including $2.5M. Ages 31-50 saw double-digit declining YOY activity for face amounts up to and including $500K, flat activity for face amounts over $500K up to and including $1M, and growth for all other face amounts, in the double digits for face amounts over $1M up to and including $5M. Ages 51-60 saw double-digit YOY growth for face amounts over $500K up to and including $1M as well as face amounts over $2.5M, and declines for all other face amounts, in the double digits for face amounts up to and including $250K. Age 61-70 saw YOY declines for face amounts up to and including $250K, double-digit declines for face amount over $5M, and flat activity for face amount over $1M up to and including $2.5M, while all other face amounts saw double-digit growth. Ages 71+ saw declines for face amounts up to and including $250K, double-digit decline for face amounts over $250K up to and including $500K, flat activity for face amounts over $500K up to and including $1M, and growth for face amounts over $1M, in the double digits for amounts over $1M up to and including $2.5M and in triple digits for face amounts over $5M.

When examining activity patterns where a product type was submitted to MIB, Universal Life was at double-digit growth YOY in February, while Whole Life and Term Life saw declines. When examining age bands, YOY activity for Term Life showed double-digit growth for ages 61+ and declined for all other age groups. Universal Life saw YOY growth for ages 0-70, in the double digits for ages 31-70, while ages 71+ saw double-digit declining activity. Whole Life saw YOY growth for ages 0-30 and declines across all other age bands, in the double digits for ages 51+.

About 27% of total Life Index volume for Canada in 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 the Canadian analysis. Growth varies when looking solely at submissions identified as Life Insurance products, with activity flat at -1.9% YOY for Canada in February 2022.