Canadian life insurance application activity saw growth of +10.0% Year-over-Year (YOY) in January 2024 continuing a YOY growth pattern that started in May of 2023. On a Month-Over-Month (MOM) basis, January 2024 activity grew by +19.8% compared to December 2023 in a double-digit MOM growth pattern similar to that seen in January 2023, but outpacing January MOM results in years prior.

January 2024 saw Year-Over-Year (YOY) growth for all age bands, in the double digits for ages 61-70, and triple digits for ages 71+. Activity for ages 0-30 was up +2.0%, ages 31-50 up +3.6%, ages 51-60 up +7.0%, ages 61-70 up +37.8%, and ages 71+ up +155.2%. It is interesting to note that ages 71+ has seen triple-digit YOY growth each month since October 2023 and ages 61-70 has seen double-digit YOY growth since May 2023. It is important to note as you consider these increases that activity for ages 71+ makes up about 5% of the total application activity for Canada. As such a relatively small change in total applications for this age band can drive a reasonably large YOY% change.

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

When examining activity patterns where a product type was submitted to MIB, Universal Life saw double-digit growth YOY in January 2024, Whole Life saw growth, and Term Life saw double-digit declines. When including age bands, Universal Life saw YOY growth for all age bands, in the double digits for ages 0-60, in the triple digits for ages 61-70, and in the quadruple digits for ages 71+. Whole Life saw flat activity YOY for ages 51-60 and growth for all other age bands. Term Life saw YOY declines for all age bands, in the double digits for ages 0-30 and ages 61+.

About 33% of total Life Index volume for Canada in January 2024 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 can have a significant impact on the Canadian analysis, and when looking solely at submissions identified as Life Insurance products, growth in January of 2024 was +9.9%. Although this difference is minor for January, we have seen the impact be more than +/- 12% in previous months.