Individual Life Claims Soared in the Second Half of 2021: Work Group
To compensate for the fact that the numbers for 2021 are still incomplete, the work group used the numbers reported as of Dec. 31 in each year included in the data.
The work group looked at life claims resulting from all causes. That means that some claims might be the result of indirect pandemic effects, such as the effects of the pandemic on hospital capacity and substance use disorders, rather than the result of deaths caused directly by COVID-19.
Age and Claim Counts
Early on, COVID-19 swept through nursing homes and killed large numbers of people there.
Some life insurance analysts speculated that the pandemic might have only a limited effect on working-age people, who tend to have more life insurance than older people.
Instead, in late 2021, the pandemic had a bigger effect on insured people under age 60 than on older insureds.
In the fourth quarter, for example, the number of individual life claims for people with fully underwritten coverage was just 11% higher than the 2017-2019 average for people ages 90 and older.
The number was 21% higher for people ages 50 through 59, and 29% higher than normal for people under 50.
Age and Claim Amounts
The third quarter of 2021 seems to have been one of the worst quarters of the pandemic for the reported individual life claim amount total for people ages 60 and older, and the worst quarter for people under 60.
The overall total for insureds of all ages was 31% higher than the 2017-2019 average.
The claim total was 49% higher than usual for insureds ages 50 through 59, and 66% higher than usual for insureds under age 60.
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