COVID-19 linked to increased payouts

A record $100 billion was paid out in life insurance benefits in the United States last year, and COVID-19 deaths most likely caused the increase in death benefits payments, an industry trade group said on Monday.

Payouts jumped 11 percent last year to $100.19 billion, the American Council of Life Insurers, or ACLI, said. The increase was on the heels of a 15 percent year-over-year rise in 2020, when death benefit payments totaled $90.43 billion.

The increases are among the largest year-over-year increase since the 1918 influenza pandemic, when payments had surged up to 41 percent.