North American application activity for individually underwritten life insurance was down 4.5 percent in January year-over-year, according to the MIB Life Index, while activity showed a slight increase in January compared to December, 2008.

In prior years, application activity between December and January generally declined between 3 percent and 4 percent, MIB said.

The MIB Life Index, compiled by Braintree, Mass.-based MIB Group, is based on the number of searches life member company underwriters in the U.S. and Canada perform on the MIB Checking Service database.