Description: The IRS released the details of a program to allow life insurers to correct inadvertent failures to comply with the modified endowment MEC rules under section 7702A of the Internal Revenue Code the “Code”.

Description: Future mortality improvement has been a common assumption in life insurance and annuity pricing and forecasting for many years. However, experience over the last decade suggests this might be an assumption that merits reconsideration in the United States. This article will take a closer look at factors that impact mortality improvement trends and discuss why insurers may want to reevaluate product designs to better manage the associated mortality risk. We then introduce a product idea with this in mind, where premiums are based on a life expectancy index and insurers share the risk (and opportunity) or mortality improvement with policyholders.

Description: This article discusses the concept of Conservation of Mortality ("Conservation"). Conservation is the modeling principle that ensures consistency between assumptions of the total mortality of a population and mortality among population subsets. This article discusses the use cases for Conservation and the many ways that one could implement it in a model or an experience study. This article also discusses the potential issues that arise when using Conservation, and how one might solve or alleviate these issues.

Description: In this article, the author discusses discuss the use of the Cox Proportional Hazards Model in developing a predictive underwriting model that produces a mortality multiplier for each individual.

Description: Milliman was engaged by the SOA to conduct two Accelerated Underwriting (AU) surveys, one of direct companies and another of reinsurers. The surveys explored actual results from 2019–2021 and expected results from 2022.

Description: An interview with Joe Gilmour to share his views on the future innovations in underwriting that will help grow the individual life insurance business.

Description: The world around us keeps changing F.A.S.T. propelling life insurance companies to respond with F.R.E.S.H. product solutions.

Description: The Mortality Studies Working Group MSWG of the Society of Actuaries was created to review the issue of the frequency of the standard ordinary individual life insurance mortality experience studies and the published reports of those studies. This report discusses these issues and makes recommendations.

Description: Recently the interest rates have been slowly trending up from the lowest point in August 2020. The focus of this article is on current market trends for long-duration products —including life insurance, annuities, and long-term care insurance —following an extended period of low interest rates, and lessons carriers can learn from similar historical periods of rising interest rates. Innovative and flexible product features will continue to be essential, as the current interest trend may not substantially increase insurers’ portfolio rates. When designing or modifying product features, insurers should consider profitability in a wide breadth of interest rate scenarios and be particularly mindful of the impact that crediting rates and asset durations will have on earnings.

Description: discussion of a LIMRA survey on the quantity and types of recent product development efforts of life insurance companies and the considerations driving these efforts