Description: This is an article that has excerpts from each of the four winning papers of a contest sponsored by the Society of Actuaries on the subject of visions of the life insurance industry in 2020.

Description: 1993 SOA Annual Meeting in New York. This session is about risk-appraisal techniques for the 21st century. Topics Include: 1. Some approaches that companies take and some issues that companies face in establishing preferred-risk underwriting programs. 2. Marketing, product design, and underwriting considerations for joint and second-to-die life insurance products. 3. Establishing assumptions for preferred-risk programs as well as some of the marketplace issues that need to be considered. 4. Expert underwriting systems. 5. The need for consistency in underwriting. 6. Developing trends in testing techniques and how those trends can be utilized in the underwriting process.

Description: This report presents the results of the Survey on the Business Decision practices of direct companies conducted by the Society of Actuaries Committee on Life Insurance Mortality and Underwriting Surveys. A survey of reinsurers is reported separately.

Description: This session at the SOA 1990 Hartford Spring Meeting is about the trends in risk classification and selection criteria used for underwriting risks for individual life insurance. Use of various laboratory tests based on analysis of blood and urine samples is discussed.

Description: This 1978 SOA session presented some provisional findings of the new Build and Blood Pressure Study. Some of the findings: 1. The average weights of men in the new study exceed the corresponding weights in the previous 1959 study by 2 to 8 pounds in the thirties, and by up to 5 pounds in the fifties. 2. The mortality ratios of overweight men are not significantly different in the new study from those in the 1959 study. 3. Markedly overweight men experienced lower mortality in the current study than in the 1959 study. 4. Men weighing 20 percent below average recorded 10 to 15 percent higher mortality in the new study than in the 1959 study. 5. Mortality of overweight women is relatively lower than that of overweight men. 6. Mortality of men with elevated systolic and diastolic pressures was appreciably lower than in the 1959 study. 7. Mortality of women with moderately elevated systolic and diastolic pressures was not significantly different from that in the 1959 study. 8. The presence of minor impairments alongside of blood pressures in excess of 150/90 usually produced significant increases in mortality.

Description: This presentation is a concurrent session from the 1980 Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held April 14-15 in Hartford, Connecticut. The panelists discuss basic concepts, such as definition and reasons for risk classification, availability vs. pricing class, equality vs. equity -special interest groups, appropriate factors for classification, and controllable vs. non-controllable factors. They also discuss American Academy of Actuaries work on risk classification, regulation, future company practice, including preferred risk, non-smoker, guaranteed issue etc., substandard practices, reinsurance, changing trends in underwriting, privacy laws, and related topics. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 6, No. 1.

Description: This report presents the results of the Survey on Business Decision practices of reinsurers conducted by the Society of Actuaries Committee on Life Insurance Mortality and Underwriting Surveys . A survey of direct writers of life insurance is reported separately.

Description: 1981 Report covering the period 1978 - 1980 presents statistics on the accidental fatality experience of various sports and sports-related occupations.

Description: Discusses the modification of underwriting practices because of the 1951 Medical Impairment Study, classification adjustments, competitive pressures on ratings and expansion of substandard business.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to provide a unified theory for the evaluation of underwriting requirements where this evaluation is based on the measurement of the levels of mortality costs associated with such requirements. A discussion of this paper is included.