Description: Recent advances in mortality modeling have enabled applicant-specific quantification of mortality risk in life insurance applicants using laboratory and physical measurements. Relative to more conventional underwriting, this approach identifies a small population of significantly under-priced policy and a much larger, cross-subsidizing group whose risk is presently overestimated. Applicants placed in the highest percentile by this scoring methodology are more than 10X as likely to die in a given period as their demographic peers, and represent approximately 5% of short-term claims. Implications for product design are substantial in both the short- and long-term, as the possibilities for adverse selection grow, and the opportunity for fully individualized pricing raises the more distant prospect of products with as many rate classes as applicants.

Description: View the complete issue for the August 2014 Reinsurance News newsletter.

Description: Recently completed experience and research studies from the SOA.

Description: This paper presents a brief history of life insurance risk assessment and explores a future including wearable devices, genetic testing and digital health data

Description: This article from major US payers describes palliative care as a scaleable means of improving quality and reducing costs during serious and complex illness.

Description: Highlights from the Social Security & Mortality panel at the 2017 Living to 100 Symposium - actuaries responsible for projections in the US, Canada and the UK.