Marketing & Distribution Section Cosponsors 2006 Product Development Symposium

by Marketing and Distribution Section

The 6th Annual Product Development Symposium was held June 26–27 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort. Cosponsored by the Product Development, Marketing and Distribution, Reinsurance and Actuary of the Future Sections, the Symposium enjoyed record attendance of 300 actuaries and other professionals. Over the course of a day and a half, attendees attended an opening general session, a general luncheon and six breakout sessions. (The Symposium was unofficially kicked off by 10 brave souls on June 25 with a very hot round of golf in the afternoon Las Vegas sun.)

In the opening general session Daragh O' Sullivan, VP Product Design at Pacific Life Insurance Company and Fred Jonske, president and CEO of M Financial Group, participated in a distribution issues discussion facilitated by Keith Dall of Milliman, Inc. Over the course of an hour, the two speakers commented on topics such as market pressures facing cash value life products, the sources for finding future insurance agents, addressing the needs of the middle income market, investor–owned life insurance and distinguishing characteristics of successful life insurers over the next five to 10 years.

Following the general session, attendees chose six breakout sessions to attend from 13 total breakout session topics. Day one session choices included trends in reinsurance, variable annuity guarantees, life settlements, secondary guarantee universal life update, life securitizations, measuring profitability and SPIA design and pricing. Second day options covered principles based reserves, regulatory updates for the life and annuity markets, product development risk management/hedging, and an update on indexed products (life and annuity) and a life market update.

For a break from the serious actuarial topics, the general luncheon speaker provided insight into various Las Vegas games. Michael Shackleford, an actuary turned gaming consultant, spent 45 minutes reviewing the most popular gambling games, the odds of winning at each and the best way to minimize the house edge (expected casino winnings).

Anyone interested in attending the 2007 Product Development Symposium (date and location TBD) should closely watch the SOA Web site meeting event pages for updates.

The 6th Annual Product Development Symposium was held June 26–27 at the Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Resort. Cosponsored by the Product Development, Marketing and Distribution, Reinsurance and Actuary of the Future Sections, the Symposium enjoyed record attendance of 300 actuaries and other professionals. Over the course of a day and a half, attendees attended an opening general session, a general luncheon and six breakout sessions. (The Symposium was unofficially kicked off by 10 brave souls on June 25 with a very hot round of golf in the afternoon Las Vegas sun.)

In the opening general session Daragh O' Sullivan, VP Product Design at Pacific Life Insurance Company and Fred Jonske, president and CEO of M Financial Group, participated in a distribution issues discussion facilitated by Keith Dall of Milliman, Inc. Over the course of an hour, the two speakers commented on topics such as market pressures facing cash value life products, the sources for finding future insurance agents, addressing the needs of the middle income market, investor–owned life insurance and distinguishing characteristics of successful life insurers over the next five to 10 years.

Following the general session, attendees chose six breakout sessions to attend from 13 total breakout session topics. Day one session choices included trends in reinsurance, variable annuity guarantees, life settlements, secondary guarantee universal life update, life securitizations, measuring profitability and SPIA design and pricing. Second day options covered principles based reserves, regulatory updates for the life and annuity markets, product development risk management/hedging, and an update on indexed products (life and annuity) and a life market update.

For a break from the serious actuarial topics, the general luncheon speaker provided insight into various Las Vegas games. Michael Shackleford, an actuary turned gaming consultant, spent 45 minutes reviewing the most popular gambling games, the odds of winning at each and the best way to minimize the house edge (expected casino winnings).

Anyone interested in attending the 2007 Product Development Symposium (date and location TBD) should closely watch the SOA Web site meeting event pages for updates.