Insurance Issues for LGBTQ+ Individuals: Call for Essays
Background and Overview
The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute, as a component of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Research Program, would like to broadly explore issues pertaining to LGBTQ+ individuals that relate to a variety of types of insurance. Relevant types of insurance include risk-transfer products such as life insurance (including employer-provided life insurance benefits and individually purchased life insurance), annuities, health insurance (including health insurance benefits accessed through an employer, individually purchased health insurance, and government insurance), auto insurance, and homeowners or renters insurance. Public, social, or governmental insurance is also relevant. The intent is to gather perspectives, opinions and data on the short- and long-term impacts of applicable insurance issues for a variety of stakeholders and how these impacts may be experienced both directly and indirectly. Relevant stakeholders include LGBTQ+ individuals, partners, family members, employers, insurance or financial advisors, insurance companies, and others.
Of particular interest are the diversity of experiences within the LGBTQ+ community and opportunities to enhance understanding of the underlying issues surrounding different experiences. Both of these objectives will help inform or spark ideas for potential solutions and improvements. Our primary interest is in countries with SOA members, but essays relevant to any country are welcome.
Content
The following questions are examples of ideas or issues to consider when choosing a topic for an essay, and all types of insurance are relevant. The list below is neither exhaustive nor intended to be restrictive of other areas related to insurance; authors may address these issues or other relevant issues:
- How do LGBTQ+ individuals and households experience insurance differently from people in other demographic groups? How does it vary, if at all, by type of insurance, for example, renters, homeowners, auto, health care, life, disability, etc.?
- How does access to insurance coverage, or lack thereof, affect LGBTQ+ individuals and households in particular? What about situations where there is access, but facilities are unwelcoming?
- Are there insurance products and innovations that could be tailored for LGBTQ+ individuals, couples or families to provide better solutions for managing financial risks?
- How do differences between state/provincial and federal laws on LGBTQ+ marriages impact decisions with respect to private and social insurance? Does common law marriage have any specific effect here?
- What challenges do financial advisors face when serving LGBTQ+ individuals, couples or families?
- Have LGBTQ+ individuals and households experienced any past issues accessing a covered insurance benefit due to restrictions by the insurance provider or due to restrictions from state/provincial and federal laws?
- How can government climate, social and infrastructure policies for LGBTQ+ individuals and households as at-risk populations enable improved financial outcomes?
- How do LGBTQ+ individuals structure financial arrangements in multiple-person households, and does this affect their access to, experiences with and use of insurance? Are there differences between households with shared financial resources and joint ownership of property and households without shared resources?
- Are there situations where LGBTQ+ individuals and households experience challenges in health or disability at claim time?
- What are the challenges with insurance specific to transgender persons?
- What challenges exist in insurance regarding gender expression or gender identity?
- What challenges exist for insurance companies when engaging with non-cisgender or non-binary individuals?
- What challenges do insurance companies face when gathering data to inform insurance practices (for example, claims, underwriting, product development) for LGBTQ+ individuals and households?
- Are changes in policy development or implementation needed, and if so, what?
Timeline
The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, December 7, 2022. Essays accepted for publication will be published in a formal collection in early 2023.
Length and Instructions for Submission
Essays must be submitted in English with a desired length of between 500 to 2,500 words. There is no requirement for formal or extensive footnoting. Multiple essays on different topics from a single author are acceptable.
Please provide at the beginning of the essay the following information about the author: name, credentials or designations (if appropriate), e-mail address, phone number, and either personal street address or title and company/organization name. Essays accepted for publication will show the author’s name but no further contact information.
Essays that contain any overt political statements, commercial content, or other inappropriate material will not be accepted. Essays must comply with the SOA Research Institute’s antitrust guidelines.
Please submit your essay via e–mail to Lisa Schilling, Sr. Research Actuary, lschilling@soa.org
Awards
$10,000 in award money has been allocated for this call for essays. The review committee will select the leading essays and determine how to allocate the award money among them. Consideration will be given to creativity, originality and the extent to which an idea might help promote the financial and retirement security of LGBTQ+ individuals and couples. In exchange for award money, selected authors will be required to assign all copyrights in their essays to the Society of Actuaries.
Authors are ineligible for awards if an essay is based on an SOA-sponsored and funded research study conducted by the author. However, authors are welcome to submit such essays for publication consideration.
Publication and Presentation
Depending on how many essays are received and the range of the topic areas, a suitable format for electronic publication and dissemination will be selected. Essays may also be presented at an SOA meeting, webcast, or other professional development event.
In addition, other venues for publication or presentation of the ideas outside of the SOA will be considered. It is hoped that publication of the collected essays will further knowledge and stimulate discussion as well as promote future efforts in this area.
Rights Granted
Please understand that by submitting an essay for consideration, the essay author(s) is granting to the Society of Actuaries Research Institute an unlimited license to print or republish their essay, with proper attribution given to the author(s).
Questions
Please direct any questions regarding this Call for Essays to Lisa Schilling, Sr. Research Actuary, lschilling@soa.org