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: Originally featured as a breakout session at the 2015 CRC, this presentation discusses, from a North-American and non-actuarial perspective, how population growth and size have a major impact on socio-demographic needs in term of health care, social and old age security, education, transport and infrastructure. Their underlying components are two opposing forces, namely mortality and longevity. Understanding their past and possible future key drivers is not only important to the macro-economic planning of government agencies, but also to pension funds, insurance companies, and other stakeholders of the financial and insurance industries.

Description: Article discusses the mechanics of index-linked annuities and the growth of RILAs

Description: Since the last installment of the biennial WTW North America Life Insurance Pricing Methodology Survey in 2018, the market has been coming to terms with the prospect of “lower for even longer” interest rates and been confronted with the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This article examines what effects these and market-specific factors have had on profit targets and pricing and reserving strategy. The survey looked at the profit objectives and assumptions used in pricing 2020 new issues of individual life and annuity products, with a focus on past practices, not future plans.

Description: A paper demonstrating how to obviate the need for market timing strategies in variable annuity products by judicious use of product design. The paper presents the premise behind the product design, provides numerical examples, then explores possible extensions of the concept to produce more sophisticated variable annuity plans based on guarantees of investment outcomes.

Description: This paper will show that the result of using the 1975-80 select/ultimate table, as opposed to the more modern 1990-95 select/ultimate table, can be a significant understatement of future mortality and hence anticipated profits may prove to be illusory.

Description: Accelerated underwriting expert, Ryan Holt, FSA, gives a brief history of the confusion matrix and how its use came into the accelerated underwriting space. An in depth discussion of estimating mortality impact using underwriting audits follows. Three key assumptions that effect mortality impact are discussed. Readers will leave with an understanding of how to estimate mortality impacts using audit results from any new under writing program as well as the considerations that should be taken around key assumptions. Background articles are provided for readers that are less familiar with the subject matter.

Description: Discussion of the Society of Actuaries Report on Mortality Improvement Survey from March 2003 survey from the summer of 2000

Description: Portion of the introduction and the table of contents to the full paper entitled “Nontraditional Guarantees on Life And Annuity Products.”

Description: A discussion of how the tax law changes of 2003 might affect the attractiveness of variable annuity business relative to mutual funds and direct investments in dividend paying equities.