Description: This article discusses the implications of a groundbreaking test that can help people determine how long they have left to live.

Description: Discussion of the latest report of the Individual Life Experience Committee ILEC Mortality for Standard Individually Underwritten Life Insurance Between 2005 and 2007 Policy Anniversaries.

Description: Discussion of work site mortality— including risk classification and underwriting methodology decisions which affect the appropriate mortality assumptions

Description: Describes a process for identifying relevant industry experience to credibility-weight with relevant company experience to set modeling assumptions and margins.

Description: Generalized Mortality Table Analysis: Discussion of the search for alternative mortality tables other than the 1975-80 and 1990-95 tables, which may be more appropriate for a particular company or specific products

Description: Identifies current trends and considerations when setting the mortality improvement assumption for individual life insurance in the US.

Description: This article details different methods for calculating mortality impact associated with new underwriting programs. A common simplified calculation is compared and contrasted with two first principles approaches. The strengths and weaknesses of both approaches are discussed.

Description: This article is a call to participate in industry mortality studies.

Description: There are certain occasions when the knowledge we have gained in our jobs carries over into our personal lives. For instance, developing insurance products certainly helps when it comes time to buy an insurance policy. Recently, one of the authors had the experience of giving his 91-year-old grandmother, Nanny as she is affectionately called, an Extended Delayed Word Recall DWR test. This article will show that DWR tests are a powerful predictor of mortality in the elderly. As the population ages and more and more life insurance is being applied for at the older ages, having a DWR test in an underwriting arsenal is like comfort food for an actuary.