Description: Identifies some key pitfalls in developing equity-indexed products and suggests some steps insurers can take to avoid unpleasant financial surprises.

Description: Long-term guarantees place unanticipated burdens on companies because of the degree to which the environment can change. These risks are compounded when combined with estimation of policyholder behavior, especially when solid experience data is not available. When risks are properly reflected, long-term guarantees do not always provide value to the customer in excess of the manufacturing cost. The product development actuary is challenged to compare customer value to company cost and use that measurement to identify novel ways to design products to better serve customers.

Description: This article discusses how companies can best manage the post-level term (PLT) for level premium term life.

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.

Description: Full version of Product Matters! December 2005, Issue No. 63.

Description: Discussion of events of a the June 2009 NAIC/LHATF meeting.

Description: Overview of a recent visit to silicon valley and how the learnings from this trip can be applied in an insurance setting.

Description: This article describes the opportunities for providing financial services for the near- and post-retirement market, particulary for the insurance industry if willing to retool product, market and or distribution. The article gives an example of retooling a life contingent annuity.

Description: Full version of Product Matters, January 2002, Issue No. 52.

Description: This article provides a summary of the results from a recent Milliman survey. Survey results provide UL/IUL carriers with a benchmark to evaluate their practices relative to those prevalent in the industry.