Description: This report summarizes the results of a Delphi study to identify and debate possible new approaches or Blue Ocean strategies to acquiring business by life insurers. Appendices are included.

Description: This report examines mortality and other actuarial assumptions for products sold at older ages.

Description: Isolated T-wave abnormalities - that is, abnormal T waves in an otherwise normal electrocardiogram - are a difficult finding to evaluate and one on which there is no unanimity, either on their significance or on what constitutes an abnormal T wave. In this study, the author has concluded that even minor T wave abnormalities require a rating and that T-wave abnormalities almost always indicate heart disease is present or will soon become manifest.

Description: This is a study of irregularities in pulse beats detected by the electrocardiogram and the impact on mortality experience at one company. Followed by a discussion paper

Description: This report presents the results of a survey conducted in August and September of 2008 on foreign travel underwriting practices of direct writing companies.

Description: Survey for Life Insurance Utilization of Automated Underwriting systems.

Description: Consumer groups fear that the use of genetic testing information in insurance underwriting might lead to the creation of an underclass of individuals who cannot obtain insurance. Thus, these groups want to ban insurance companies from accessing genetic test results. Insurers contend that such a ban might lead to adverse selection that could threaten their financial solvency. To investigate the potential effect of adverse selection in a term life insurance market, a discrete-time, discrete-state, Markov chain is used to track the evolution of 12 closed cohorts of women, differentiated by family history of breast and ovarian cancer and age-at-issue of a 20-year annually renewable term life insurance policy. The insurance demand behavior of these women is tracked, incorporating elastic demand for insurance. During the 20-year period, women may get tested for BRCA 1/2 mutations. Each year, the insurer calculates profits/losses to date and expected future benefit payouts which determines the following year’s premium schedule. At the end of each policy year, women can change their life insurance benefit, influenced by their testing status and premium changes. Adverse selection could result from differentiated: 1. benefits following test results, 2. lapse rates according to test results, and 3. reactions to price increases. It is concluded that with realistic estimates of behavioral parameters, adverse selection should be a manageable problem for insurers. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 2004, Vol. 1.

Description: These are discussion papers on the paper, 'Ordinary Life Insurance Limits' by Edward A. Dougherty, which dealt with issue limits and reinsurance retention limits in life insurance.

Description: This report presents the results of the Survey on the Business Decision practices of direct companies conducted by the Society of Actuaries Committee on Life Insurance Mortality and Underwriting Surveys. A survey of reinsurers is reported separately.

Description: The SOA Research Institute engaged Milliman to perform a study examining life insurer practices on accelerated underwriting and how COVID-19 has impacted them. This effort included a separate outreach to actuaries working for twelve different state insurance departments. At the time of this report, three responses to our regulatory survey had been received. Therefore, the results of the three-question survey are discussed in broad terms, rather than using numerical measurements.