Description: Shows how to use personal information such as medical history, family characteristics, etc. in a logical statistical fashion for the purpose of modifying an existing mortality table to reflect the collected underwriting information.

Description: In May of 2006 the Life Insurance Mortality and Underwriting Survey Committee of the SOA surveyed both reinsurers and direct companies about their practices with respect to making business decisions in the underwriting process. This article highlights the comparison of the results of the two surveys.

Description: Presented at May 2005 Spring Meeting. This session explores new underwriting criteria, including the following topics: What's new in simplified underwriting, Speed to decision, Electronic databases, Teleunderwriting, Prescription drug underwriting, Results analysis, Implementation.

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

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: Presents aviation mortality statistics, updated for complete 1961 data and estimated 1962, with historical data shown beginning in 1950.

Description: Covers aviation mortality obtained from the United States and Canadian governmental sources, both civilian and military. Recent data is from 1983 - 1984, but historical data is provided from 1975 forward.

Description: 1993 SOA Annual Meeting in New York. This session is about risk-appraisal techniques for the 21st century. Topics Include: 1. Some approaches that companies take and some issues that companies face in establishing preferred-risk underwriting programs. 2. Marketing, product design, and underwriting considerations for joint and second-to-die life insurance products. 3. Establishing assumptions for preferred-risk programs as well as some of the marketplace issues that need to be considered. 4. Expert underwriting systems. 5. The need for consistency in underwriting. 6. Developing trends in testing techniques and how those trends can be utilized in the underwriting process.