Description: Insurers buy reinsurance for a variety of reasons, but an insurer’s accounting rules and solvency regulations are inevitably at the heart of the decision. Whether they are primary drivers or simply help insurers judge acceptable pricing for a risk- or service-motivated transaction, these rules and regulations are a key part of the equation.

Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.

Description: The SOA Research Institute has executed research for over twenty years on some repeating themes and topics. The reports build on each other and add content. This article summarizes and discusses a summary report on long-term care, caregiving and housing linked to long-term care and caregiving.

Description: A summary of the recent SOA Product Development Section webinar, Challenging the Status Quo: Emerging LTC Product Designs. Summarizes discussions on how the LTC industry can overcome existing hurdles and evolve to meet consumer needs.

Description: This is an interview with Shane Chalke, FSA, MAAA, who has started three businesses since 1983. Chalke, the youngest person ever to be elected to the SOA Board of Governors, has a knack for making the right business decisions. He tells how his actuarial background has played a role in his success, and what makes him a winner.

Description: The article summarizes some of the key changes in modeling, assumptions, underwriting, and design for long term care combo products over the past 30+ years. The objective is to inspire an innovative spirit that adapts to changing market needs, for example, dealing with long COVID

Description: Critical illness insurance is a popular supplemental health insurance product in the U.S. market. This article discusses how carriers have recently sought to add value by expanded the benefits offered in their critical illness products. Specifically, the article discusses the consumer need and development considerations of adding benefits for autism Spectrum Disorder, Mental health disorders, Specified Disease Coverage, and enhance Cancer Coverage to a critical illness contract.

Description: This article is about the 2008 Living to 100 Symposium which highlighted changes in longevity, biological perspectives, mortality trends and more .

Description: An overview of Electronic Health Records and how they will enhance risk assessment and automated underwriting in the US.

Description: Can the global reinsurance market emerge from its recent consistent underperformance and grasp the opportunity to build back a better more model that meets the demands of society as a whole as well as its traditional stakeholders