Description: One of the most fundamental concepts in actuarial practice is the time value of money. For any work in which future cash flows are allowed for, such as reserving or pricing, it is natural to discount to present values so that an appropriate amount of money can be set aside today, allowing for future investment returns. This article discusses yield curve extrapolation methods along with the benefits and drawbacks of these methods.

Description: The Reinsurance Section, Product Development Section and the Committee on Life Insurance Research are pleased to present preliminary results from a company practice survey of individual life insurance accelerated underwriting. Performed by a Milliman team led by Al Klein and Karen Rudolph, the study provides perspectives from both direct life insurance companies and reinsurers. Among the areas addressed include the structure of accelerated underwriting programs, how programs are monitored, how accelerated underwritten business is performing relative to expectations and how companies are considering accelerated underwriting cohorts in the context of VM-20 assumption setting. The report recaps a presentation of the preliminary results from the 2019 Life and Annuity Symposium. The final results are expected to be available later in 2019.

Description: There are so many things going on in the life market that challenge and engage all parties of the insurance transaction. The presenters will cover a variety of aspects of the life market including accelerated underwriting, principle based reserves, and regulatory and product changes occurring in the life insurance market. At the conclusion of the session, attendees will be able to: - Describe how the life insurance market is being impacted by changes internal and external to companies - Describe how companies are navigating changing underwriting landscape - Explain how regulations may impact companies going forward

Description: Situated at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, sociology, and economics, behavioral economics (BE) centers on applying an honest understanding of human behavior to practical problems. This report is designed to provide general familiarity to the reader interested in the subject of BE and motivate additional research on the topic.

Description: Inaugural article in a series to share resources with other actuaries at smaller companies. This article will introduce the reader to the Academy's Life and Health Valuation Law Manual, an annual publication containing numerous references, notes and guidelines to help valuation actuaries complete their statutory regulatory work.

Description: Discussion of the ways carriers can deliver a direct to consumer offering in a way that benefits, rather than alienates, the advisor channel.

Description: Recent Population Cause of Death Trends and Implications for Life Insurance

Description: PartnerRe Life and Health is rapidly growing its presence in global markets. This growth means that our medical underwriting team has to handle 25 percent more cases every year. To manage these additional cases without increasing headcount at the same pace, the team has to operate more and more efficiently. In a market where response time is a key differentiator, we improve efficiency by using machine learning to triage and prioritize the underwriting team's case work. In this talk, we describe the model pipeline end to end. That is, we cover the entire implementation chain from accessing data to the eventual evaluation of the added value. In particular, we discuss often neglected topics such as model risk mitigation, technical deployment of the model and integration into business processes.

Description: Read the April 2019 issue of Product Matters! published by the Product Development Section.