Description: In an age of accelerating transformation—technological, financial, and regulatory —reinsurance continues to be an important component of capital management strategy across the insurance industry. This is true in spite of, and sometimes because of, the evolving ecosystems of ceding companies and reinsurers. Direct writers and reinsurance carriers are coping with a number of critical challenges that are undermining growth potential and threatening profitability. Waning demand and increased capacity for traditional products have, in some instances, led companies to struggle to achieve traditional profit targets. An increase in commoditized pricing, internal expenses related to increased regulation, inefficiencies in internal infrastructure, and the sustained low interest rate environment are additional factors impacting the top and bottom lines of reinsurers and primary carriers alike. In this session we will explore these critical challenges and highlight prevailing practices that organizations are using to deal with the changing landscape.

Description: Panelists at this session of the SOA 1998 Maui II Spring Meeting discuss the impact point-of-service [POS] plans have had on both HMOs and on indemnity carriers. Different types of POS plans and the problems presented by primary care gatekeepers are discussed.

Description: Discussion of ways direct marketers have beaten recessions in the recent past and suggestions for beating this recession.

Description: Medical stop-loss reinsurance continues to play a vital role in containing employers’ health care costs. Managing general underwriters [MGUs], who originally handled these programs, have lost market share to large direct writers. This article discusses how health care reform and highly disciplined underwriting tools offer growth opportunities to MGUs.

Description: This discussion at the SOA 2000 Las Vegas Spring Meeting focuses on the polictical landscape with respect to health care issues including Medicare, prescription drug coverage, the concept of a patient's 'bill of rights', and other health care reform ideas.

Description: This report presents results from the study undertaken during 1993 and 1994 by the Direct Response Persistency and Mortality Task Force. Direct response product experience is presented for persistency, and mortality for both underwritten and guaranteed issue products.

Description: This is the third and final installment of an article about using microeconomics and the concepts of embedded value to better manage and understand the profitability of direct marketing programs. The article illustrates how traditional asset share calculations are not appropriate in this case.

Description: Answers to questions that have surfaced with regard to recent trends in the use of psychiatric medications, including relative effectiveness compared to prescribing patterns, drivers of prescribing patterns, classification and indications for recently publicized drugs, role of primary care providers, preventive use ofdementia medications, and new developments in the field.

Description: Gross premium calculation methods may be arbitrarily separated into: a- Type 1 methods those which initially have commissions and other per cent of premium expenses in the denominator and b- Type 2 methods those which initially have commissions and other per cent of premium expenses in the numerator. The traditional Type 1 methods directly calculate the gross premium. The purpose of this paper is: 1. to present a Type 1 method of gross premium calculation which does the following: a Incorporates the cost of reinsurance into the gross premium calculation and may be shown as a level annual cost over the gross premium calculation period. b Calculates the effect on profit margins of a change in the retention limit without redoing the original calculation. c Calculates the premiums needed to break even e.g., amortize the initial investment in surplus at the end of each policy year as a by-product. d Calculates the profit or loss generated in each policy year or over any number of policy years for any gross premium without redoing the original calculation or first using a trial gross premium. e Directly solves for the gross premium that will produce any specified profit over any number of policy years without redoing the original calculation or first using a trial gross premium. f Directly solves for the premium that will produce a specified yield on surplus invested in new business by a flexible technique not first involving the use of the renewal net premium or any other preliminary gross premium. 2. to provide a mathematical definition of a financially meaningful average policy size which recognizes the cost of reinsurance. 3. to provide for mathematical definitions of common measures of profit, and the mathematical relationships between them. 4. To establish formulas expressing the effect of changes in various assumptions used in the gross premium calculation as a lev

Description: Several key market trends have encouraged the development and launch of direct to consumer business models over the last few years. The presenters will look at the impact this is having on traditional business models and the potential it has to open up growth paths to target markets. They will cover several new entrants coming to market aiming to solve specific industry gaps and/or create new opportunities in distribution, risk assessment, customer engagement and the consumer buying experience.