Description: Mental health, suppoting policyholders

Description: Interview on opportunities for InsurTechs in Life and Health reinsurance. Themes covered include digital distribution and digital health data. The article also shares insights into the role of the reinsurer when working with InsurTechs.

Description: Some seniors may find it challenging to manage frequent doctor visits. Telemedicine can significantly fill in some of these gaps by enabling “virtual” doctor visits. Telemedicine improves access to medical care, reduces the need for transportation, reduces wait times, protects the health of individuals who won’t be exposed to germs of others in a waiting room, and improves access to care from a healthcare professional who may be far away from the patient and more. Implications for telemedicine in charged amounts (in various insurances) are being worked out and continue to evolve.

Description: Retirement planning generally includes a focus on decisions needed at time of retirement, but it often fails to focus on changes during retirement and additional decisions needed as people age. The 2021 SOA Risk Survey and other SOA research documents the lack of focus on future change. It is common for people to lose cognitive ability and generally to become less able to make decisions, manage their finances, their medical care and their lives at high ages.This panel focuses on communication and decision issues. The SOA has recently issued a decision guide on High Age Decisions. The brief identifies four domains for high age decisions: ·Health, health care and staying healthy ·Managing finances ·Housing and transportation ·Support networks The panel will include a discussion of communications and how we change, problems of physical, hearing, sight or cognitive decline and the challenges created and the four domains in the SOA Decision Brief.

Description: The Life Meeting, is the result of combining the Life & Annuity Symposium (LAS) and the Valuation Actuarial Symposium (ValAct). The Life Meeting will offer sessions specific to pricing and valuation as well as sessions on emerging issues relevant to both groups. These common themes include InsurTech, diversity, accounting change and the current economic environment.

Description: Recently the interest rates have been slowly trending up from the lowest point in August 2020. The focus of this article is on current market trends for long-duration products —including life insurance, annuities, and long-term care insurance —following an extended period of low interest rates, and lessons carriers can learn from similar historical periods of rising interest rates. Innovative and flexible product features will continue to be essential, as the current interest trend may not substantially increase insurers’ portfolio rates. When designing or modifying product features, insurers should consider profitability in a wide breadth of interest rate scenarios and be particularly mindful of the impact that crediting rates and asset durations will have on earnings.

Description: This article highlights the findings of a recent SOA survey on accelerated underwriting (AU) practices, including the amount of AU business ceded, the results of three opinion questions, and an estimate of mortality slippage among AU programs.

Description: This paper applies the research in Prospect Theory of Kahneman and Tversky to explain why sales of annuities lag sales of life insurance products. The author theorizes that life insurance is easier to sell because customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of losses, while potential annuity customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of gains. Kahneman and Tversky showed us that people are mostly risk averse in the domain of gains and risk seeking in the domain of losses. Purchase of an annuity or life product is a risky investment. Customers will find it easier to take the risk in the life insurance domain of losses than the annuity domain of gains. The author then proposes a hybrid life annuity product that might address both mortality and longevity risk in one product that would allow both products to be more competitive than stand-alone products.

Description: "Issues surrounding end-of-life and palliative care are not well understood and there is little research in the actuarial literature. From an actuarial perspective, however, end-of-life is important because of the significant cost to the healthcare system. Ian Duncan will discuss some of his research on the financial implications of end-of-life care, as well as the outcomes of a palliative care program. Dr. Matzo is an engaging personality with decades of experience in gerontology and palliative nursing, including training and teaching professionals in the field. Dr. Matzo focuses on educating the public on the importance and benefits of palliative care and hospice (care given in the final six months of life). In this session on “Palliative Care Public Education,” Dr. Matzo will give us an overview of the benefits of palliative care and how this knowledge empowers the individual to make important decisions about their healthcare options. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss the role that the actuarial profession may play in this area."

Description: Mortality is a fundamental element in the financial projections of the finances of social security programs around the world. Prominent actuaries from the U.S. Social Security Administration, Canada's Office of Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the U.K. Government Actuary's Department will discuss some of the key factors and current issues associated with these projections. Improving mortality has and will have a significant effect on the affordability and importance of income through retirement to many population segments in these countries.