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: November 2015 Reinsurance News

Description: September 2015 Reinsurance News

Description: Discussion of a Reinsurance Arbitration Survey covering the period 1998–2001 Also a discussion of the shrinking number of life reinsurance companies in the USA

Description: Pricing longevity swap reinsurance transactions consists of a number of different actuarial tasks, each of which hides potential pitfalls. The article outlines the pricing process, which includes a detailed analysis of current mortality experience of the portfolio to be transferred, choice and calibration of an appropriate model for mortality improvement trends and the calculation of a risk margin which reflects the uncertainty associated with the pricing best-estimate, which includes mis-estimation risk, model risk, longevity basis risk and stochastic uncertainty.

Description: The rapid pace of change within the reinsurance sector over the past few years has given way to the permutations of a “new reality” that is being shaped by abundant capacity from traditional and alternative sources.

Description: Key considerations when modeling reinsurance to calculate reserves under PBR as well as a case study examining the impact of reinsurance structures on reserves.

Description: Read the Quo Vadis Reinsurance.

Description: Significant consolidation has occurred in the U.S. reinsurance market over the last five years. The number of companies operating in ordinary life reinsurance has continued to decline—13 primary companies excluding retrocessionaires contributing to the Munich American Reassurance Survey in 2004, compared to 20 companies in 1999. Table 1 and Table 2 indicate the change in market share as well as the change in the composition of the leading participants in the U.S. market for 2004 versus 1999.

Description: Over the years I have come to believe that the nature vs nurture debate is fundamentally flawed, in that it tends to exclude an increasingly important third influence: culture.