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

Description: Answering the question: Do you think that genetic information is different, and if so, should insurers handle it differently from other medical information?

Description: The limited availability of life and protection cover for people living with certain serious health conditions is starting to become a critical issue for insurers. The public perception is that insurers simply don’t offer cover, or that it is difficult to source affordable, tailored cover. This article discusses the considerations when trying to improve access to insurance.

Description: In the wake of the pandemic, much of the insurance industry is now endeavoring to find sustainable, longer-term solutions among many forced innovations – and to ensure that temporary adaptations add value beyond mere change.

Description: New digital data known as alternative data is everywhere. Our industry has seen the financial, and hi-tech industries leverage new digital data to expand their key offerings and core services. From the lens of the global life and health industry, new digital data is still searching to be further understood. Risk assessment is a current focus area for using alternative data. A key question is even though risk assessment has always been data-driven, can it now move to the next level with the arrival of this alternative data. Can we use alternative data to make the risk assessment process quicker, cheaper, or faster thereby driving more sales and better conversion rates. It is an exciting time! With the increased adoption of health and well-being apps, data such as physical activity, nutrition, sleep, and mental wellness is now readily available. Expanded data such as digital biomarkers, IoT data, electronic health records and many more can also be accessed. However, how to effectively implement alternative data remains a challenge across the industry. We firmly believe it is, and will continue to be, imperative to take a structured approach to alternative data through a set of key considerations and a framework of principles.

Description: Feature article describing how the Society of Actuaries (SOA) partnered with the Association of Home Office Underwriters (AHOU) and the Canadian Institute of Underwriters to conduct research focused on new medical tests and markers that may have significance and relevance to the life insurance markets to get a sense of where underwriting practices are going in the future.

Description: The sentinel effect in the underwriting process refers to the tendency for unhealthy individuals to apply for insurance coverage where testing is not performed. The article reports on evidence of the effect with respect to cocaine and tobacco use and HIV positive prevalence

Description: This article is about the concept of the Sentinel Effect SE—that selfselection process which directs unhealthy insurance applicants to apply for coverage at amounts where testing is not done, thereby minimizing the chances that their afflictions will be discovered.

Description: This article explores implications for the future of improving the application of existing underwriting techniques and and taking maximum advantage of new technologies.

Description: Highlights of the 1997 International Underwriting Congress with an in depth discussion of 1 critical illness policies and 2 Use of population data where little insurance data exists.