Description: Panelists discuss the history of this 75-year-old Medical Information Bureau MIB, its very active and data-rich source of medical information, and the services that the MIB offers to clients and other industry groups. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 1.

Description: The ACA’s Medical Loss Ratio Provisions

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: A compilation of feedback from actuaries in the Health Section of the affects of the ACA.

Description: The selection of the economic capital calculation approach becomes more of a modeling decision. Now let us pause here and think about the arbitrage-free assumption at the beginning. At any time, there can be only one price on any asset. If the company considers the price calculated above as the fair price for its products, then it must hold true that the same price has to be arrived at if the company uses a real-world pricing approach instead of a risk-neutral approach. This gives us a very good basis to calibrate the appro- priate economic capital.

Description: Panelists discuss different aspects of self-selection among Medicare options. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.

Description: The article looks back at the development of life protection product underwriting and pricing in UK. It describes the development in waves of change, looking at different drivers, e.g. consolidation of the life insurance industry, the role of technology as a driver for efficiency gains via electronic underwriting. Different levels of sophistication are being discussed and possible implications for the relationship between direct offices and reinsurers. This rather thought provoking article is based upon Munich research as well as market experience and ties in with a number of current topics as for example potential changes as a result of the Retail Distribution Review and the Gender Directive implementation.

Description: In the June 2014 issue of Product Matters, Doug Robbins of Pacific Life authored a fascinating article entitled “Velocity of Diversification.” Therein, he proposed a pricing measure that describes the “…speed at which confidence in profitability is attained”. How can stochastic modeling of mortality be applied to analyze the velocity of diversification, and how would that measure be affected by volatility in the underlying assumptions?

Description: Affordable Care Act and Payment Reform

Description: Panelists discuss key aspects of recent and pending laws and the cost and design implications on group health plans. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 2.