Description: This article summarizes key findings from an SOA research report conducted by Milliman on a wide range of living benefit riders with medically related triggers on life and annuity products. The SOA report includes a survey of direct writers, and interviews with many reinsurers. The article focuses on chronic illness accelerated benefit riders, long term care accelerated benefit riders, and the more comprehensive long term care linked benefit products that can pay out benefits that may be much higher than the underlying base plan values. Information on regulations governing these plans, mechanics of the products, sales, and pricing structures is included The intent is to enable the reader to appreciate the issues and opportunities related to these new, innovative designs that help address a range of consumer needs..

Description: Combo long-term care insurance products provide a viable option for the insurance industry to offer a sufficient range and supply of private long-term care financing solutions.

Description: A 2015 Society of Actuaries Report (co-sponsored by the Reinsurance Section, Product Development Section, and Committee on Life Insurance Research) entitled “Life and Annuity Living Benefit Riders: Considerations for Insurers and Reinsurers,” is available on the Society of Actuaries website (www.soa.org). It covers a wide range of living benefit riders with medically-related triggers on life or annuity products. This article is largely derived from that report, covering several of those riders. In order to add to the marketing implications of these plans, Claude Thau, in his capacity as President of Thau, Inc. has provided additional commentary from the perspective of a marketer who is active in this field.

Description: Read the July 2016 issue of Product Matters!

Description: Article Description * “Agile” development is all the buzz in the IT world. You may have heard your IT teams talk about scrums, sprints, and the war room and wondered if they were playing a strange new sport. Or perhaps you are already applying agile techniques in your product development. This article will discuss what agile methodology is, pros and cons, and how you might apply it to insurance product development.

Description: Structured-note annuities provide a retirement solution for the masses while allowing effective hedging and balance sheet usage for the insurance complex.

Description: Read the June 2018 issue of Product Matters published by the Product Development Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: Six years after the global financial crisis, the reshaped contours of the market for the life insurance industry are coming into focus.

Description: Article discusses possible effects of negative interest rates on product development, risk management, investment management and in-force management.

Description: Read the March 2017 issue of Product Matters published by the Product Development Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.