Description: Future mortality improvement has been a common assumption in life insurance and annuity pricing and forecasting for many years. However, experience over the last decade suggests this might be an assumption that merits reconsideration in the United States. This article will take a closer look at factors that impact mortality improvement trends and discuss why insurers may want to reevaluate product designs to better manage the associated mortality risk. We then introduce a product idea with this in mind, where premiums are based on a life expectancy index and insurers share the risk (and opportunity) or mortality improvement with policyholders.

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: 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: 2003 Valuation Actuary Symposium, San Diego, CA. This session discussed embedded value concepts. Topics included: 1. General overview of embedded value. 2. Components of embedded value. 3. Setting assumptions. 4. Practical applications.

Description: This session at the SOA 1998 Maui I Spring Meeting discusses GAAP financial reporting in terms of the types of management information GAAP provides, how to interpret that information, and how to measure emerging experience versus expectations. Analysis of GAAP ROE and GAAP source of earnings is presented.

Description: This session at the 1998 Valuation Actuary Symposium looks at how companies can use the cash-flow testing structure for additional analysis and be more useful to the managment of the company. The concept of transfer pricing within a life company is explained.

Description: A research project with the Society of Actuaries on interest rate hedging on traditional life and health insurance.

Description: 1998 Valuation Actuary Symposium. Dynamic Financial Condition Analysis is analysis and sensitivity testing and stress testing. Stated another way it is measuring the ability of a company to support future operations. The panelists provided an update on recent Society research that has been done and examples in practice.

Description: 1993 SOA Annual Meeting in New York. This session is about Dynamic Solvency Handbook developed by The Financial and Investment Management Practice Education Committee. The handbook is for actuaries who prepare solvency reports, and the targeted completion date was December 31, 1994.

Description: Profitability of traditional life and health products has long been considered less sensitive to changes in interest rates than profitability of universal life, SPDAs, or other “interest-sensitive” products. Consequently, traditional products have often been priced with a single deterministic interest scenario.