Description: The values of life insurance and annuity liabilities move in opposite directions in response to a change in the underlying mortality. Natural hedging utilizes this to stabilize aggregate liability cash flows. Our study shows empirical evidence that insurers who utilize natural hedging also charge lower premiums than otherwise similar insurers. This indicates that insurers who are able to utilize natural hedging have a competitive advantage. In addition, we show how a mortality swap might be used to provide the benefits of natural hedging to a firm that writes only one of the lines of business.

Description: This paper presents the modeling of mortality risk from exposure to a potential future extreme event such as a natural disaster and a terrorist attack, and its impact on life insurance. With this new model, quantities associated with the total force of mortality such as survival function are derived and the impact of mortality risk on life insurance is examined.

Description: Securitization of mortality risks is an alternative risk management tool that may have some advantages over reinsurance. The purpose of this paper is to study mortality-based securities, such as swaps and mortality bonds, and to price the proposed mortality securities. We focus on group life annuity data, although the techniques could be applied to other lines of annuity or life insurance.

Description: This is a final report to estimate the total economic cost of obesity. This study looks at the economic costs of obesity caused by increased need for medical care, and loss of economic productivity resulting from excess mortality and disability. The Society of Actuaries breaks out the economic cost of overweight versus obesity for the U.S. and for Canada.

Description: The manner in which the actuarial profession models and manages mortality risk is undergoing dramatic changes. New modeling techniques have led to better risk management tools. Capital markets solutions are evolving for insurers wishing to protect against unfavorable mortality developments in both life insurance and annuity products. In this session recent key developments in mortality modeling and in the transfer of mortality risk are examined. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 30, No. 3: Annual Meeting and Exhibit, New York, NY, October 24-27, 2004, Session 133 TS.