Description: This article reports the maximum statutory valuation and nonforfeiture interest rates for calendar year 2004 issues of life insurance products and the maximum statutory valuation interest rates for calendar year 2003 issues of annuity products.

Description: This article provides a summary of the results from a recent Milliman survey. Survey results provide UL/IUL carriers with a benchmark to evaluate their practices relative to those prevalent in the industry.

Description: Defines Accelerated Underwriting programs as a transformational trend, and outlines a process for evaluating mortality implications of such programs.

Description: Discussion of the necessity of nonforfeiture laws for life insurance and the inconsistencies in the laws between comparable products.

Description: discussion of March 2009 NAIC/LHATF meeting

Description: Discussion of American Academy of Actuaries Illustrations Work Group. This article deals specifically with the issue of using mortality improvement assumptions in the illustrations prohibited by the Model Illustration Regulation, suspected in some cases because some UL products incorporate low cost of insurance charges in late durations as part of their product design.

Description: Discussion the issues/difficulties associated with setting mortality assumptions for the later durations of life insurance illustrations. Because some UL products incorporate low cost of insurance charges in late durations as part of the current scale in the product design, some conclude that mortality improvement assumptions are being employed in the disciplined current scale, in violation of the Model Illustrations Regulation.

Description: discussion of a LIMRA survey on the quantity and types of recent product development efforts of life insurance companies and the considerations driving these efforts

Description: This article delves into a new line of statistical thinking of the author, that may be useful for product development actuaries. The key concept is how product design can produce products that diversify quickly, meaning that the company can be confident of a profitable product line, based on fewer sales than might be true for other designs.

Description: Investors in the Life Settlements Market have had to rely on simple actual to expected analyses for a quality assesment of life expectancy reports. This article presents an alternative validation methodology, which makes much better use of the available mortality information. Investors can thereby perform their own, statistically conclusive, analyses concerning the life expectancies on which they have based their pricing and management of future cash flows.