Description: From a panel discussion session at the Spring regional meeting of the Society of Actuaries held in Atlanta, Georgia, May 24-25, 1999 Panelists discuss two of the measurements actuaries are using to evaluate direct response products: customer lifetime value and embedded values.

Description: Presented at May 1986 Spring Meeting. This session discussion is about how the profitability of distribution systems are measured, differences in underwriting and mortality or lapse levels by distribution systems, the levels at which to measure profitability, should the profitability of individual producers be reviewed, the best ways to manage the financial aspects of different distribution, the effect of replacement or rollovers on distribution systems, and how the costs of distribution system development is handled.

Description: Discusses agency management compensation, agent financing, cost of developing new agencies, successful business development methods.

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. Discusses the new regulatory requirements, including the invention of an illustration actuary and what the job entails, and the tasks to be accomplished in achieving compliance.

Description: Enhanced or impaired annuities are life annuities underwritten to reflect annuitants' actual mortality. They are not currently prevalent in the U.S. or Canada, where life annuities assume low mortality and are thus unfair for impaired lives. This paper looks at the present annuity marketplace in the United States and Canada. It also reviews the underwriting and marketing of life annuities in the United Kingdom where “enhanced” life annuities are available for a broader cross section of the marketplace. It also reviews the use of P&C risk classification techniques and how they might apply to the annuity marketplace as well as potential legal constraints on broader risk classification for life annuities.

Description: Discussion of the selling of life insurance to the middle income market through banks and with the support of new technologies and underwriting processes.

Description: New Zealand is about to launch its first variable annuity with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits. The product design is mindful of the lessons from the financial crisis in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Description: This discussion seeks to determine if: 1. Is there justification for paying higher rates of commissions to experienced agents? 2. Is grading of commission rates by size of policy appropriate for Ordinary insurance? 3. In what ways have normal commission scales been modified in connection with the sale of permanent insurance on the minimum deposit plan? 4. What practical methods are available to maintain consistency between the levels of commission payments for pension plans funded by means of individual policies and group annuities?