Description: Impact of low and negative interest rates on various aspects of insurer operations including product management, investment management and capital management.

Description: In this article, the authors give their overview of sessions that they attended at the June 2012 Life and Annuity Symposium. The sessions discussed are Life Insurance Illustration Regulation (15 years later), Advanced Mortality Topics, and Life and Annuity Product Development Strategies in the Wake of Low Interest Rates.

Description: A review of product and sales trends for variable, indexed and fixed annuities against the current backdrop of low interest rates and record equity market valuations

Description: Income i.e., immediate annuities are insurance products that benefit from mortality pooling, so they can generate the highest level of lifetime “income now” per dollar of retirement assets put to work. Including an income annuity as a portion of a retirement portfolio often results in an immediate increase in the level of income generated by that portfolio while at the same time ensuring that a portion of the total income is payable for a lifetime.

Description: A review of the development of multi-asset indices and their placement in fixed indexed annuities in the Unites States. This article covers the evolution of indexing and its impact on the annuity marketplace. It also summarizes the key factors underlying the proliferation of multi-asset indices with built-in volatility targets.

Description: This article focuses on these Key Points - The Situation: Mortality Improvement assumption is not a simple equation. What Could Happen: Any mortality improvement assumption is a bit of a ‘bet’ relative to the ongoing penetration of known developments and the introduction of new developments, such as the appearance of the AIDS epidemic. What Needs to Happen: Better understanding of Mortality Improvement assumption, final assumption, and best estimate approach.

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: This article describes how actuaries can get involved in section research including participation on a Project Oversight Group (POG).

Description: The article talks about market consistent pricing, how risk neutral pricing and real world pricing are not fundamentally different if used appropriately. And using that knowledge, a rather new concept called the risk-adjusted real world pricing, which is a method where a mixture of risk neutral and real world pricing to achieve a holistic view on pricing, will be introduced.

Description: As we further explore how life insurance customers think and behave, we can address their needs more effectively. Using data and predictive analytics we can better identify groups to target. By embracing technology and approaching customers with the right distribution channels based on preference, we can make life insurance more accessible. We can speak the customers' language. We can understand that they are not all created equal, and tailor products to meet individual needs. In short, we can leverage data, research and technology to become very consumer centric. Getting closer to the customer, can we lower the perceived cost, and raise the perceived benefit of life insurance to a point where customers get excited? Will this not then be a product to buy, not sell?