Description: In May of 2006 the Life Insurance Mortality and Underwriting Survey Committee of the SOA surveyed both reinsurers and direct companies about their practices with respect to making business decisions in the underwriting process. This article highlights the comparison of the results of the two surveys.

Description: Feature article discussing the impact of health care reform on the direct insurance market and the reinsurance market.

Description: Medical stop-loss reinsurance continues to play a vital role in containing employers’ health care costs. Managing general underwriters [MGUs], who originally handled these programs, have lost market share to large direct writers. This article discusses how health care reform and highly disciplined underwriting tools offer growth opportunities to MGUs.

Description: An update on HMO market trends and reinsurance products, and services supporting them.

Description: An examination of past Flaspohler Survey data to identify drivers of direct writer satisfaction with reinsurers.

Description: To inform and educate stakeholders for health plans and insurers on novel ways to optimize reinsurance structures to meet capital related goals and boost RBC and liquidity ratios. In lieu of traditional market-based financial instruments involving equity and/or debt, a quota share transaction can be used with potentially far more attractive terms and achieving essentially the same result.

Description: This article enumerates many important considerations for a managing general underwriter(MGU) desiring to contract with an insurance carrier to issue and service provider excess of loss policies covering catastrophic medical risks assumed by accountable care organizations (ACOs).

Description: Mental health, suppoting policyholders

Description: The purpose of this article is to discuss some of the challenges insurance companies face when participating in the immediate annuity market for retirement income planning and to suggest ways that reinsurers could be of service to the direct writers of immediate annuities.

Description: Discussion of the evolving role of reinsurance in driving business decisions for the direct side, with particular emphasis on underwriting and risk classification and the emphasis on automatic versus facultative business.