Description: This article reports on a session at an underwritering meeting in which the panel included an actuary, an underwriter and a marketer. Each presented his point of view about the status of the insurance business and the difficulties of increasing production.

Description: Chairperson’s column discussing the recent activities of the SOA’s Reinsurance Section.

Description: Feature article describing a simple and ready solution that allows a hedging program to operate effectively without risk of mismatch due to mortality fluctuations.

Description: This article reports on a presentation given at the SOA Annual Meeting in October 2014 (Session #43). The presentation, entitled the “Current State of the COLI/BOLI Market”, addressed current developments and issued related to the Corporate-Owned Life Insurance (COLI) and Bank-Owned Life Insurance (BOLI) markets. The Greg Brandner from Munich Re served as moderator, and he along with Julie Decker from RGA and Kelly Rabin from Milliman were the speakers.

Description: The embattled life insurance industry in Australia needs to come to terms with a new environment of heightened claims volumes, unprecedented losses, changing distribution models and even reduced benefits. Like the mythological phoenix that spectacularly regenerates from its ashes every century, Australia’s life insurance industry needs something special to rise from its ashes. Claims management innovation promises to give the necessary impetus for a market that is desperate for some good news, whilst laying the foundation for a claims revolution worldwide.

Description: In setting future mortality assumptions for pricing, the actuary needs to consider not only recent results and recent annualized mortality improvements, but also must look at the possible impact of possible shocks epidemics, wars, etc.

Description: A discussion of the need to search for alternative mortality tables other than the 1975- 80 and 1990-95 tables to use as the base table, which may be more appropriate for a particular company or specific products.

Description: Feature article describing how the Society of Actuaries (SOA) partnered with the Association of Home Office Underwriters (AHOU) and the Canadian Institute of Underwriters to conduct research focused on new medical tests and markers that may have significance and relevance to the life insurance markets to get a sense of where underwriting practices are going in the future.

Description: Feature article describing the events of the recent 2012 ReFocus meeting.

Description: The article looks back at the development of life protection product underwriting and pricing in UK. It describes the development in waves of change, looking at different drivers, e.g. consolidation of the life insurance industry, the role of technology as a driver for efficiency gains via electronic underwriting. Different levels of sophistication are being discussed and possible implications for the relationship between direct offices and reinsurers. This rather thought provoking article is based upon Munich research as well as market experience and ties in with a number of current topics as for example potential changes as a result of the Retail Distribution Review and the Gender Directive implementation.