Description: The objective of the Phase I research effort was to further the Committee’s work by defining relevant and actionable consumer segments among middle-income / mid-level net worth households. This report updates the Phase 1 analysis using data through 2010.

Description: At the outset, this paper discusses the current rules governing benefit distributions from defined contribution plans in the United States and other countries. Next, this paper explains the various types of financial products that can be used to provide defined contribution plan participants with lifetime retirement income. Finally, this paper considers how distribution rules and regulations can be used to encourage retirees to take their defined contribution plan distributions in the form of annuities or other lifetime income products.

Description: This report explores the impact on financial assets as baby boomers enter into retirement. The authors conducted a literature search and then a detailed analysis of two papers supporting the theory demographic factors can have an impact on asset prices.

Description: This study used commercial data held by the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) and Medicare fee-for-service data to analyze health care cost differences by age and their contribution to overall health care cost change. The commercial data includes claims from 2002 through 2010 and the Medicare data includes claims from 2006 through 2010.

Description: This paper focuses on credibility when used in the underwriting and pricing of group medical insurance. In this report, group medical refers to broad comprehensive major medical coverage that reimburses the insured for practically all necessary health-related services, subject only to a very high payment limit and modest member cost-sharing in the form of copays, deductibles, and coinsurance. Readers are expected to have some familiarity with this coverage.

Description: Home page for posting this report, which examines why professional financial advice is generally not available to the non-affluent segment of the American public

Description: Over a short span of two weeks, the financial system has observed the collapse of two mid-sized U.S. commercial banks, California-based Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and New York-based Signature Bank, and a takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by a rival in Europe. Other banks that serve a similar demographic as SVB, such as First Republic Bank and PacWest Bancorp, have also experienced an elevated level of customer deposit withdrawals while their stock prices plummeted. The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) quickly stepped in and guaranteed all deposits from the failed banks to prevent a broader crisis in the banking system. The current turmoil in the financial system is a stark reminder of the importance of effective risk management and regulation.

Description: A recommendation for a set of improvement factors that vary by gender and attained age to be used in conjunction with the 2008 Valuation Basic table or the 2015 Valuation Basic table for AG-38 purposes.

Description: Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) represent an innovative suite of cryptographic algorithms that validate the accuracy of sensitive information without revealing the actual information itself. This report introduces the diverse applications and emerging opportunities that ZKPs offer to the insurance community, especially in the health insurance space.

Description: Inflation and the possibility of recession are major factors affecting health care cost increases over the next five years. Insurance and medical organization will continue to evolve but are unlikely to create major shifts in the short run. However, over the long run structural changes in providers and payment mechanisms will determine future trends – raising or lowering the health share of GDP depending upon public choices and private decisions.