Description: This report examines how the number of persons (“lives”) covered in a mortality study, and the length of the study period (in years), affects the statistical reliability of improvement rate estimates.

Description: The report discusses using behavioral science in redesigning life insurance underwriting questionnaires to improve disclosure rates. It includes an experimental study, industry survey insights, and discussions on application forms, behavioral science application, and organizational engagement with behavioral science in the insurance industry.

Description: LIMRA, Reinsurance Group of America (RGA), the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute, and TAI have collaborated on an ongoing effort to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on the individual life insurance industry’s mortality experience and share the emerging results with the insurance industry and the public. This report documents a high-level analysis of the claims that have been reported.

Description: In April of 2023, the SOA Research Institute assembled an industry expert panel to discuss current issues in actuarial technology. This was the fourth time such a panel was assembled, and most panelists had participated in the previous discussions.

Description: The first of two reports focused on how families cope with the final years of life. This report summarizes 40 interviews with children of recently deceased parents.

Description: This research report models the impact on the U.S. insurance market resulting from a post-Brexit economy in the UK.

Description: This report summarizes a study that estimates the total economic burden of the opioid crisis in the United States from 2015 through 2018 and projects future costs of the opioid epidemic for 2019.

Description: This report provides methodological tools for an insurer to better understand the potential losses incurred by autonomous vehicles in the context of rollover risk.

Description: The financial environment changed dramatically between 2008 and 2009. To gauge the impact of the financial downturn on retirees, the Society of Actuaries, LIMRA, and the International Foundation for Retirement Education re-surveyed respondents of the 2008 study, 'Will Retirement Assets Last a Lifetime?'. The original 2008 study surveyed 1,524 retirees ages 55 to 75 with $100,000 or more in household investable assets prior to the financial downturn. The participants were re-contacted in April 2009 and posed a subset of the original questions via an online survey. In this follow-up report, the 2009 results are contrasted with the results of the original 2008 study.

Description: This research report, part of the Society of Actuaries [SOA} ‘Research Projects – Finance/Investment,’ is sponsored by the Casualty Actuarial Society [CAS], Canadian Institute of Actuaries [CIA], and the Society of Actuaries [SOA] Joint Risk Management Section Research Team and the SOA's Committee on Finance Research. This paper examines the subprime mortgage crises and related financial consequences from the perspective of the insurance industry.