Description: This article highlights emerging accelerated underwriting (AUW) monitoring trends and best practices that carriers can implement for monitoring their own AUW programs. It includes high-level mortality slippage findings based on a reinsured study population comprised of both pre- and post-issue auditing methods (random holdouts and post-issue audits) conducted on over 33,000 AUW applicants over the past decade.

Description: This article is a summary of a debate at a Southeastern Actuarial Club meeting that looked at the appropriateness of secondary guarantees in UL products.

Description: This article discusses the proper slope of mortality tables, especially at the high attained ages.

Description: Highlights from the 2002 Inter-Company Expense Study of U.S. Individual Life Insurance and Annuities.

Description: Milliman, Inc. recently conducted a survey of leading variable annuity insurers to better quantify the current dynamics of the GLB market. The scope of the Milliman survey included variable annuities that offered any type of GLB during calendar year 2004 and during the first quarter of 2005.

Description: Milliman, Inc. recently conducted a comprehensive survey of leading UL insurers to discover current dynamics of the UL market. The scope of the survey included UL with secondary guarantees ULSG, cash accumulation UL, current assumption UL, and indexed UL.

Description: Chairperson’s column describing activities the Product Development section has undertaken to date.

Description: This article details different methods for calculating mortality impact associated with new underwriting programs. A common simplified calculation is compared and contrasted with two first principles approaches. The strengths and weaknesses of both approaches are discussed.

Description: This article offers issues and trends with immediate payout annuities.

Description: There are certain occasions when the knowledge we have gained in our jobs carries over into our personal lives. For instance, developing insurance products certainly helps when it comes time to buy an insurance policy. Recently, one of the authors had the experience of giving his 91-year-old grandmother, Nanny as she is affectionately called, an Extended Delayed Word Recall DWR test. This article will show that DWR tests are a powerful predictor of mortality in the elderly. As the population ages and more and more life insurance is being applied for at the older ages, having a DWR test in an underwriting arsenal is like comfort food for an actuary.