Description: Chairperson’s column discussing the current challenges of life insurance product development in the present times.

Description: This article compares and contrasts the new 2017 CSO tables to the 2001 CSO tables and discusses considerations and possible implications of the new tables on reserves and the implementation schedule of the new tables.

Description: Part 2 of the article continues providing data on why IUL income streams need to be managed and suggests techniques that insurance companies could provide to policyholders and advisors to do so. The author also offers his research data free of charge to any actuary who contacts him to request it.

Description: Understanding the volatility associated with audit samples, as well as breaking out the different contributors to estimated mortality impact are vital tools in helping actuaries and underwriters make informed decisions about less invasive underwriting programs. This article walks through a sample example demonstrating how to calculate these metrics.

Description: This article discusses a variety of new developments in the annuity market.

Description: How Ready Are You for the Critical Illness Challenge? by Johan Lotter from Product Development News, August 2000, Issue No. 50.

Description: Future mortality improvement has been a common assumption in life insurance and annuity pricing and forecasting for many years. However, experience over the last decade suggests this might be an assumption that merits reconsideration in the United States. This article will take a closer look at factors that impact mortality improvement trends and discuss why insurers may want to reevaluate product designs to better manage the associated mortality risk. We then introduce a product idea with this in mind, where premiums are based on a life expectancy index and insurers share the risk (and opportunity) or mortality improvement with policyholders.