Description: We look in this article at the challenges which life insurance companies operating in a low interest environment have to face.

Description: This is a report on the results of a survey, conducted during July and August 2008, on the current practices and reactions related to life settlements. A life settlement is a financial transaction in which a policy owner possessing an unneeded or unwanted life insurance policy, sells the policy to a third party for more than the cash value offered by the life insurance company at the time of sale.

Description: A discussion of an alternative valuation methodology which addresses many of the shortcomings of the current valuation system for U.S. life and health insurers one of which is the proliferation of undesirable variations in state requirements. Issue No. 37

Description: This article begins with a brief review of the general requirements of section 7702A and the consequences of MEC status for a life insurance contract and continues with a description of the evolution of the inadvertent MEC correction procedures over the past near decade.

Description: Tells what occurred after the adverse private letter ruling PLR 200738016 up to the issuance of the revenue procedure, and offers some speculation about the future.

Description: An update of selected key graphs from the Key Statistics section of previous COVID-19 briefs.

Description: Non-guaranteed elements are parameters of life insurance and annuity polices that are not fixed when the policy is issued but may be changed from time to time by the insurance company. They emerged in the United States and other countries as features of Universal Life and similar products designed to make insurance more competitive in an environment where fully guaranteed products did not have sufficient flexibility to respond to rapidly changing conditions. This overview covers professional guidance, regulations and practical issues with reviewing and revising non-guaranteed parameters.

Description: Authored by a MIB Solutions team of Tom Rhodes, Stuart Klugman, Marianne Purushotham and Stacy Gill, the report summarizes the results of a study on the application and adoption of credibility theory within the life insurance and annuity industry. In addition to the report, numerical examples related to the application of credibility to company mortality and lapse data are provided in the four Excel files. This excel spreadsheet is a numerical example relating to the application of Credibility for lapses by policy for limited fluctuation. Please see the SOA website research section for the full report on Credibility Theory Practices.

Description: Virtual - Session 6A: The ROI of Wellness - Actuarial Insights on Digital Health Engagement

Description: The article discusses the continued popularity of indexed UL insurance and possible reasons why a company's actual indexed UL earnings may be below their original pricing expectations for the product. The article discusses several key items that may be the source of that underperformance (e.g., hedge ineffectiveness, policyholder behavior) and the need to monitor earnings and perform analyses to better understand those potential sources.