Description: A literature review was performed on mortality improvement, socioeconomic differences in mortality and their links to specific causes of death, and methods for analysis. It highlighted the fact that socioeconomic status (e.g., income and education) is closely linked to differences in mortality and that the longevity gap between socioeconomic groups is growing over time. It also informed the selection of key variables and the need to view mortality improvement as a complex interaction between specific causes of death.

Description: This report models and forecasts future mortality improvements in China, by geographical regions, as well as by causes of death. Deaths and population exposures data provided by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention was used for the period 2004–2019.

Description: Insurers have long relied on scenario analysis to understand the long-term impacts of potential business decisions, but the advent of rapidly changing market environments and a growing desire to optimize capital has spurred business leaders to leverage new tools in order to explore potential options.

Description: This session will discuss the regulatory environment for life and annuity products. The ever-changing landscape of the regulatory environment makes life and annuity product development and management more complicated. Federal developments, including the DOL fiduciary rule and Algorithmic accountability, as well as State developments such as AI and challenges to underwriting are just a few of the topics covered in this session.

Description: IUL continues to be the strongest selling UL product. Companies have great profit/pricing expectations, but are those results being achieved? Learn about potential areas of underperformance for IUL including behavior related issues, hedging inefficiency, and mortality issues. The session will also discuss ways to monitor these risks and discuss different means to address potential issues of underperformance in hedging, pricing and in force earnings.

Description: The expanded use of predictive models, algorithms, and external consumer data has drawn the attention of the life insurance industry to the matter of fairness and bias in underwriting, including proposed regulation in states like Colorado and New York and a draft NAIC Model Bulletin. Insurers will benefit taking a proactive approach to verifying that their practices, both current and future, do not result in unfair discrimination. This session will help attendees in understanding potential requirements and reporting insurers must address, techniques and tools for evaluating bias, and challenges in doing so. At the conclusion of the session, attendees will be able to: - Understand proposed regulation and practices regarding fairness and bias - Identify tools and techniques for evaluating bias in their processes - Discuss the challenges the industry will face in addressing fairness in underwriting

Description: This session will review what is going on in the life insurance market. Make sure you are up to date on sales, distribution, product innovations, regulations, inforce management and changes happening in the life insurance space. At the end of the session, attendees will be able to identify what's happened in the life insurance market, explore where the market is heading and identify areas of risk that are opening up due to changes occurring the life insurance space.

Description: In the wake of the pandemic, much of the insurance industry is now endeavoring to find sustainable, longer-term solutions among many forced innovations – and to ensure that temporary adaptations add value beyond mere change.

Description: This paper applies the research in Prospect Theory of Kahneman and Tversky to explain why sales of annuities lag sales of life insurance products. The author theorizes that life insurance is easier to sell because customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of losses, while potential annuity customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of gains. Kahneman and Tversky showed us that people are mostly risk averse in the domain of gains and risk seeking in the domain of losses. Purchase of an annuity or life product is a risky investment. Customers will find it easier to take the risk in the life insurance domain of losses than the annuity domain of gains. The author then proposes a hybrid life annuity product that might address both mortality and longevity risk in one product that would allow both products to be more competitive than stand-alone products.

Description: Summary of recent changes to IRS Section 7702 Interest Rates, and how it will impact the design of life insurance products in the future.