Description: This article discusses how insurers that focus on their core competencies and astutely outsource other functions will become more competitive and improve their performance.

Description: This is the third and final installment of an article about using microeconomics and the concepts of embedded value to better manage and understand the profitability of direct marketing programs. The article illustrates how traditional asset share calculations are not appropriate in this case.

Description: This article covers measurement of key actions by presenting an approach to the analysis of direct-mail insurance solicitations.

Description: This article discusses how a prospect passes from step to step through the sales process until becoming a customer, and how brand plays a significant role in that process.

Description: The author reviews trends in the advisor marketplace, a broader view than just traditional life insurance agents. He encourages life insurance companies to understand these trends to assure success in the future.

Description: Discussion of what bank holding companies earned in insurance brokerage fee income in 2008.

Description: The purpose of this paper is not to present a revolutionary new concept, instead, it is to reexamine a familiar concept in the light of new market circumstances and, to consider the consequences to the life insurance industry if the concept were adopted.

Description: This paper outlines the limitations inherent in current actuarial pricing techniques and describes a product development process that can produce optimal decisions in competitive environments. From Product Development Section Monograph, M-AS99-3.

Description: Breakout Sessions 1A: The Fundamentals of Pricing for Underwriters

Description: The management of the investments of an insurance enterprise has undergone a considerable evolution since the pioneering work of Redington in the mid 20th century. Best practices have evolved to incorporate ever more complex insurance liabilities, expanding investment asset classes and global market opportunities. Strategic asset allocation (SAA), liability driven investing, and other robust optimization approaches form the core of the professional management of insurance company investments.