Description: After years of discussion and debate, PrinciplesBased Reserving (PBR) is finally a reality. Small insurance companies have a unique opportunity to decide between electing for the company-wide exemption or adopting the PBR methods. This article discusses the benefits and challenges of the options available to small insurers under VM-20 as well as best practices that have been found along the way.

Description: This study covers a five-calendar year period, years 2011-2015. Death claims incurred during this five-year period and paid by the data collection date were included. The data was primarily collected during the summer and fall of 2017, which would allow a minimum of 18 months following date of death for a claim to be paid. The study was limited to single premium credit life insurance.

Description: Industry information about some tools and methods used by life insurance companies to mitigate the risk inherent in early duration claims.

Description: The webpage with the definition and the mortality tables for simplified issue business developed by the Society of Actuaries and the Academy of Actuaries.

Description: A recommendation for a set of improvement factors that vary by gender and attained age to be used in conjunction with the 2008 Valuation Basic table or the 2015 Valuation Basic table for AG-38 purposes.

Description: Based on work performed by Bob Howard, a former member of RPEC, the SOA developed a spreadsheet-based program that allows users to create a customized mortality improvement scale using the RPEC_2014 model. The RPEC_O2_v2018 model found here utilizes the same projection methodology underpinning the RPEC_2014 model except that the historical rates have been developed using “order-2” Whittaker-Henderson graduation rather than “order-3”.

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.

Description: An article from The Actuary that highlights the strategic importance of inter-company mortality studies. Broad-based mortality studies form the backbone of the life actuarial profession. However, few companies have sufficient exposure or deaths to construct their own mortality table. Even is some large companies have enough data, there is still a vast majority of companies that do not. Historically, the void has been filled by means of inter-company studies.

Description: This report examines historical U.S. motor vehicle accident mortality experience by age, gender, region, and other factors.

Description: The Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA) and Society of Actuaries (SOA) engaged RGA Reinsurance Company (RGA) to undertake a research project on level premium term life insurance products with a particular focus on the magnitude and impact of the “shock lapse” at the end of the level premium period. This project is similar to the SOA-sponsored research completed by RGA in 2014 for USA business.