Currently, suicide stands as the 13th leading cause of death worldwide, responsible for nearly 1 million fatalities annually. RGA’s Global Research and Development team’s analysis of suicide rates before and after the 2008 financial crisis uses population data from Canada, Australia, the UK and the U.S., as well as insured data from RGA’s extensive database.

This paper presents the results of the research, as well as information about treatment of suicide claims in these markets.

Disasters like the disappearance of Malaysia Flight 370 and natural catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina emphasize the value of reinsurance. These events resulted in large exposures, with direct writers resorting to reinsurance to spread the risk. That is how reinsurance started, as a risk management tool. Over the years, it has evolved, offering numerous benefits for insurance companies, including access to information, relationships, and expertise that can yield greater benefits in the claim adjudication process.

Kidney transplant specialists have complained in the American Journal of Transplantation that people who donate kidneys to others end up facing trouble getting life insurance and often pay higher rates for life coverage.

We review the developments in genomic medicine and potential impacts on the life insurance industry’s right to underwrite.

U.S. application activity for individually underwritten life insurance was flat at -0.3% in June, year-over-year, all ages combined, according to the MIB Life Index.

A 75 year-old man is applying for $2,000,000 of life insurance coverage. His cognitive testing results and lab work are considered acceptable. Should he qualify for coverage? What is known about his physical functioning capacity, and what should you know?

Slides from a presentation covering the use of predictive analytics in life insurance have been posted by the Society Of Actuaries at their Asia-Pacific Annual Symposium page.