The rating outlook for the U.S. life insurance sector will remain negative based on a combination of economic and operating pressures unlikely to abate in 2010, according to Fitch Ratings.

Although insurers fared better than the banks during the global  nancial crisis and resulting recession, premiums for 2008 declined by 6% to just under €1,060b with no improvement in 2009. Overall, life insurance companies fared better from the crisis than banks; however, they were shaken by investment losses, as were their customers with market-linked products. General insurance companies suffered from capital base erosion and by the continuation of soft rates. European Union (EU) insurers’ efforts to rebuild capital may be complicated in 2010 by a changing accounting and regulatory environment and the impending implementation of Solvency II, with many commentators forecasting a need to increase capital levels.

This report, summarizing results from Deloitte's latest Life Insurance Operations Benchmarking Study, provides insight in areas critical to insurance executives, including:

* Marketing, product and distribution
* New business
* Customer service
* Information technology
* Corporate overhead

Switzerland's insurers need local regulation to be harmonised with international standards and improved access to European Union markets to boost growth, executives said in November.

U.S. banks sold 32% more life insurance during the first 3 quarters of 2009 than they did during the comparable period in 2008, according to Kehrer-LIMRA.

Kehrer-LIMRA, Windsor, Conn., has published percentage change figures, not figures on the total volume of life insurance products sold. Bank life sales account for just a portion of all U.S. life sales.

But the growth rate for life sales at banks far outpaced the life sales growth rate for the U.S. life insurance industry as a whole, Kehrer-LIMRA reports.

The US life insurance industry will likely face an extended period of weak earnings, slow growth and greater regulatory oversight as the economy slowly recovers from the financial crisis, according to Ernst & Young’s Global Insurance Center 2010 U.S. Outlook for the life insurance industry.

At the beginning of every year, Financier Worldwide gathers opinions from corporate advisory leaders to explore their insights into current and emerging trends. In his comments, Milliman principal and consultant Neil Cantle discusses the importance for boards of directors to properly challenge and support executive teams in the implementation of their strategies. On the one hand boards are required to bring "independence," and yet on the other hand they need to know sufficient detail of the daily operations that they can provide robust challenge and active support.

The life insurance industry is still working through capital losses and capital constraints resulting from the 2008 financial crisis with some success, according to a new study by Conning Research and Consulting, Hartford, Conn.

The L&H industry performance improved in Q2 2009 but key weaknesses remain.

The New York State Insurance Department is ordering life insurers in the state to adjust assumptions about investment portfolio calls, prepayments and defaults to reflect the true state of the economy.

Tough U.S. reserving rules and the effects of the financial crisis already are forcing insurers to increase term life prices, a reinsurer says.

The global credit crisis led to a decline in life insurers’ economic capital positions in 2008, although the industry as a whole managed to maintain compliance with minimum regulatory capital requirements.

Unemployment, regulatory intervention seen as largest barriers to economic recovery. M&A seen increasing despite capital issues: Insurance executives see their companies performing above general market expectations in 2010, but their outlook on the industry's ability to generate underwriting profit in the next one to three years remains restrained, according to an annual survey conducted by KPMG, the audit, tax and advisory firm.

Summary report provided at the JHA site. Mid-year summary and 2008 Individual summary report available as well.

Prior years' (2006 and 2007) summaries available at http://www.jhaweb.com/jsite/research/studies.aspx.

A study released by the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI) and CSC finds that life insurers are poised for additional enterprise payoffs based on their current approach and investments in IT security, but that capturing the payoffs requires an evolution from the gatekeeper model of security to a digital trust model.

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a big change in accounting standards getting ready to take place. Around about 2014, there will be “a single set of high-quality, understandable and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for general purpose financial statements.”

U.S. life insurers have experienced a significant deterioration in investment results in 2008, negatively affecting industry earnings and capital, as discussed in a Fitch Ratings report.

Billionaire Warren Buffett on Sunday criticized some life insurers for taking on 'crazy' financial risks by selling variable annuities, or retirement products that promised unrealistic guarantees to buyers.

Moody's Investors Service cut its credit ratings on Berkshire Hathaway Inc from Aaa, the top rating, saying the recession and investment losses at insurance operations of investor Warren Buffett's holding company reduced its ability to support funding needs.

The current economic crisis is challenging life insurers to look closely at all of the products in their portfolio and make adjustments as necessary. While much of the focus is on variable annuities and universal life with secondary guarantees, the performance of term life is also affected by market upheaval.

In this issue of The Forecaster, Jim McArdle, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Transamerica Rinsurance, discusses the impact of current market conditions on term life insurance with Keith Dall, Principal at Milliman, Inc. Keith sees companies responding in a variety of ways – looking for new financing solutions, tightening underwriting guidelines, monitoring products and rates more closely and more.

There are many predictions of how long the current global financial crisis and economic downturn will last. Some say the end of 2010, some say longer. In either case, Robert Kerzner, president and CEO of LIMRA International and LOMA, predicts the U.S. life insurance industry will look different when that time comes, according to an A.M. Best story. He says companies will have exited lines of business that are just too risky or hard to price, or be merged into or acquired by others.

If Q4 reports are any indication, Kerzner could be right. New annualized premium for individual life insurance saw a 14% drop in the fourth quarter of 2008, ending the year with an overall 7% decline, according to LIMRA’s quarterly sales survey.

This monograph contains papers submitted and presented at the 2008 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium held April 14-16, 2008 in Chicago. It also includes additional research papers that were submitted and accepted for the 2008 ERM Symposium Call for Papers, but not presented. This was the third year in which a call for papers was issued in conjunction with the Symposium. The call for papers continues to showcase the latest in ERM thinking as well as present advances made in this arena.

The SOA's Preneed Experience Team is pleased to make available the following report by the Deloitte–UConn Actuarial Center examining preneed life insurance mortality experience. The report has been revised since its initial release to correct an error discovered in the Preneed Insurance Male Mortality Table per 1000. An Excel Spreadsheet of the Mortality Table shown in the report is also provided.

The expansion of western European and US insurance companies into Asia will continue but at a slower pace. Read more.

The ultimate viability of American International Group’s currently healthy life insurance units is a race against time, according to industry analysts and AIG officials.

The US life insurance industry will be dealing with the multiple lingering after-effects of the global financial crisis and deepening recession.

Financial services and insurance companies face enormous challenges in 2009 as they manage through the economic downturn and respond to market shifts and consumer expectations.

After a promising start in 2008, individual long-term care insurance (LTCI) premium fell 23 percent in the fourth quarter, ending 2008 down seven percent, according to LIMRA’s Individual Long-Term Care Sales survey.

A multi-faceted approach is the best way to enhance advisor performance, according to a major new study of distribution in the life insurance industry recently released by LIMRA and McKinsey & Company. The study, conducted in the fall of 2008, surveyed more than 1,200 advisors across a broad range of distribution channels to identify the challenges facing the industry and practical steps that carriers can take to enhance productivity and retention.

During the volatile months of September and October, the hedging programs developed to protect variable annuities (VAs) with guarantees were, based on an internal study, 93% effective, saving an estimated $40 billion in industry-wide assets for the insurance companies that write these products.