The December 2011 issue of Gen Re's Risk Insights includes the following articles:

- Hitting the Customer Sweet Spot for Life
- Projecting Mortality Trends: Separating the Past from the Future
- Rate Increase Strategy and Anti-Selective Lapses in the U.S. Medicare Supplement Market: A Case Study
- Commission-Based Versus Fee-for-Advice Systems
- Inside Gen Re

The November 2011 issue of Gen Re Risk Matters Oceania includes the two articles "When Is a Heart Attack a Heart Attack?" and "Financially Verifying Occupational Duties."

The Reinsurance Section, Smaller Insurance Company Section and the Committee on Life Insurance Research are pleased to make the following report available. Authored by W. Michael Reese of Hause Actuarial Solutions, this report examines challenges encountered by smaller insurers in obtaining life reinsurance, the challenges and opportunities life reinsurers face in servicing these companies, and considers some possible solutions that might help to resolve the challenges encountered.

Steady decline continues for life reinsurance cession rates, according to the latest industry survey by Munich Re.

Despite shrinking market volume in the US life reinsurance segment, RGA's Anna Manning watched her company stay relatively level on 2010 revenue and actually increase its market share.

The Wall Street Transcript has just published Insurance Report offering a timely review of the sector. This Special Report contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The interview covers RGA product lines, opportunities for growth, the impact of the catastrophic events in recent months, and more.

In 1939, the Brazilian Reinsurance market was closed to direct access by international reinsurers. It was reopened in January 2010 and is now home to 84 multinational reinsurers and the State Reinsurer, Instituto Resseguradora do Brasil (IRB Re). Even after two and a half years, the IRB still has the dominant market share. This article will discuss the
major issues.

In this in-depth guide, Swiss Re introduces the concepts of reinsurance and highlights the essential function reinsurance has in enabling progress and contributing to the stability of the economy and society.

Munich Re invites you to a live, interactive webcast previewing the results of the 2010 Life Reinsurance Survey.

Participants will be the first to see the results of the 2010 Life Reinsurance Survey. Munich Re has conducted the annual Life Reinsurance Survey on behalf of the Statistical Research Committee of the SOA Reinsurance Section for over 20 years. The life reinsurance market continues to evolve in sometimes surprising directions. They will show you what happened in the U.S. and Canadian life reinsurance markets in 2010 and provide insight as to why. Individual company results will be disclosed. Emerging reinsurance trends based on past survey results will be reviewed and discussed.

SCOR agrees to acquire Transamerica Re from AEGON, and AIG awaits regulatory approval on the divestiture of its Taiwan unit.

The April 1, 2011 renewal once again demonstrated the reinsurance industry’s ability to operate during trying times. The renewal, which is dominated by business in the Asia-Pacific region, followed just a few weeks after the devastating 9.0Mw Tohoku earthquake struck off Japan on March 11. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami caused a humanitarian disaster, and the widespread damage to property and infrastructure is likely to make the event the most expensive insured loss outside of the United States, in history. Current modeled estimates predict an insured loss of between USD12 billion and USD30 billion for the event. This, along with other catastrophic events in Australia and New Zealand, resulted in a very challenging first quarter for the industry.

Imagine an individual life policy you could purchase with no medical, no underwriting, in short: no questions asked! Of course, as most readers will be well aware, this type of policy already exists in the form of guaranteed acceptance products. This Hannover Re article takes a closer look at such policies and their distinctive features.

World life reinsurance gross premium revenue may have fallen in 2009, but world life reinsurance net premium revenue may have increased.

The International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), Basel, Switzerland, has published world life reinsurance market statistics in a year-end review of the reinsurance market.

A life insurance unit at Warren Buffett’s company has agreed to acquire a life reinsurance business from Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada.

Topics covered include:

• life settlement underwriting
• financial underwriting
• ReFocus
• Individual Life Experience Committee 2005-2007 Mortality Study

...and more.

Uncertain markets, slow economic improvements and changing regulations cloud recovery efforts, making underwriting discipline, pricing a key strategy.

According to a report issued by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services, life reinsurers in particular will face numerous challenges that may erode the health they’ve enjoyed. The report, "The Sluggish Economic Recovery and Emerging Regulatory Changes Are Reshaping The Life Reinsurance Landscape," maintains that a slow economy is forcing life reinsurers to deploy limited capital resources cautiously.

While traditional risk management coverages on group and individual life portfolios can be structured to make them affordable, in many instances to do so will mean the coverage will have conditions and limitations
which will make it an ineffective risk management tool. Because of this, today more and more companies are turning to AD Carve-Out reinsurance as a viable risk management solution.

Why legislate for systemic risk in an industry that apparently has none? Patrick Thiele calls for intelligent regulation informed by the unique economics of the reinsurance industry.

Presentation from the SOA 2010 Life & Annuity Symposium, May 17-18, 2010.

Presentations made in the period from 2007 through 2009 are available for viewing. Among the topics in 2009:

• Betsy Sears - Hepatitis B & C
• Dr. Robert Baird - Sleepless in Dallas
• Radford Diastolic Dysfunction
• Underwriting Crohn' Disease
  

Reinsurance rates for most lines of business decreased on the January 1, 2010 renewal. The Guy Carpenter World Catastrophe Rate on Line (ROL) Index decreased by 6 percent in reaction to a swift and substantial recovery in the capitalization of the reinsurance sector. The combination of the rally in investment markets, much reduced catastrophe loss activity in 2009 and recessionary effects on demand for
direct and reinsurance programs resulted in an excess of supply and increased competition. Movements in pricing occurred against a background of exposure adjustments, model revisions, program changes and other developments.

Topics in this edition include:

• Obesity - Treatment and Subsequent Risk Assessment
• Critical Illness Reinstatement Products
• Anti-Discrimination Law - The Portuguese Experience
• What Does Risk Feel Like? Insights From Behavioural Economics - Part I

Insurers’core activities do not pose a systemic risk. This is the conclusion of a study launched by the Geneva Association, the international think tank and global CEO platform. It recommends that regulators and policymakers focus on risk activities and not on institutions when introducing new regulatory regimes.

The CEOs of some of the nation’s largest U.S.-based insurance companies urged quick passage of legislation to close a loophole cited in President Obama’s FY 2011 budget proposal that allows foreign- controlled insurance companies operating in the U.S. to avoid paying U.S. income taxes.

Fundamentally, there is no new story to tell about the bewildering array of inter-related risks facing our world. What is new – and troubling – is that the linkages between them have reached unprecedented levels of intensity.

Demand for life and health reinsurance is expected to rise as direct writers look to relieve pressure on their capital after the financial crisis, observers say.

The Foreign Travel Survey Subcommittee of the Society's Committee on Life Insurance Mortality & Underwriting Surveys has completed their report on the results of a survey on foreign travel underwriting practices of reinsurance companies.

LIMRA statistics indicate that life insurance sales have dropped across product lines, with a 23-percent drop in premium levels in the first half of 2009 compared to the same period a year earlier (U.S. Individual Life Insurance Sales Trends, Second Quarter 2009). Sales of higher margin and fee-based products, such as universal life and variable universal life, have suffered most, while term experienced only slight declines.

The September 2009 issue looks at:

• Life Reinsurance Data from The Munich American Survey By David M. Bruggeman
• What Reinsurers and Cedants Can Learn from Uncle Rex and the Bulls By Rick Flaspöhler
• Reinsurance Modernization – A New World ViewBy Daniel W. Krane and Elizabeth A. Diffley
• Life Reinsurance: Capacity and Concentration of Risk Survey Analysis By William J. Briggs, Gaetano Geretto and Robert B. Lau
• Enhancing the Benefit: How quality successful limited-benefit health plans answered the demand for a more robust product By Curt A. Wieden
• American Academy of Actuaries Stop Loss Risk-Based Capital Work Group is Reviewing the Potential Need for Changes in the RBC FactorsBy Michael L. Frank

The Committee on Life Insurance Research, Product Development Section, and Reinsurance Section are pleased to make this report available. Performed by the Ernst & Young team of Thomas Crawford, Richard de Haan and Chad Runchey, this research reviewed literature on longevity risk. The paper summarizes results and addresses topics including the emergence and quantification of longevity risk; current and future risk management techniques; and products currently in the market that are exposed to longevity risk. The appendices include a summary of each paper reviewed for the study.

This report presents the results of a survey conducted by the Society of Actuaries Mortality and Underwriting Survey Committee in July of 2008.

U.S., Bermuda and large international reinsurance companies lost about 15% of their capacity in 2008 as measured by shareholders’ equity. But A.M. Best Co. believes that two excellent operating years preceding 2008, sizable capital increases after Hurricane Katrina and significantly improved loss reserves have enabled the reinsurance industry to withstand the barrage of investment charges and catastrophe losses.

Willis Re: Reinsurers Outperformed Financial Services Community in 2008

Despite the financial crisis, the ILS market has more than held its own and appears poised for further growth. This Towers-Perrin article appears in the 2009/1 issue of Emphasis.

From the October '08 edition of The ReSource, Canada Life's newsletter.

The life insurance industry enters 2009 facing an economic environment and a business outlook that are profoundly different from one short year ago. While every year presents catalysts for change, 2008 will go down as one of extreme, involuntary change as companies dealt with the suddenness and severity of the financial crisis. What is more, the traditional playbook does not appear to offer many options on how to manage through the challenges.

Presentation at ReFocus 2009.

Presentation at ReFocus 2009.

In the book “From Principle-based Risk Management to Solvency Requirements", SCOR specialists describe over five hundred pages how the company models risks according to the requirements of the Swiss Solvency Test (SST), which is based on concepts very similar to the ones set forth by Solvency II.

Beyond the regulatory requirements, the understanding of the concepts involved as well as the results of the comprehensive risk modelling process are essential in all sectors and are vital to the development of a coherent Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process.

Scottish Re originally had targeted a sale of its entire North American Segment, but following the historic disruption in the financial markets in late September, it was unable to consummate such a transaction. In an effort to find ways to address its acute capital, liquidity and collateral needs and to allay concerns of its regulators, Scottish Re pursued the sale of a specific block of individual life reinsurance in its North America Segment.

International insurance watchdogs are working on a system to help safeguard reinsurers' stability when they are hit by major catastrophes such as hurricanes, regulators say.

Presentation from SOA Annual Meeting in Orlando, October 2008.

Mr Jay Ralph, CEO of Allianz Re, highlights four key macro trends – climate change, socioeconomic and demographic changes, globalisation and innovation – that have changed and shaped the risk landscape for (re)insurers in Asia and discusses how these issues will impact the industry.

PartnerRe's Patrick Thiele explains how the capital markets and reinsurance markets respond to shock losses.

In May of 2006 the Life Insurance Mortality and Underwriting Survey Committee of the SOA surveyed both reinsurers and direct companies about their practices with respect to making business decisions in the underwriting process. This article from the SOA's Reinsurance News highlights the comparison of the results of the two surveys as outlined in detail in Appendix 2 of the Direct Company Survey. Familiarity with the surveys and their definitions is assumed.

Double-digit health care cost increases may have tapered off, but some organizations continue to struggle with high premiums, low employee engagement and mixed employee response to account-based health plans. Other organizations, however, are gaining competitive advantage by managing their programs aggressively — with a focus on the causes that drive ongoing cost increases.

Check out what high-performing companies are doing to get employee buy-in and improve their bottom line