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New Options in Reserve Financing

4/4/2008 12:00:00 AM

In recent years, a few large life insurers and reinsurers have successfully turned to the capital markets for collateral financing for redundant Triple X reserves. The resulting securitizations – both non-recourse and the more preval...

Preparing for Principles-Based Capital

4/4/2008 12:00:00 AM

As our industry moves towards a principles-based approach to valuation, many life insurers have focused on its potential effect on reserves. However, work is currently underway to apply similar principles to required capital, with similar expe...

Credibility Analysis for Mortality Experience Studies, Part 1

4/4/2008 12:00:00 AM

The bane of pricing actuaries is thier desire for more and more data in a preferred risk environment that is designed to produce fewer and fewer deaths. Previous mortality experience can be a reliable indicator of the future performance as lon...

Best Practices for an Underwriting System

4/4/2008 12:00:00 AM

The right underwriting system seamlessly integrated into the new business process can enhance a company’s bottom line from increased accuracy to tighter oversight to stronger reinsurance relationships and potentially better reinsurance pricing...

Special Report: Underwriting Trends for Older Age Applicants

4/4/2008 12:00:00 AM

Transamerica Reinsurance has published a research report on underwriting trends for older age applicants. Key takeaways from the report include:

Traditional medical underwriting is not as effective at asse...

Older Age Issues: Initial Selection Effects Fade Fast

12/18/2007 12:00:00 AM

It is time for both reinsurers and direct writing companies to take a hard look at their mortality assumptions for older issue ages. Back when the Society of Actuaries published the 1975-80 Valuation Basic Tables (VBT), the maximum issue age w...

Winning Customers with Tele-interviewing

12/18/2007 12:00:00 AM

Regular readers of The Messenger have seen articles extolling the virtues of a fully implemented mortality management system. These systems combine a well-designed set of underwriting criteria, a third party tele-interview for the ele...

Possible Tax Status Effects of PBR

12/18/2007 12:00:00 AM

Life insurance companies hold a unique status under U.S. tax law because of the long-term guarantees and benefits that distinguish life insurance from other financial products. We receive a deduction for the prescribed tax reserves set aside t...

Quest 2008: Older Age Markets

12/18/2007 12:00:00 AM

Transamerica Reinsurance will conduct a new series of Quest meetings in 2008, focusing on older age markets and the implications for pricing and underwriting in this market. These informative sessions will be delivered in several cities nationwide.

Observations on Mortality by Band

10/9/2007 12:00:00 AM

Life insurance companies have long offered premium rates per $1000 of face value that vary by face amount band. These rates reflect that some unit costs associated with underwriting, issuing and administering a life insurance policy do not var...

Lapse Studies Reveal Behavior Insights

10/9/2007 12:00:00 AM

Getting the lapse rate assumption wrong on a term insurance portfolio can have a significant impact on the block’s profitability. Consequently, Transamerica Reinsurance regularly performs lapse experience studies on its reinsured level premium...

Shifting Demographics Affect Underwriting Practices

10/9/2007 12:00:00 AM

Traditional underwriting practice suggests that fully medical underwritten policies reveal sufficient information to price life insurance accurately. The success and profitability of life insurers over the past century would tend to support ...

Online Special Report: Risks in ROP Pricing

10/9/2007 12:00:00 AM

Transamerica Reinsurance has published a research report entitled Special Report: Return of Premium Products. Key takeaways from the report are:

Policyholders have been willing to pay higher prices...

Presenters at SOA Annual Meeting

10/9/2007 12:00:00 AM

Transamerica Reinsurance will have several presenters at the upcoming Society of Actuaries Annual Meeting.

Enhanced STP Accelerates Profitability

6/27/2007 12:00:00 AM

Straight Through Processing (STP) is being hailed by consultants, insurers and reinsurers as the “must have” operational model in a highly competitive industry. Is STP a good thing? Yes. In fact, it is a great thing.

In an STP...

Lapse Rates in a Principles-Based World

6/27/2007 12:00:00 AM

Principles-based regulations (PBR) are continuing to take form, and as we get closer to implementation, companies must determine how they are going to develop their assumptions underlying both principles-based reserves and principles-based cap...

Mortality Study Trend Analysis - Part III

6/27/2007 12:00:00 AM

Modern mortality theory presumes that preferred insureds will exhibit lower mortality than their non-preferred counterparts. In Part II of this series we reviewed the experience from a sample case study to analyze mortality trends by polic...

The PBR Reserve/Capital Accordion

6/27/2007 12:00:00 AM

Discussions of principles-based regulation (PBR) tend to focus on reserves. This is understandable: current regulations for level-premium term and certain UL policies force insurers to maintain redundant reserves, an issue many insurers hope P...

Decisions, Decisions…

6/27/2007 12:00:00 AM

(Editor's Note: This article appeared as part of Scott A. Boug's article, entitled "The PBR Reserve/Capital Accordion" in the June 2007 editi...

Helping Clients Tap into the Middle Market

4/2/2007 12:00:00 AM

In recent years, much of the discussion for growth in the life insurance market has focused on tapping into the middle market. Articles in National Underwriter, LIMRA’s MarketFacts and even this newsletter have described the ...