Reinsurance Section Research Update
By Ronora Stryker
Reinsurance News, April 2025
2025 is off to a busy start with the Reinsurance Section launching two new studies. The first project examines the application of predictive analytics in life reinsurance practice. The second project captures the evolution of the use of health care captives for managing risk and how the landscape for health care captives is changing.
In addition, there is a third project expected to start within a few months on complex assets. This study will examine the use of complex assets in the life insurance and annuity Industry compared to traditional corporate bonds.
All of these studies illustrate a distinctive feature of the Section’s sponsored research—diverse topics! With this approach, the research deliverables have a wide reach, advancing actuarial practice in many areas.
Here is an update, as of February 2025, on the Reinsurance Section’s other sponsored research in process and studies recently completed.
Currently In Process
“Offshore Jurisdictions’ Life and Annuity Reinsurance Landscapes.” This study explores the use of reinsurance and offshore jurisdictions for U.S. insurers. The research will include an overview of multiple offshore jurisdictions (both common and less common for U.S. insurers), key considerations for U.S. insurers when working with an offshore reinsurer or setting up their own offshore reinsurance vehicle, as well as financial analysis. Completion is targeted for second quarter.
“Mental Health Underwriting.” The overall objective of this paper is to investigate the connection between mental health and mortality to enhance insurer mental health underwriting processes. Completion is also planned for second quarter.
Recent Publications
“Adapting to a New Normal.” The operating environment for insurers is changing. This research focuses on how companies adapt to a new baseline of high inflation, high volatility, geopolitical tension and high climate risks, as well as supply chain disruption and other elements that make up the new normal environment.
“Effectiveness of Wellness Programs.” Wellness programs have been in place for a number of years by several life, health, individual and group insurance companies. These wellness programs have several benefits for the insurer to consider, from increased retention, lower claims, positive selection bias, and improvements in marketing and branding. The question is: Have they delivered on the expectation of the benefits for the business and the customer? This research aims to measure the success of wellness programs.
“Mortality by Socioeconomic Category in the United States through 2022.” This study extends prior research and constructs detailed U.S. life tables by socioeconomic category through 2022 to allow year-over-year changes in mortality to be determined, giving insights into mortality improvement trends, including how the impact of COVID-19 affected socioeconomic mortality differentials.
Additionally, the researcher examined different methodological approaches to constructing the socioeconomic category data sets.
“Redesigning the Life Insurance Underwriting Journey with Behavioral Economics.” This study applies behavioral science principles to the design of underwriting questions to enhance disclosure across a range of conditions and behaviors that are relevant to underwriting decisions.
“Updating the Canadian Mortality in the HMD.” Through the support of the Reinsurance Section in collaboration with the Product Development Section and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, the Canadian mortality series in the Human Mortality Database (HMD, www.mortality.org) has been updated to include revised data through 2021. The same data was used to update the Canadian Human Mortality Database (CHMD, http://www.bdlc.umontreal.ca/CHMD/). A report is available presenting the background, processes and other research for extending the data series in each of the databases.
“Using Behavioral Science to Improve Consumers' Comprehension and Appreciation of Life Insurance Products.” The research provides practical behavioral insights insurers can use to help narrow the customer comprehension gap of life insurance products and creates a direction for future industry research.
“Statistical Methods for Imputing Race and Ethnicity.” This project outlines the various approaches for statistically imputing race and ethnicity in the U.S. along with their strengths and weaknesses to help familiarize actuaries with these techniques.
Request for Research Ideas
Do you have an idea for a research topic you would like to see the Reinsurance Section consider for funding? If so, we want to hear from you! For more information, please contact Terrence Chin, the Reinsurance Section’s research lead, or Ronora Stryker.
Statements of fact and opinions expressed herein are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the Society of Actuaries, the newsletter editors, or the respective authors’ employers.
Ronora Stryker, ASA, MAAA, is a senior practice research actuary for the Society of Actuaries. She can be reached at rstryker@soa.org.