Our thoughts

Decision engines have been used for underwriting life business for close on 40 years now. They have evolved from simple engines processing predominantly ‘clean’ cases into systems capable of assessing substandard cases (including some with multiple adverse risk factors) and using information from external databases in real time as part of the process. STP (straight through processing) rates of cases which require no human intervention, can, in some markets, be 80% or even higher, leaving scarce underwriting resources to concentrate on the more complex cases. In 2011, SelectX, in conjunction with claims specialist Karin Lloyd, looked at the use of…

What is the right to be forgotten (RTBF)? According to Insurance Europe, “A RTBF requires insurance to be offered without considering all relevant risk factors.” [1] In recent years there has been increasing focus on potential discrimination against cancer survivors in the application of life insurance for home loan or other credit protection.[1] Therefore, in 2021 the European Commission published ‘Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan’, stating that Europe needed renewed commitment to cancer prevention, treatment, and care. Buried in the section entitled ‘Improving the quality of life for cancer survivors and carers’ is a statement about access to financial services, which…

… not in the course of business but in Peter Maynard’s life outside SelectX as a train driver. Peter works as a volunteer driver of steam (and diesel) locomotives on two ‘heritage’ railways – there are many such lines in the UK which aim to recreate the railway travelling experience of decades ago, and especially the atmosphere and special charm of steam power. On 16 August, the UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, visited various places during a tour of the East Midlands. One such was the Great Central Railway, whose headquarters are at Loughborough. Peter says “I was warned that…

By Tom McCarthy* and Doug Ingle† Life is finite. That is one certainty we all understand. The final resolution… death. In many basic ways, this simple but universal concept is what fuels the life insurance industry. In most instances the unknown is when, during an individual’s life span, death will rear its ‘ugly head’. The concept of risk selection or underwriting exists in order to allow insurance carriers to try to ‘predict’ what a given individual’s remaining life expectancy might be. This comes from close review of medical and non-medical history either in detail (in traditional underwriting) or via data…

RiskApps, our independent underwriting manual has continued to develop through 2021 and we have made a number of updates to both the content and functionality: Early in the year we released a number of updates to key medical topics such as multiple sclerosis and cannabis More recently we also updated the Dementia topic after in depth research including more than 20 clinical papers We have also added new topics such as Duplex kidney, Pineal cyst, Postural tachycardia syndrome and Gender dysphoria The coronavirus topic has been regularly updated as our knowledge improves There have also been a number of updates…

RiskApps is an online underwriting manual providing underwriters with rating guidelines for life, critical illness and disability covers. The only independent manual world-wide and produced by SelectX in partnership with software experts MML Solutions, it has rivalled the manuals historically produced by the major reinsurers in terms of scope, quality of guidance and functionality. Now RiskApps is leaping ahead. Taking advantage of the latest development technology, it is being re-platformed in order to deliver major benefits to users and to enable quicker and easier ongoing product development. The re-design includes a brand-new look with space optimisation that makes navigation easier…

By Gary Bundock and Tom McCarthy It is interesting (well, we think so) to reflect on how evidence requirements differ from market to market. In some places – and the UK is a good example – one can buy what might seem a huge amount of cover on the basis of an application form only. Yet elsewhere virtually every application, certainly for pure life cover, needs a medical exam of some kind. And often, lab tests and maybe an ECG as well. The considerable differences between markets in terms of underwriting practice are due to a variety of factors, such…

By Peter Maynard I always remember being told, early in my underwriting career (I’ll leave you to guess when that might have been), that it was the duty of the underwriter to accept as many cases as possible at the ordinary (standard) rate of premium – while maintaining equity between policyholders, of course. This was in the interests of inclusivity: making affordable insurance available to as wide a group as possible. And in many markets, certainly the UK, that goal was faithfully achieved: 95% (or even more) of applicants accepted at standard, 1% or less declined or postponed, and the…

As ever, change is constant, but these days we all notice it more because the pace of change is quicker and still accelerating. In the 1990s one could look back and find that life and disability underwriting was little different from how it had been 50 years before. In fact, SelectX was formed getting on for 20 years ago with the aim of prodding the industry towards better ways of doing things and moving underwriting truly into the 21st century. Today, encouraging companies to innovate is largely unnecessary: they get the need. Instead, they need pushing onto the up-escalator of…

This article was first published in the March 2022 issue of On The Risk, the Journal of the Academy of Life Underwriting. Underwriting manuals have been around for a long time. Originally, they were large that were kept on the underwriter’s desk. They evolved through floppy disk and CDs to the sophisticated e-tools of today live in a cloud somewhere. At their most basic they are a means to serve up multiple documents that record the firm’s underwriting philosophy, but these days they typically go far beyond that. In this article we turn our thoughts to the trends and issues…