Our thoughts

In marketing (by which we mean ‘running businesses profitably’ and not advertising/promotion, account management or selling stuff) they talk of ‘the four Ps’: Product Price ‘Place’ (ie distribution channel) Promotion. Together these elements are known as the marketing mix, and they combine to form the basic proposition that is offered to customers; tailor the mix to your target audience and you have the right product at the right price, sold in the right way, backed up by advertising and other forms of promotion that create awareness and demand. For service industries – life insurance is a good example – three…

The previous article illustrates the need to tailor the ‘underwriting mix’ to the rest of the marketing mix in order to create both an appealing customer proposition (and traditionally an appealing producer/broker proposition too) and a profitable source of revenue for the carrier. In the past, generally one underwriting mix would do – products were sold via intermediaries and there was seen to be little need to vary product design or processes between agent and broker channels. Today, though, it’s a whole different ball game. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) offers are more common. The Internet has revolutionized communicating and transacting. There is…

Several of the sessions at the ICLAM meeting at the end of May 2013 in Madrid dealt with predicting cardiovascular risk. The ECG, and especially the resting trace, is a pathetically weak tool alongside the heavyweight imaging techniques – but at least it’s cheap. Of modern, sophisticated tools like the stress echo, stress single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), stress MRI and CT coronary angiography, it is apparently the last-mentioned that is the most powerful in identifying lesions and thus predicting risk. But we should not forget coronary calcium scoring, carotid artery 3D ultrasound scanning and 2D carotid scanning to determine…

This was the title of an interesting conference that took place in London in 2013. While it was focused on the UK, a number of the issues addressed are pertinent across the globe. So what is the future of the protection market – that is, primarily the market for term life? Or, possibly more fundamentally, does the protection market have a future? There was lot of discussion around the so called ‘protection gap’. This is the vast difference between the total face amount nationally of theoretically adequate levels of protection coverage and what is actually in place. Swiss Re estimates…

The publication of the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – usually referred to simply as ‘the DSM’ – is due round about the time you receive this edition of Underwriter e-Alert. (We’re naturally pleased but it may be only coincidence at work.) This mighty reference work from the American Psychiatric Association is not just the ‘bible’ by which psychiatric conditions are classified and diagnosed; the DSM is used the world over by researchers, drug regulation agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and policy makers – and by insurance companies, especially health insurers. Compared with DSM-IV, edition V…

Predictive analytics (also referred to as ‘predictive modelling’): is it the future? It is if you listen to firms that are taking a keen interest in, or even specialize in, ‘big data’. Firms like BioSignia, Deloitte, Towers Watson and Milliman are intent on getting the ear of carriers, and even reinsurers like RGA and Swiss Re are getting in on the act. According to Deloitte, there are 40 data vendors out there and around 100 databases to draw upon. Also, they have a database that includes every adult in the US, all derived from publicly available information. Sounds like powerful…

We were musing the other day about how to deal with smoking, pondering matters like: If an applicant says he or she smokes x cigarettes a day, can you believe that? How do you deal with cigar and pipe smoking? Should you ask about inhaling? How much does size of cigar count – for example cheroot or cigarillo versus fat Romeo y Julieta? What about ‘rolling your own’ (possibly a mainly British working class thing)? And what is the equivalent in loose tobacco (for pipes and ‘roll-ups’) of a pack of 20 cigarettes? Of course some brands of cigarette are…

Nowhere in the world is the underwriting process as sophisticated as it is in North America. Nowhere else are underwriting decisions based:   So frequently on laboratory analysis of blood, urine and oral fluid Routinely on modern assays such NT pro-BNP On MIB information – the MIB is unique, certainly as regards the level and detail of information On MVR information – these databases are unique On Rx databases – again unique So frequently on tele-interviews.   And nowhere else do vendors offer such a wide range of integrated services – tele-interviews, medicals and paramedicals, large-scale, rapid-turnaround lab testing, APS…

This year the New England Journal of Medicine published one of a series of articles marking its 200 year anniversary. Entitled ‘Two hundred Years of Cancer Research’, the article is a useful reminder of just how far the understanding and treatment of cancer have come, not just in 200 years but in recent years as well. In almost the first 100 years of the NEJM’s existence physicians could do little more than observe, measure and weigh tumours, but in 1863 Rudolf Virchow, with the help of a microscope, deduced the cellular origin of cancer. In 1889, Stephen Paget published his…

Auditing performance is a routine necessity of good business management. Where underwriting and claims functions are concerned, how good are quality and accuracy? Is basic philosophy applied in practice? Are procedures and processes being adhered to? Are outsource suppliers meeting the required standards? And internal staff too? But that is only half the picture. Performance auditing demonstrates quality to stakeholders in and associated with the business, and can highlight other issues, such as the need for improved processes, new training and adjustment of core philosophy. Technical audits Historically the classic ‘technical audit’ involves the review of a sample of say…