Milliman insight from around the world

16 May 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Nima Shahroozi , Bas Polder

Our April review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

15 May 2023 - By Max Berube

Companies reported $21.1 billion in combined short- and long-term disability in-force premium for group disability insurance in 2021, up 9.3% from 2020.

15 May 2023 - By Stephanie M. Peterson, Steven Lum

With the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency and National Emergency having ended, we detail the impact for health plan sponsors.

15 May 2023 - By Nina Lantz

With the enactment of SECURE 2.0, we break down how the required minimum distribution (RMD) rules are changing for employer-sponsored defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

15 May 2023 - By Ida Bindea, Laura Witting

Health-related issues are growing more important for the ESG rating process, which can also affect the financial stability of health insurers.

12 May 2023 - By Lee Townsend

Rising interest rates may soon test the upper limits of relief corridors for pension plans, with no impact of further increases on plan funding targets.

12 May 2023 - By Lotte van Delft, Peter Boekel, Sjoerd Brethouwer, Maarten Ruissaard

Defining and comparing capital generation in IFRS and Solvency II is crucial for communicating a transparent and consistent investor story.

12 May 2023 - By Ben Mori, Amanda Schipp, Jason A. Clarkson, Carmen Laudenschlager, Luke B.G. Roth

We review the essentials for states to consider regarding the proposed changes by CMS for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program Managed Care Access.

12 May 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Nima Shahroozi , Bas Polder

Our April review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

09 May 2023 - By Brandy L. Cross

In the wake of SECURE 2.0, we review what has changed for employers in terms of administering retirement savings plans for long-term, part-time employees.

08 May 2023 - By Zorast Wadia

The Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio decreases to 99.5%, moving from surplus to deficit status during April.

05 May 2023 - By Ryan Hart

As the COVID-19 public health emergency expires, 46% of plan sponsors say they will no longer cover OTC tests, according to our recent Pulse Survey.

04 May 2023 - By Rik van Beers, Conor Callaghan

Most European insurers will need to implement pre-emptive recovery plans due to the new IRRD, but the exercise can yield some invaluable insights on operations.

03 May 2023 - By Richard Payne, Clement Bonnet, Catherine Lu

While Hong Kong’s life and general insurers will be required by 2024 to have a risk-based capital solvency framework, we find different levels of implementation.

01 May 2023 - By Robert L. Schmidt, Eric Walters

Milliman’s Retiree Health Cost Index (RHCI) measures the amount of savings (net of taxes) needed at age 65 to pay for a retiree’s remaining lifetime healthcare costs.

28 April 2023 - By Sinéad Clarke, Ian O'Donnell

We review the Central Bank of Ireland’s recently issued climate-change guidelines, which provide clarity on risk management and frameworks for Solvency II .

27 April 2023 - By Jake Pringle, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 40 bps from 99.7% to 99.3% during March.

27 April 2023 - By Alex Bryant, Benjamin Buttin, Aatman Dattani, Josh Dobiac, Ouling Lu, Timothy Paris, Russell Ward

In a highly volatile market, life insurers are presented with both immense opportunity and challenges as they take on inflation and rising interest rates.

27 April 2023 - By Shamit Gupta, Subhash Khanna, Chong Wen Ang

We discuss some areas where IFRS 17 will likely require additional expertise to report financial statements for 2023.

26 April 2023 - By Safder Jaffer, Muhammad Asad Irshad

Business volumes continued to increase as the economy continues its recovery from the pandemic; however profits reduced in 2022 compared to 2021 due to decrease in investment returns and higher expenses.

26 April 2023 - By Philip Nelson, Jeremy J. Hamilton, Ali M. Heinrich

Medicare Part B buydowns can significantly impact financial performance, so plans must effectively evaluate whether to offer the subsidy, and at what level.

25 April 2023 - By Juliet M. Spector, Annie Gunnlaugsson, Alyssa Lu, Charles N. Coatsworth Jr., Anders Larson, Robert Eaton, Mike Bergerson, Jeff Anderson

This Long-Term Care (LTC) Focus newsletter showcases the projects that Milliman LTC consultants are working on now.

25 April 2023 - By Stephanie M. Peterson, Marcella Giorgou, Anna Morgan, Amanda Burkhart

As COVID-19 testing and vaccine coverage requirements are rolled back, Milliman health experts discuss how health plans are reacting to these and other changes.

25 April 2023 - By Kylie Young, John H. Rogers, Alex Zuckerman

We provide decision-making guidance for health plan sponsors looking to implement point solutions to reduce overall healthcare costs, increase healthcare access, and improve health outcomes.

24 April 2023 - By Brian N. Anderson, Rebekah D. Bayram, Marc Guieb

We detail the latest on pharmacy news, trends, and insights, including items on the company and state levels, FDA approvals and launches, and clinical trials.

20 April 2023 - By Andrew Netter, Jonathan B. Glowacki

While credit performance remains strong, the new notice rate and delinquency rate increased off 3Q 2022 lows—the first increases since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

20 April 2023 - By Ali M. Heinrich, Sam Smetek, Julia M. Friedman

Medicare Advantage organizations (MAOs) considering expansion in rural areas with low penetration must consider costs and risks vs. revenue and growth potential.

20 April 2023 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 9 basis points increase in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in march, Index stands at 125 basis points.

20 April 2023 - By Jenica Ghorashi

Both the broader market (Russell 3000) and the S&P 500 finished higher despite pressures following the collapse of multiple regional banks.

20 April 2023 - By Zorast Wadia, Alan Perry, Richard J. Bottelli Jr.

Milliman's annual Corporate Pension Funding Study dives into details of the top 100 plans, whose funded ratio increased to 99.3% in 2022, up 300 basis points.

19 April 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our March review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

19 April 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our March review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

19 April 2023 - By Kevin Pierce, Philip Nelson, Alex Cires, Sam Shellabarger

Join our presenters Kevin Pierce, Alex Cires, and Philip Nelson as they highlight some of the hot topics for Medicare Part C and D bid development in advance of the 2024 bid deadline.

18 April 2023 - By Brandy L. Cross

We run through five provisions of SECURE 2.0 related to mandatory and voluntary changes to employee and employer contributions for DC plans.

17 April 2023 - By Eric J. Wunder, Zachary A. Fischer

Macroeconomic conditions and uncertainty lead to a mixed year for medical professional liability (MPL) insurers.

17 April 2023 - By Keith Young

How to make sure your defined benefit (DB) pension plan complies with Internal Revenue Code 415 limits in the case of multiple distribution dates.

17 April 2023 - By Rebecca A. Sielman, Richard L. Gordon

Public pensions funded ratio grows to 74.5%, modest asset performance during March causes $54 billion increase in funded status.

14 April 2023 - By Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield, Monique Mahabir

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for March 2023.

13 April 2023 - By Kevin Brown, Chris Giese, Annie Gunnlaugsson

Metrics such as actuarial value can help insurers better evaluate a plan design’s level of coverage.

11 April 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake

In the development of decumulation products, flexibility is essential in order to adapt to changing interest rates and market conditions.

10 April 2023 - By Sheri Lee Scott, Nickolas Alvarado

California’s new wildfire rating requirements present tremendous challenges for insurers in terms of compliance and potential erosion of adequate rates for risk.

10 April 2023 - By Mitchell Morris, Tim Vosicky

This year shows increases in large claims in the market for medical professional liability (MPL), and severity differences by state and specialty.

10 April 2023 - By Michael Paczolt

We outline eight steps for companies to integrate AI in their claims processes, potentially leading to substantial improvements in efficiency and productivity.

10 April 2023 - By Michael Paczolt

To combat third-party litigation funding (TPLF), insurers can invest in data and analytics to make informed decisions about claims handling and strategies.

07 April 2023 - By Trever Mertz

With relentless annual increases in legal costs for companies, we answer some questions on spend management platforms, clarifying their key distinctions.

07 April 2023 - By Nicholas Johnson, Annie Hallum, Nick Gipe

We present six key insights into the changing landscape for Medicare Advantage’s dual-eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs) for calendar year 2023.

06 April 2023 - By Farzana Ismail, Junaidi Amin, Joshua Winata, Richard W. Holloway

In Indonesia, profit before tax for life insurers rose 19% in 3Q 2022 over the same period a year earlier, driven by a 25% drop in total claims and benefits.

04 April 2023 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

We cover released revisions to Form 5500 and new requirements for the summary annual report, which apply to plan years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2023.

04 April 2023 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

Our latest bulletin covers the changes to the annual Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. premium filing for the 2023 plan year and the Form 5500 filing for 2022.

31 March 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our February review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

31 March 2023 - By Craig Reynolds, Aatman Dattani

Introducing a product idea that shares the risks and benefits of changes in mortality rates.

31 March 2023 - By Shivangi Sharma

MedInsight’s Chronic Conditions Hierarchical Groups allows for smarter and more informed decisions on financial trend drivers of COPD and other diseases.

30 March 2023 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Renuka Subramaniam, Tharan Ganesan, Muhammad Hanif Saiful

We recap developments in non-life insurance market for the second half of 2022 in Indonesia, where overall premium growth topped 20%.

30 March 2023 - By Alex Bryant, Erica Chan

Across various markets in Asia, target capital buffers are likely to vary for insurers with significant par blocks of business under the different regimes.

29 March 2023 - By Adél Drew, Dilesh Patel, John Jenkins

In a Milliman roundtable, life reinsurance professionals discuss the post-Brexit regulatory environment for UK life branches, PRA priorities, and other matters.

27 March 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our February review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

27 March 2023 - By Erica Chan, Pingni Eng, Cheng Xin Yap, Shelley Yao, Jin Zhao

Stress testing and scenario analysis are only a part of the climate risk management process, but mark a good starting point.

27 March 2023 - By Carol Bazell, Maggie Alston, Pamela M. Pelizzari, Brian A. Sweatman

With the CMS, Medicare Advantage organizations, Medicaid organizations, and health plans experimenting with bundled payments, we offer a primer and perspectives.

27 March 2023 - By Andrew Provines

Public entities can lower cyber insurance costs by changing their coverage structures, but the best way is by implementing effective risk management procedures.

27 March 2023 - By Jessica Bertolo, Libby Bunzli, Mat DeLillo, Paul R. Houchens, Mary Pat Stemnock

We review recent guidance by CMS on the use of in-lieu-of-services for Medicaid managed care.

24 March 2023 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook, Jake Pringle

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, increased by 40 bps from 99.3% to 99.7% during February.

23 March 2023 - By Erin Lamos, Meng Sun, Austin Barrington

Insights for providers participating in Original Medicare risk-sharing programs for CKD and ESRD populations.

21 March 2023 - By Jordan Laktas, Mary Yeh, Julia M. Friedman

In an increasingly competitive Medicare Advantage marketplace, supplemental benefits are one of the primary ways MAOs can differentiate their plans from competitors’ plans.

21 March 2023 - By Jordan Laktas, Mary Yeh, Julia M. Friedman

Supplemental benefits are the key distinguishing plan design factor in the increasingly competitive D-SNP Medicare Advantage marketplace.

21 March 2023 - By Molly Barth, Amy Chester (Rebuild by Design), Rebecca Driskill

Researchers from Milliman and Rebuild by Design discuss the ripple effects of coastal flooding on New York, and how proactive city planning can prepare communities for climate change.

21 March 2023 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

After January market rebound and February decline, plans see a net $53 billion improvement in funded status since December 31, 2022.

21 March 2023 - By Samuel Burgess, Stuart Reynolds, Lyndsay Wrobel

We consider what key themes can be drawn from how European insurers have reported their performance over 2021 in a post-COVID environment.

20 March 2023 - By Steve Kowalski, Lynn Yu, Nina Lantz

We review three provisions of SECURE 2.0 that will impact single employer defined benefit plans.

17 March 2023 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 9 basis points decrease in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in February.

17 March 2023 - By Eleanor Hill, Mindy Hsu, Greyson Britt

A comparison of the FSRs for Texas Medicaid and CHIP programs for SFY 3Q with those of prior quarters provides insight into the impact of COVID-19.

16 March 2023 - By Sumeet Vashishta

With diabetes, adherence to noninsulin antidiabetic medications correlates with more outpatient and fewer inpatient visits, and lower total expenditures.

15 March 2023 - By Alice Gutteridge, Jeffrey A. Courchene, Veekash Badal

We discuss factors that a reserving actuary may need to consider in this record-setting period of high inflation.

15 March 2023 - By Jason Choi, Karin Cross, Rebecca Gergen

Our presenters discuss risk model changes for the 2024 bid year and beyond as well as considerations in risk score coding accuracy in light of the final RADV audit rule.

14 March 2023 - By Tarik Aouragh, Niccolò Basetti Sani Vettori, Mohamed Benkhalfa, Christoph Krischanitz, Ian Penfold, Eugenio Portales, Antoine Rainaud, Giuseppe Semeraro, Anandi Shah, José Silveiro, Martijn van Rooijen, Menno van Wijk

Our annual report highlights the specific toll on the insurance industry, which faced a record number of claims and higher repair costs amid rising inflation.

14 March 2023 - By Robert W. Beal, Tasha S. Khan

For 2021, premium volume for the individual disability income insurance market returned to its pre-pandemic levels, according to our annual survey of companies

14 March 2023 - By Karol Maciejewski, Mehdi Echchelh, Dominik Sznajder

With the right expertise, designing and implementing an in-house life projection and ALM model using Python can yield significant model performance improvements.

13 March 2023 - By Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield, Monique Mahabir

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for February 2023.

10 March 2023 - By Zohair Motiwalla, Aatman Dattani

Cluster modeling can reduce computing costs in a variety of use-cases, but understanding the purpose, context and downstream use of the light model is critical.

09 March 2023 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Yousra Cherkaoui Tangi, Thomas Peyrat

We present a toy portfolio inspired by OECD sectors data where the interactions between the insured are modeled through a network.

09 March 2023 - By Maarten Ruissaard, Joost Broens, Freek Zandbergen, Rik van Beers, Sinéad Clarke, Stijn Donckers

We discuss how the increased interest rate environment creates uncertainty, affecting economic scenarios, capital requirements, and stress and scenario testing.

09 March 2023 - By Zorast Wadia

Rising discount rates boost corporate pension funded ratio to 111.6% in February despite financial market declines.

08 March 2023 - By Bjorn Blom, Jan Thiemen Postema, Rens IJsendijk, Judith Houtepen, Job Prince

Methods to detect anomalies can be used to find fraudulent claims in insurance, especially in products with a large frequency of payments, such as in healthcare.

08 March 2023 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

Mortgage originations have continued their downward trend in Q4 of 2022, reaching their lowest levels since Milliman started tracking this data.

08 March 2023 - By Rebecca A. Sielman, Richard L. Gordon

2022 market underperformance lead the aggregate funding ratio to fall, erasing the market gains of previous years, and widening the funding gap between plan assets and liabilities to a new high.

06 March 2023 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Ken Lim , Tananya Santipinyolert, Bussaba Chauyruk

Our review of Thailand’s non-life insurance market shows overall premiums rose 3.6% year over year, among other notable trends.

06 March 2023 - By Andrew Provines

Companies may be better off economically by self-insuring if the rate spread between its cost of capital and what it can earn in the captive is greater than 1%.

02 March 2023 - By Safder Jaffer, Muhammad Asad Irshad

Business volumes continued to increase as the industry continues its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; however profits reduced in 2022 compared to 2021 due to competitive pressures.

02 March 2023 - By Tim Connor, Rex Barker, Timothy J. Herman, Nina Lantz

Milliman’s latest Multiemployer Pension Funding Study shows aggregate funding level declined significantly in 2022, despite first wave of financial assistance.

01 March 2023 - By Peggy Pearson, Angela Bolduc, Kimberly W. Guerriero

Hear from Milliman’s first female principal, Peggy Pearson, about her path from homemaker (and home economics major) to actuarial leader, all while breaking through the cultural barriers of the time.

01 March 2023 - By Michael Halford , Reza Vahid, Katy Mohr

A Milliman analysis of multiemployer health and welfare plans – or Taft-Hartley plans – finds that net assets increased for the fourth straight year on average.

28 February 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our January review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

28 February 2023 - By Florin Ginghina, James Wilkie

Financial risks arising from climate change pose unique and significant challenges for portfolio management

28 February 2023 - By Julia M. Friedman, Sam Smetek

What are the advantages of adding a segmented plan to a Medicare Advantage organization portfolio and what are the bid requirements for segmented plans?

28 February 2023 - By Robert Yinpok Lee, Chris Beck, Judith-Anne Brelih, Blake Fleisher, Ryan Huff, Leighton A. Hunley

In this report, a case study on climate change impact on home prices is used to illustrate a Bayesian network iterative approach to building a model for scenario analysis.

28 February 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our January review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

27 February 2023 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 90 bps from 100.2% to 99.3% during January.

24 February 2023 - By David Bahlinger, Christin Kuretich, Elizabeth D'Amico, Daniel D. Skwire, Douglas W. Taylor

Profits for individual disability insurance (IDI) rebounded in 2021, after a downturn in the previous year.

24 February 2023 - By Erik Niver, Sarah Coates

We anticipate more employers will sponsor an ICHRA, given the growth of the individual market and expansion of carrier and plan options.

24 February 2023 - By Ed Morgan, Jeremy Kent

Acquirers in insurance M&A have many different potential areas where they can add value in transactions.

23 February 2023 - By Farzana Ismail, Junaidi Amin, Joshua Winata, Richard W. Holloway

Our review of life insurance industry developments in Indonesia from the third quarter of 2022.

23 February 2023 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

In this issue of Dear Actuary, we discuss changes implemented in the recent ASOP 4 rewrite regarding plan funding status, investment risk, and Actuarially Determined Contributions.

23 February 2023 - By Michael Paczolt

Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics, as well as accessibility to group health data, workers’ compensation payers can quickly identify opportunities to lower claim costs through the right treatment plan, the right provider to execute the treatment plan, and the right price.

22 February 2023 - By Scott M. Cohen, Barbara Culley, Nicole Gaspar, Christin Kuretich

Companies have a key opportunity to differentiate themselves by developing thoughtful support for employees who provide informal care to their loved ones.

21 February 2023 - By Maarten Ruissaard, Joost Broens, Freek Zandbergen, Rik van Beers, Stijn Donckers

Changes to UFR drag are not solely driven by the variance in market rates, but also to changes in their level and slope, and a second order extrapolation effect

16 February 2023 - By Juliet M. Spector, Annie Gunnlaugsson, Jill A. Bruckert, Natalie Seiler, Jeremy J. Hamilton

This Long-Term Care (LTC) Focus newsletter showcases the projects that Milliman LTC consultants are working on now.

16 February 2023 - By Hans Shaw, Cody Ball, Palak Desai

State Medicaid programs may implement a variety of strategies to manage the pharmacy benefit in a cost-effective, clinically appropriate manner

16 February 2023 - By Robert Eaton, Juliet M. Spector, Jeff Anderson, Joe Long, Brian Hartman, Missy Gordon

The case for proactively managing current and future long-term care (LTC) insurance (LTCI) claims is stronger than ever.

16 February 2023 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for January 2023.

15 February 2023 - By Jake Pringle, Delbert Zamora

Learn about the unique pressures facing church pension plan sponsors as they support retired clergy and recruit lay employees.

14 February 2023 - By Garry Simmons

For this Pulse Survey, we looked at employee recognition programs to gain insights on what forms of recognition exist or are emerging among employers, how effective the programs are, and how employers are measuring the success of their programs.

14 February 2023 - By Karol Maciejewski, Pierre Miehe, Thomas Peplow

As insurance companies use IT to advance modeling platforms, the change process is complex, and not without risks.

14 February 2023 - By Ryan Hart

For this Pulse Survey, we looked at what trends are driving successful enrollment outcomes and improved benefits administration technology.

13 February 2023 - By Julie Isom

We itemize changes for plan sponsors as a result of SECURE 2.0, including plan compliance inconsistencies and omissions in prior laws and regulations.

10 February 2023 - By Dominick Pizzano

CAA 2023 has more than 90 provisions that address SECURE Act, so we kick off a series of articles looking at common themes

10 February 2023 - By David Kirk, Susan Melmed, Eden Gross, Richard Taylor, Chris van der Merwe

As South Africa begins a new year, the insurance industry faces several challenges.

10 February 2023 - By Rik van Beers, Kurt Lambrechts, Dominik Sznajder, Emilie Perrin

A look at life, non-life and composite insurers based in Belgium shows solvency coverage ratios edging up two percentage points to 199% for year-end 2021.

09 February 2023 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 7 bps increase in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in January.

09 February 2023 - By David Bahlinger, Elizabeth D'Amico, Christin Kuretich

Innovation is not a skill, but a mindset that requires certain skills, according to interviews and focus groups with actuaries and firms doing the innovating

08 February 2023 - By Robert J. Pipich, Karin Cross, Michael Rothschild

The RADV final rule has significant implications for how Medicare Advantage plans are paid. Learn more about how the final rule may affect MA stakeholders.

08 February 2023 - By Zorast Wadia

Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio falls to 109.3% as pension liability increases outpaced investment gains

06 February 2023 - By Victor Huang

With longevity solutions such as market-linked lifetime annuities becoming more available, we explore quantifying the impact of market risk in retirement.

03 February 2023 - By Natasha Singhal, Vincent Soulas, Lalit Baveja

As more evidence emerges about long-term clinical impacts of Covid-19 and long Covid, insurers will need to consider the implications for medical underwriting.

02 February 2023 - By Brent Jensen, Doug Norris

With the American economy’s overall costs rising faster in 2022 than in past years, what can we anticipate in the health sector?

31 January 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our December review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

31 January 2023 - By Fiona Ng, Jordan Rosenfeld , Ricardo Trachtman, Karthik Yadatore

We examine the long-term impacts of carriers holding the cap-setting methods fixed over time, versus switching between RILA cap-setting methods.

27 January 2023 - By Michail Athanasiadis, Dominik Sznajder, Karol Maciejewski, Peter Boekel

Research results from accelerating projections of portfolios by compressing data of underlying policies.

27 January 2023 - By Maarten Ruissaard, Joost Broens, Freek Zandbergen, Rik van Beers, Stijn Donckers

We discuss the developments in the interest rate markets over 2022 and how the increases have affected the level of liability discount rates for insurers.

26 January 2023 - By Julie Isom

This article will discuss plan compensation and the importance of following the definition in the plan document to avoid operational failures.

26 January 2023 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 70 bps from 101.0% to 100.3% during December.

26 January 2023 - By Brandy L. Cross

Defined contribution retirement plans are a complex entanglement of many moving parts and players that can change at any moment.

26 January 2023 - By Julie Isom

Missed deferral opportunities (MDOs) can cause misery for the plan sponsor.

26 January 2023 - By Robert Covin

EPCRS provides IRS acceptable methods to correct operational issues within your retirement plan.

26 January 2023 - By Brian N. Anderson, Rebekah D. Bayram, Marc Guieb

We detail the latest on pharmacy news, trends, and insights, including items on the company and state levels, FDA approvals and launches, and clinical trials.

26 January 2023 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our December review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

26 January 2023 - By Jenica Ghorashi

This market recap covers a modestly improved end to a volatile year, with markets rallying higher across the board.

25 January 2023 - By Milan Desai, John Gakuya, Amy Nicholson, Ian Penfold, Gibson Thuita

Despite progress by the insurance sector to produce climate-related disclosures, gaps and challenges remain, with some firms only in the early stages.

25 January 2023 - By Michael Paczolt

Learn how to improve the outcome of your claims by integrating your data with AI.

20 January 2023 - By Mike Gaal, Chris Severn (Turquoise)

A Q&A on the challenges and opportunities for hospitals and health plans with regard to the need to harness healthcare pricing data.

20 January 2023 - By Julia M. Friedman, Mary Yeh, Ivan Yen

Using Milliman MACVAT®, we analyzed 2023 Medicare Advantage plans to determine the breadth of combo offerings available to beneficiaries.

19 January 2023 - By Brandy L. Cross

We dive into the world of missing Form 5500 filings.

19 January 2023 - By Brandy L. Cross

This article will explore possible corrections when a participant plan loan doesn’t go exactly as it should.

19 January 2023 - By Paul M. Fedchak, Mike Cremisi

Are the many new InsurTech companies popping up in the life insurance industry too focused on the "tech" portion of their names?

18 January 2023 - By Rebecca Gergen, Zeb Leciejewski, David Koenig, Kevin Pierce

Medicare Part D plan sponsors need to understand how liabilities will change and evaluate potential strategies due to impact of the Inflation Reduction Act.

18 January 2023 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 4 basis points decrease in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in December, leaving the index at 118 basis points.

18 January 2023 - By Robert Covin

401(k) Plan sponsors who withhold for participant contributions and/or plan loan payments must deposit such withholdings in a timely manner.

18 January 2023 - By Lisa Melberg

The IRS recognizes that plans are bound to have distribution errors occasionally and has designated a section of the Employee Plan Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS) to discuss corrections in regard to erroneous plan payments.

17 January 2023 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

Public pensions funded ratio falls to 72.8% at the end of December, overall poor market performance causes $117 billion drop in funded status.

13 January 2023 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for December 2022.

12 January 2023 - By Qiuwen Peng, Shelley Yao

With regulatory guidance and promotion of LTC conversion business in China, insurers can capitalize on opportunities, but need to understand the risks.

12 January 2023 - By Melanie K. Kuester

As drug costs continue to rise, states need to engage in strategies that include policy and nonpolicy options to manage prescription spending in Medicaid.

11 January 2023 - By Heerak Basu, Michael Daly, Richard W. Holloway, Wing F. Wong, Chihong An, Wen Yee Lee, Stephen H. Conwill, Philip Jackson, Clement Bonnet, Shamit Gupta

Insurance companies operating in Asia had mixed EV results in the first half of 2022.

10 January 2023 - By Andrew Netter, Jonathan B. Glowacki

In the market for U.S. private mortgage insurers, credit performance remains strong, reserve releases continue, but future macro uncertainty remains.

10 January 2023 - By Kara Tedesco

We highlight seven key provisions of The SECURE 2.0 Act regarding withdrawing funds from a qualified plan, and any subsequent optional or required payments.

09 January 2023 - By Zorast Wadia

Corporate pension funded status falls slightly in December but still reflects significant gains for the year.

05 January 2023

We present a roundup of the top 10 most-read articles on the Milliman Ireland website last year.

04 January 2023 - By Brian N. Anderson, Rebekah D. Bayram, Marc Guieb

We detail the latest on pharmacy news, trends, and insights, including items on the company and state levels, FDA approvals and launches, and clinical trials.

03 January 2023 - By Justin S. Ingraham

If plan sponsors implement one or a combination of the six methods, then their goal of reducing or eliminating nondiscrimination testing refunds can likely be achieved.

30 December 2022 - By Peter Franken, Ji Kwen Ng, Youssef Chammaa

This briefing note looks at the year-end 2021 Solvency and Financial Condition Reports (SFCRs) of a sample of non-life insurers based in the Netherlands.

30 December 2022 - By Lotte van Delft, Steven Hooghwerff, Bjorn Blom

This briefing note looks at the year-end 2021 Solvency and Financial Condition Reports for a sample of life insurers based in the Netherlands.

30 December 2022 - By Peter Franken, Romain de Harlez, Arije Amara, Emilie Perrin

This briefing note looks at the year-end 2021 Solvency and Financial Condition Reports (SFCRs) of a sample of non-life insurers based in the Luxembourg.

30 December 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our November review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

30 December 2022 - By Peter Franken, Romain de Harlez, Emilie Perrin, Arije Amara

This briefing note looks at the year-end 2021 Solvency and Financial Condition Reports (SFCRs) of a sample of life insurers based in Luxembourg.

30 December 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our November review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

29 December 2022 - By Eugene Chang, John Kasey

This paper outlines one category of health plan expenses—administrative costs—that are controllable because they’re driven by business decisions such as staffing, technology, and operational processes.

27 December 2022 - By Nina Lantz

We break down key provisions of the new retirement legislation, including automatic enrollment and higher limits on catch-up contributions.

27 December 2022 - By Ellyn Russo, Ketaki Nagarkar

Artificial intelligence tools, such as machine learning, have the potential to improve healthcare operations, diagnosis detection and workflows.

22 December 2022 - By Inès Zitouni, Jan Thiemen Postema, Dominik Sznajder, Raymond van Es

Techniques in explainable artificial intelligence can indicate the reasons why a model expects a claim to be truly fraudulent, saving time for investigators.

22 December 2022 - By T. Ryan Ellsworth

Tools such as deterministic projection models can help plan sponsors make informed decisions about the risks inherent to DB plans.

21 December 2022 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

Key administrative dates and deadlines for calendar-year defined benefit retirement plans subject to ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code.

21 December 2022 - By David Bahlinger, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Joanne E. Fontana, Christin Kuretich, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

Milliman released its third Dental Survey premium report in December 2022, representing 55 carriers and $39.7 billion of inforce premium.

21 December 2022 - By David Bahlinger, Paul L. Correia, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, Christin Kuretich, Bill G. Mehilos, Darrell D. Spell

Released in June 2022, Milliman developed this survey to help carriers determine market standards for delivering worksite products with various underwriting limitations and requirements.

21 December 2022 - By David Bahlinger, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Robert Eaton, Christin Kuretich, Bill G. Mehilos, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

Milliman’s fifth Worksite Life Survey Premium Report was released in October 2022, representing 22 carriers and nearly $3.3 billion in inforce premium.

21 December 2022 - By David Bahlinger, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Christin Kuretich, Nathaniel Sandrowicz, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

In November 2022, Milliman released the premium report detailing the results of its third Accident Insurance Survey, representing 39 carriers and $3.5 billion in inforce premium.

21 December 2022 - By David Bahlinger, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, Christin Kuretich, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

In November 2022, Milliman released its fourth Critical Illness (CI) Survey Premium Report, representing 38 carriers and $2.6 billion in inforce premium.

21 December 2022 - By David Bahlinger, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, Christin Kuretich, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

In November 2022, Milliman released its fifth Hospital Indemnity (HI) Survey Premium Report, representing 35 carriers and over $2.3 billion in inforce premium.

20 December 2022 - By Matthew Smith, Brent Jensen, Jacob Anderson

We present the 2021 ACO financial results for Medicare Share Savings Programs.

20 December 2022 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

Listed are the key administrative dates and deadlines for 2023 for defined contribution retirement plans.

19 December 2022 - By Dick Kamp

19 December 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, increased by 20 bps from 100.8% to 101.0% during November.

19 December 2022 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Amal Elfassihi, Valentin Germain, Eve Titon

Climate change will lead to greater mortality risk, so we discuss the exposure to high temperatures and look at alternative modeling for vector-borne diseases.

16 December 2022 - By Molly Barth, Amy Chester (Rebuild by Design), Johanna Lawton (Rebuild by Design)

New York City must address the challenges brought on by future migration due to flooding, and plan for these issues proactively.

16 December 2022 - By Stuart Kliternick

As interest rates continue to rise, we once again revise down our estimates for pension lump sum payments.

16 December 2022 - By Clement Bonnet, Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Josh Dobiac, Russell Ward

Alternative assets can serve as attractive investments for insurers with long-term and relatively illiquid liabilities.

16 December 2022 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

Terminating a defined benefit pension plan involves a significant amount of time and effort of plan administrators, so we cover key areas to be prepare

16 December 2022 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

Listed are the key administrative dates and deadlines for 2022 for multiemployer defined benefit plans.

15 December 2022 - By Molly Bilz, Stoddard Davenport, Brent Jensen, Chris Lewis, Shelley Moss, Matthew Smith, Jill Van Den Bos

Now that CMS requires REACH ACOs to measure and address health equity, providers face a steep learning curve with data analysis.

15 December 2022 - By Claire Booth, Adél Drew, Amy Nicholson, Ian Penfold

We provide guidance for firms looking to incorporate stress and scenario testing for climate change related risks into their risk management frameworks.

15 December 2022 - By Eric J. Wunder, Sarah L. Rice

Medical professional liability (MPL) insurers for 3Q 2022 reported revenues in the aggregate near an all-time high and improving cumulative reserve development.

14 December 2022 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

October and November markets spark rebound in funded status with $135 billion and $177 billion increases, respectively.

13 December 2022 - By Noah Llanda

Good governance by a plan sponsor involves not only knowing where a pension stands today, but also where it may be going.

12 December 2022 - By Haitham Aly, Matthew Smith, Louisa Bonds

The Inflation Reduction Act aims to lower prescription costs of some drugs, so Medicare Advantage and Part D stakeholders need to consider each provision.

12 December 2022 - By Hervé Andrès, Pierre-Edouard Arrouy, Paul Bonnefoy, Alexandre Boumezoued

Increasing use of stochastic economic scenarios for valuation of liabilities has put more pressure on the operational process of carriers, but the RNG can help.

12 December 2022 - By Daniel D. Skwire, Tasha S. Khan, Robert W. Beal, Max Berube, Jeff Anderson, Robert Eaton

Our latest issue of the Disability Newsletter dives into a host of topics, including recent trends, morbidity studies, reserve margins, and LTC Cost Guidelines.

08 December 2022 - By Esther Peterson, Maha Ansari

This issue of Multiemployer Review examines the future impact of COVID-19 on multiemployer pension plans through analysis of employee mortality data.

07 December 2022 - By Zorast Wadia

Funded status declines by $17 billion in November and liability losses partially offset by asset gain as the Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio dips to 111.2%.

07 December 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for November 2022.

07 December 2022 - By William M. Sayre

We highlight key changes to the NYDFS Special Considerations letter that may impact reserving requirements in the coming year.

07 December 2022 - By Yan Fridman

We utilize cash flow testing methodology to highlight potential management actions and modeling considerations to help reduce the need for additional reserves.

06 December 2022 - By Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Ed Morgan

The radical change in the interest rate environment has many implications for CEE insurers, presenting challenges and opportunities not seen for years.

06 December 2022 - By Joanne Buckle

We examine ways in which UK health insurers may identify and measure inflation, and manage its impact on their business.

05 December 2022 - By Matthew J. Kramer, David Byron

It is essential that Direct Contracting Entities adjust their performance projections according to the Retrospective Trend Adjustment going into 2023.

05 December 2022 - By Hector Palacios, Laurie Freas

Understanding, implementing, and utilizing the right tools to ensure proper administration of non-traditional assets in retirement plans.

02 December 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 12 basis points increase in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in November.

02 December 2022 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

The mortgage market continues to feel the effects of rising interest rates in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022, leading to a large decrease in mortgage origination volume.

02 December 2022 - By Noah Champagne, Cory Gusland, Chris Smith

We note impactful changes related to downside risk, financial benchmark methodology, and shared savings/losses included in the 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Final Rule.

02 December 2022 - By Daniel Wade, Arthur Rains-McNally, Jessica Gardner

We explore, compare, and contrast various methods of amortizing liabilities and their impact on the contribution rates for public sector pension plans

02 December 2022 - By Matthew Ford, Russell Ward, Jessica Crowson, Kelly Yang

Experts from a range of UK life firms joined Milliman in early November to exchange views on various themes in investments and asset management, against a challenging economic backdrop.

01 December 2022 - By Pierre-Edouard Arrouy, Paul Bonnefoy, Elias Bouiti, Alexandre Boumezoued, Julien Vedani

We highlight a Libor market model with constant elastic volatility, showing an interesting trade-off between parameters used and quality of results.

01 December 2022 - By Phil Ellenberg, Shyam Kolli, Tushar Makhija, Greg Sgrosso

We summarize the 2021 numbers for organizations reporting Medicare Advantage experience under the Title XVIII line on the NAIC annual statement.

30 November 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake

Despite the attention on how DB pensions have managed higher interest rates and other adversities, we should also be potentially just as concerned for DC schemes.

30 November 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our October review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

29 November 2022

Investors can combine gender-based analysis with socially responsible investing, much like what they are doing with ESG and sustainable investing.

23 November 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our October review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

23 November 2022 - By Gordon Klein, Cameron Denker

The modified log-linear declining method proves to be the best way for developing a mortality assumption from SSSA experience study data.

23 November 2022 - By Craig Reynolds

The insurance industry is uniquely positioned to fill the gap left by the decline of defined benefit plans, primarily using payout annuities.

23 November 2022 - By Amal Elfassihi, Alexandre Boumezoued

Compared with traditional mortality models, machine learning algorithms can significantly improve the forecasts of future mortality rates.

23 November 2022 - By Jan Thiemen Postema, Raymond van Es

Compared with traditional techniques, state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms can substantially improve the forecasts of mortality rates.

22 November 2022 - By Dawilla Madsen, Dominick Pizzano

We recap the compliance issues single-employer DB and DC plans should address by the end of 2022.

21 November 2022 - By Eric J. Wunder, Mason Spitz

Higher inflation may impact the MPL insurance industry in terms of its expenses and investment strategies, but it’s unclear it translates to greater losses.

17 November 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, increased by 70 bps from 100.1% to 100.8% during October.

14 November 2022 - By David E. Forbes, Charles J. Clark

We provide guidance on the SEC's new reporting requirements for future proxy statements regarding defined benefit pension plans.

11 November 2022 - By Carol Bazell, Courtney R. White

We explore the implications of the mental health crisis for employers, and offer guidance on potential next steps such as how to vet MH/SUD treatment vendors.

11 November 2022 - By Charles J. Clark, Steve Kowalski, Lynn Yu

We analyze the proposed EARN and RISE & SHINE Acts' potential effects on the security of participants accrued benefits in single-employer defined benefit pension plans.

11 November 2022 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih, Andrew Netter

Using updated industry data, we shed light on questions about housing demand and supply, higher interest rates and affordability, and how prices may trend.

11 November 2022 - By Wen Yee Lee, Alex Bryant, Shir Lynn Ong

In this e-Alert we review the position of par funds in Singapore at the end of 2021 and compare this to the position at the end of 2020.

10 November 2022 - By Charlie Mills, Nathaniel Jacobson, Noah Champagne

We explore the voluntary alignment requirements for global/professional direct contracting and ACO REACH, along with considerations for beneficiary engagement.

09 November 2022 - By Matthew Ford, Russell Ward, Lewis Duffy, Jessica Crowson

We are experiencing a regime change in relation to the behaviour of economic variables such as interest rates and inflation.

09 November 2022 - By Samantha D’Anna, Nolan S Kurtz

We look at the metrics of Medicare beneficiaries with prescription drug coverage across ethnicity, income, and education level in the individual Part D market.

08 November 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for October 2022.

08 November 2022 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Adel Cherchali, Mathieu Truc

MLMC methods represent a relevant alternative to the proxy modelling approaches commonly used in capital requirement estimation within the insurance sector.

07 November 2022 - By Stuart Kliternick

We revise an article to reflect the sharp rise in interest rates since April: Lump sums from defined benefit (DB) plans will be much lower.

07 November 2022 - By Ryan Hart

For this Pulse survey, we look at how employers/plan sponsors are considering non-traditional benefits, as new, highly-personalized solutions emerge.

04 November 2022 - By Brian Z. Brown, Christopher Fredericks, Drew B. Groth, Katherine A. Pipkorn

Commercial auto has had a rough decade, and with the increase in third-party litigation funding, the industry must be advised on how to move forward.

04 November 2022 - By Peggy Brinkmann, Nancy Watkins, Cody Webb, David D. Evans, Gabriele Usan, Michael Glavan, Lillian Zhang, Carolyn Prescott, Tom Larsen, Grace Lee

04 November 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Milliman Analysis: Funded status improves by $47 billion in October, leading to new high in the year’s funded ratio

02 November 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Chris Onken, Shirley Wu

Recent changes in the U.S. law and GAAP rules have made it easier to manage VA risks and achieve stable earnings across frameworks.

02 November 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 12 basis points decrease in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in October, index stands at 110 basis points.

02 November 2022 - By Leighton A. Hunley, Judith-Anne Brelih, Arthur Prieston (Prieston & Associates, LLC), Zach Prieston (Prieston & Associates, LLC)

Higher coupon non-qualified mortgages are a potential mine field, but come with substantial rewards if their risks are managed prudently.

01 November 2022 - By Andy McBeth, Charlie Mills, Danjie Zhou

Provider reimbursement as a percentage of Medicare fee-for-service rates provides a consistent and well-understood basis for comparing reimbursement rates.

28 October 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our September review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

27 October 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our September review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

27 October 2022 - By S. Andrew Kline, Carl X. Ashenbrenner

Our summary of domestic general aviation insurers shows $2.5 billion in written premium in 2021, a 16% increase from 2020 and a 55% cumulative rise since 2018.

26 October 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, increased by 320 bps from 96.9% to 100.1% during September

26 October 2022 - By Charles J. Clark

Our latest Client Action Bulletin reviews the 2023 cost-of-living adjustments for tax-qualified retirement plans and Social Security benefits.

25 October 2022 - By Aisling Barrett, Rebecca O’Mahoney

To help prepare for Solvency II reporting throughout 2023, we have prepared a briefing note detailing Solvency II reporting deadlines in 2023 and the changes in the reporting framework relative to the previous year.

25 October 2022 - By Robert Eaton, Sheri Lee Scott

From insurance for space travel to apps that can help predict Alzheimer’s, Milliman experts explore the latest trends in insurtech.

21 October 2022 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

September markets decrease public pension funded ratio from 75.0% to 69.3%, and continued slump in September markets causes $341 billion drop in funded status.

19 October 2022 - By Shamit Gupta, Milanthi Sarukkali

Outsourcing actuarial functions for legacy blocks frees up an insurer’s valuable internal resources, allowing it to focus more on core strategies.

18 October 2022 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Cheng Xin Yap, John Chin, Rong Xing Tan

In the first edition of our South East Asia health insurance market newsletter, we cover developments from the first half of 2022.

18 October 2022 - By Chris Beck, Adél Drew, Lewis Duffy, Tatiana Egoshina, Russell Ward

We illustrate a modeling approach that serves as a useful tool to explore the potential impacts of climate risk on future asset returns.

18 October 2022 - By Jenica Ghorashi

This market recap covers another volatile quarter, with markets across the board continuing to lower amid rising inflation.

18 October 2022 - By Samuel Burgess, Neil Christy, Stuart Reynolds, Isabel Stansfield

Our analysis covering Europe and the U.K. dives into SFCRs from year-end 2021, including key financial information contained in the reports’ QRTs.

17 October 2022 - By Bruce S. Pyenson, Melissa A. Caplen, Carol Bazell, Dane Hansen, Maggie Alston, Michael Pollack, Alejandro P Comellas, Sanjay Sethi, Anthony Staresinic, John Styczynski, Norbert Feigler

Using systemic oral corticosteroid (OCS) in treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has risks, highlighting the need for prevention and therapy.

14 October 2022 - By Kimberly W. Guerriero, Samantha N Poulin

We review key concepts of arguments used in federal Tax Court such as "circular flow of funds" so captive insurers can make informed risk decisions.

14 October 2022 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Sophian Mehalla, Valentin Germain

With better understanding of climate transition risk exposure and stress tests proposed by regulators, internal models can help provide insights.

12 October 2022 - By Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Diana Dodu, Michał Krzemiński, Daniele Zinicola

European insurers face challenges in the assessment of transition risks on assets for climate risk scenarios under Solvency II ORSA.

12 October 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Milliman analysis: Corporate pension funded status improves for second consecutive month, resulting in year’s highest funding ratio

11 October 2022 - By Matt Chamberlain

What the math of extreme risk can tell us about the insurance availability crisis, and what to do about it.

11 October 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for September 2022.

09 October 2022 - By Carly Rowland

Acquiring a new business presents challenges for chief risk officers (CROs) and other risk professionals, especially when combining self-insured or large deductible insurance programs.

07 October 2022 - By Andrew Netter, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Purchase NIW shows resiliency, credit performance remains strong, and reserve releases continue. However, moderating house price growth and a potential recession are risks to the industry.

07 October 2022 - By Mary Carol Garrity, Kimberly W. Guerriero

With greater frequency and severity for almost all auto coverages, premiums are rising, but drivers can take steps to ensure the lowest possible rates.

06 October 2022 - By Conor Callaghan , Tony Dardis

What U.S. life insurers can learn from the Solvency II recovery plans of their European counterparts, and how it can be used to support a broader ERM program.

06 October 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 16 basis points decrease in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in September.

06 October 2022 - By Nick Ortner, Casey Hammer

Colleges and universities looking into subscription models for course materials such as textbooks can learn from the risk pitfalls of health insurance models.

06 October 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, John B. Wukitsch

We examine the strategy and results for three Milliman clients that chose to unfreeze their traditional retirement plans.

05 October 2022 - By Farzana Ismail, Muhammad Ismail, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Our review of life insurance industry developments in Indonesia from the second quarter of 2022.

04 October 2022 - By Tony Dardis, William C. Hines, Su Meng Lee

With insurers and reinsurers facing an ever-changing and increasingly complex market environment, Bermuda regulators expect robust ERM programs.

30 September 2022 - By Eric J. Wunder, Nicholas S. Blaubach

We look at the financial results for medical professional liability (MPL) insurers for the second quarter of 2022.

30 September 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our August review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

30 September 2022 - By AJ Ally, Matt Berman, Michelle Klein, Kevin Pierce

Drug manufacturers should take the time now to understand how the Inflation Reduction Act will affect Medicare and carefully plan.

29 September 2022 - By Dominik Sznajder, Rens IJsendijk

Using a hybrid model for health claim email filtering could significantly reduce customer support workload, while maintaining a satisfactory response quality.

29 September 2022 - By Jeff Baker, Bruce R. Mitton, Ryan Rowland

With rising interest rates, plan sponsors should take action now to review cost and risk reduction strategies, and lock in gains.

29 September 2022 - By Cheng Xin Yap, Tharan Ganesan, Tananya Santipinyolert

Recent floods in major cities around Southeast Asia and other parts of the world have reopened the conversation on flood coverage in insurance products and the means by which they will be financed.

28 September 2022 - By Lee Townsend

The results of a stochastic forecast can lead to a significant increase in understanding of the risk and volatility facing a plan compared to other models.

27 September 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our August review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

26 September 2022 - By Carly Rowland, Jill Rosenblum

Estimating the liability of outstanding gift cards can be significantly more complex than gauging other exposures such as workers’ comp, general and auto.

22 September 2022 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

August markets cause decline in public pension funded ratio; down to 75.0% as of August 31, 2022.

22 September 2022 - By Robert L. Schmidt, Eric Walters

We review the average projected cost for a 65-year-old under the two most common pathways for Medicare-eligible retirees and explore how these costs may vary

22 September 2022 - By Zachary A. Ballweg, S. Andrew Kline

The LPL market continued to show strong financial results in 2021, but the winds could be changing as the magnitude of reserve releases has continued to decline in recent years.

19 September 2022 - By John Luke Caroll

This knowledge brief explores the benefits of and rationale for community engagement in index insurance initiatives, with examples from a pilot project in rural Ethiopia.

19 September 2022 - By Katie Biese, Mariah Mateo Sarpong

A key challenge to the development of successful livestock insurance in emerging markets is often a lack of data on the risks. As a result, livestock insurance is very often either unavailable or unaffordable for smallholder farmers.

19 September 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 110 bps from 98.0% to 96.9% during August.

15 September 2022 - By Eoin King, Nia Powis

This briefing note summarises some of the key proposals in the CP regarding risk management processes associated with IGTs, and to identify some of the areas that company’s may struggle to comply with.

15 September 2022 - By Derek Newton, Ian Penfold

Financial resilience has increased among companies that are primarily non-life and regulated in the European Union.

15 September 2022 - By Charles J. Clark, Abby Kendig

This is an update to the Milliman 2023 IRS limits forecast based on new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

12 September 2022 - By Mary Leong

We examine various factors contributing to the pension risk transfer boom occurring in early 2022, including interest rates and the growing group annuity market.

12 September 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for August 2022.

09 September 2022 - By Paul Sinnott, Heerak Basu, Michael Daly, Richard W. Holloway, Wing F. Wong, Chihong An, Wen Yee Lee, Stephen H. Conwill, Shamit Gupta

Largely positive results as lockdowns ease and interest rates rise, with EV growing by 7.6% year over year.

09 September 2022 - By Michal Bobrowski, Michał Krzemiński, Jaroslaw Lech

We look at the MTPL markets of four Central-Eastern European countries, characterized by growing societal wealth and motor vehicle use.

09 September 2022 - By Kelly Backes, Matt Kranovich

Nursing home and assisted living facility considerations when starting a Medicare Advantage organization.

09 September 2022 - By Victor Huang

As new market conditions challenge investors, managing volatility and providing a cushion in market downturns is a crucial way to manage investor behaviour.

08 September 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 9 basis points decrease in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in August, index stands at 138 basis points

08 September 2022 - By Mark Goldburd, James Whitcomb

We summarize challenges and potential opportunities surrounding insuring businesses related to the emerging legal cannabis industry.

08 September 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Milliman analysis: Corporate pension funded status improves after two consecutive months of declines.

07 September 2022 - By Uri Sobel, Paul M. Fedchak, Michael McCarty, Laiping Wong-Stewart

Life insurance experts discuss challenges and success stories from VM-20 implementation.

01 September 2022 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

With interest rates continuing to rise, mortgage refinance originations, which were at an all-time high in 2021, continued to decline in the second quarter (Q2) of 2022.

31 August 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our July review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

30 August 2022 - By Yelena Pelletier

Starting an OPEB plan may seem like a daunting task, but funding the plan consistently should allow for significant progress in a relatively short time

30 August 2022 - By Charles J. Clark, Vanessa Vaag

After the passage of Secure 2.0 and other legislation, we think a higher cash-out limit could benefit both plan sponsors and participants in some cases.

29 August 2022 - By Yan Fridman, Karthik Yadatore

Insurers may wish to seek permission from regulators to use methods that would reduce excess capital for FIAs.

26 August 2022 - By Keyur Parekh, Heerak Basu, Philip Jackson, Richard W. Holloway

India: Recent product reforms could increase life insurance penetration in the country

26 August 2022 - By Brian Z. Brown, Alyssa Grove, Rebecca Jonen, Lori E. Julga

Milliman Actuaries point to rising premiums and improving results in the growing D&O market, where loss experience is improving.

24 August 2022 - By Thomas Peplow

With scarce actuarial resources, insurers can adopt lean manufacturing principles to further accelerate the digital transformation of the risk function.

23 August 2022 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

Public pensions funded ratio recovers much of June’s losses; up to 77.3% as of July 31, 2022

23 August 2022 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Renuka Subramaniam, Tharan Ganesan, Muhammad Hanif Saiful

Non-life insurance in Indonesia: Our review of industry developments from the first half of 2022.

22 August 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 30 bps from 98.3% to 98.0% during July

18 August 2022 - By Madeleine Cline, Jason Karcher, Jake K. Klaisner, Michelle Klein

The Inflation Reduction Act will have countless implications for all industry stakeholders and will alter the Medicare landscape in 2023 and beyond.

17 August 2022 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Ken Lim , Tananya Santipinyolert

The latest on Thailand non-life insurance: Premiums rise 2.3% 1H versus the same period in 2021, while net loss ratio increases to 156.4%, up from 57.3%.

17 August 2022 - By Joost Broens, Daphne Rappange, Martijn van Rooijen, Maarten Ruissaard

This briefing note shares legislative procedures and suggested reforms of the Solvency II 2020 review.

16 August 2022 - By Stephen A. White, David Blake, Aaron C. Koch, Karl Goring, Karthik Tumuluru , Anastasia Radko, Rbhya Pal

The G7 takes on climate change: Are catastrophe bonds an answer?

15 August 2022 - By Thomas Bevelsborg, Jessica Crowson, Josh Dobiac, John Jenkins, Russell Ward, Freek Zandbergen, Sihong Zhu

Current inflation rates are likely to be the highest seen for a generation, and the ensuing effects could have a profound impact on life insurers.

15 August 2022 - By Carl X. Ashenbrenner, Brian Z. Brown, Zachary A. Fischer, Drew B. Groth, Travis J. Grulkowski, Lori E. Julga

Workers’ Comp for 2021: Policyholders’ surplus soars, direct written premium slightly rebounds, and ratios for defense-and-cost-containment expenses rise.

15 August 2022 - By Paul Anderson, Carl X. Ashenbrenner, Brian Z. Brown, Zachary A. Fischer, Drew B. Groth, Travis J. Grulkowski, Lori E. Julga

We summarize year-end 2021 financial results for U.S. auto liability writers, with detailed information on premium (up 21%), loss ratios, reserves, and surplus.

12 August 2022 - By Melanie K. Kuester, Jessica Naber, Conner Smith

Regenerative and targeted therapies increase the need to accurately identify rare diseases, and increased specificity in diagnosis codes of the ICD-10 could help

12 August 2022 - By Matthew Murray

Inflation can affect worker’s compensation due to its long-tailed nature, and we can estimate the impact using some simplifying assumptions.

11 August 2022 - By Charles J. Clark, Abby Kendig

This is an update to the Milliman 2023 IRS limits forecast based on new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

09 August 2022 - By Ginny Boggs, Charles J. Clark

Plan sponsors need to review IRS Notice 2022-33 with scrutiny and check with their plan administrative committees and external business partners to assess how they need to proceed.

09 August 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for July 2022.

09 August 2022 - By Melissa Huenefeldt, Jill Rosenblum

If you’ve ever thought your actuary was speaking a foreign language, “How to speak casualty actuary 101” will help you navigate common terms and acronyms.

08 August 2022 - By Charles J. Clark, Karina Guerrero, Jason Brantley

We discuss potential surprises and obstacles plan sponsors and HR professionals may face as a results of SECURE 2.0 going into effect.

08 August 2022 - By Clement Bonnet, Scott Chow, Michael Daly, Pingni Eng, Sharon Huang, Farzana Ismail, Philip Jackson, Sung Hoon Kim, Wen Yee Lee, Atsushi Okawa, Wing F. Wong

This report compares and contrasts life insurance RBC regimes across selected Asian markets and highlights potential implications from future regulatory changes in the industry.

08 August 2022 - By Gillian Tucker, Joanne Tan, Aoibhin Wood

A look at the new IFRS 17 profit and loss and balance sheet and implementation tips to consider.

08 August 2022 - By Nina Lantz, Rex Barker, Tim Connor, Timothy J. Herman

Financial market performance led to a sharp decline in aggregate funded percentage despite initial impact of Special Financial Assistance under the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act.

05 August 2022 - By Greg O. Callahan

Pharmacy benefit managers play a key role in helping plan sponsors manage prescription drug spend, and good account management can make all the difference

04 August 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

The Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio decreases to 104.5% as pension liability increases outpace investment gains.

04 August 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 12 basis points increase in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in July, index stands at 147 basis points.

02 August 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our June review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

01 August 2022 - By Brian Z. Brown, Katherine A. Pipkorn

Could auto insurers temper soaring costs by segmenting risks?

01 August 2022 - By Joanne E. Fontana, Connie Tang, Gabe Youngblood

This article reviews dental benefits provided within MA general enrollment plans using Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data, including trends in enrollment, benefits offered, and purchasing habits of beneficiaries.

01 August 2022 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

Mortgage originations continued to decline over the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 compared to the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021.

29 July 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our July review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

28 July 2022 - By Yelena Pelletier

Learn about approaches for managing contribution volatility, which can be a challenge for fully funded plans.

28 July 2022 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, David Baranes (IHS Markit, now a part of S&P Global)

This paper explores options available to address the challenge of deriving market-consistent but stable long-term volatility assumptions for valuation of liabilities.

28 July 2022 - By Harsha Mirchandani, Noah Champagne, Pamela M. Pelizzari

This article highlights considerations for providers interested in voluntary enhanced oncology model, which builds on concepts of a recently completed CMMI model designed to transform oncology care while reducing spending under Medicare fee-for-service.

28 July 2022 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

The public pensions funded ratio fell to 74.0% as of June 30, 2022 alongside a slump in June market causing a $262 billion drop in funded status.

26 July 2022 - By Melissa Huenefeldt

We discuss examples of wearable technology, the impact on workers’ compensation loss experience, how insurance carriers are reacting, and how your actuary can help determine whether wearables are appropriate for your business.

25 July 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 30 bps from 98.6% to 98.3% during June

25 July 2022 - By Andrew Vega

Medical professional liability has been a profitable business line for the better part of two decades, but mounting obstacles present challenges going forward.

25 July 2022 - By Greg Dietzen, Matt Chamberlain

As P&C insurers face a greater number of natural disasters with a warming planet, catastrophic models can help the industry better understand climate risk

25 July 2022 - By Nina Lantz, Michael Caparoso, Aaron Shapiro

This issue of the Multiemployer Review shares key changes from the interim final rule and summarizes the final rule and other recent guidance for the special financial assistance program set up under the American Rescue Plan Act.

25 July 2022 - By Andrew Netter, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Rising rates continues to drive persistency increases, credit performance remains strong, reserve releases continue, ILN capital markets less attractive vs. reinsurance.

23 July 2022 - By Melissa Huenefeldt, Michael Paczolt

This article discusses how artificial intelligence and machine learning are used to gather comprehensive claims data from structured and unstructured data fields, solving complex problems and reducing total cost of risk.

22 July 2022 - By Michelle Klein, Kevin Pierce, Samantha D’Anna, Jake K. Klaisner

We examine key provisions of Senator Schumer and the Senate Finance Committee’s new Prescription Drug Pricing Reform language, and compare with the Build Back Better Act’s previous version.

21 July 2022 - By Jenica Ghorashi

This market recap covers a pattern of volatility and includes commentary on market risks, including the war with Ukraine and concerns about inflation.

20 July 2022 - By Zachary A. Ballweg, Brian Z. Brown, Paul Miskovich

While the cyber market improved significantly in 2021, increases to prior-year reserves may cause a drag on earnings, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine creates uncertainty.

20 July 2022 - By Joanne Tan, Aisling Barrett

EIOPA has published two sets of draft proposed Quantitative Reporting Templates to apply from 31 December 2022 and 2023.

19 July 2022 - By Clement Bonnet, Scott Chow, Wen Yee Lee

In this e-Alert, we share the set-up and benefits of sidecars and highlight key reasons why they could become an option for some lines of Asian life insurance.

19 July 2022 - By Joanne Buckle, Natasha Singhal

UK health insurers had strong positions at year-end 2021, with a weighted average SCR coverage ratio of 177%, though down from 198% a year earlier.

19 July 2022 - By Paul R. Houchens, Zach Hunt

We review the financial results of the commercial health insurance industry in 2020, with a focus on healthcare market changes and emerging trends.

17 July 2022 - By Robert Eaton

As the need for long-term care insurance becomes more apparent, innovation and technology are driving development of new tools and products.

15 July 2022 - By Yan Fridman, Karthik Yadatore

While VM-22 may alleviate certain causes of a surplus volatility, companies with significant indexed annuity exposure should review their financial projections.

15 July 2022 - By Derek Newton, Ian Penfold, Vidyut Vardhan

Our analysis of SFCRs in the U.K. and Gibraltar reveals operating margin at non-life insurers grew by 0.9% in 2021, while gross written premiums rose.

15 July 2022 - By Subhash Khanna, Shamit Gupta

With changes to reporting standards and regulatory regimes – plus a challenging economy – insurers reconsider the outsourcing of core actuarial functions

15 July 2022 - By Karen K. Rudolph

We summarize NAIC’s publication of expected changes for the 2023 Valuation Manual.

14 July 2022 - By Charles J. Clark, Abby Kendig

This is an update to the Milliman 2023 IRS limits forecast based on new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

14 July 2022 - By Eric Buzby, Harsha Mirchandani, Jared Hirsch

Six important topics insurers should consider as they contemplate entering the Medicare Advantage market.

14 July 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies for June 2022.

13 July 2022 - By Matt Berman, Kevin Pierce

We examine various Congressional proposals that would affect insulin, including potential impacts on stakeholders and downstream health equity implications.

13 July 2022 - By Tim Vosicky

We analyze municipality workers' compensation costs from 240,000 nonzero claims from this type of insurance to help local governments benchmark their own risk.

13 July 2022 - By Karen K. Rudolph

Hear real-life experiences and get an “inside the company” look at the regulatory examination of PBR valuations, when Milliman’s Karen Rudolph sits down with Catherine Murphy from John Hancock and Sarah Theis from WoodmenLife.

11 July 2022 - By Samantha Tomicki, Harsha Mirchandani, Rebecca L. Johnson

Given the medical costs of nonfatal firearm injuries, healthcare stakeholders have an interest in supporting further research to mitigate firearm injury risk

11 July 2022 - By Eric J. Wunder, S. Andrew Kline

We look at the financial results for medical professional liability (MPL) insurers for the first quarter of 2022, as the country tries to emerge from COVID-19.

11 July 2022 - By Rémi Bellina, Antoine Rainaud, Gabriel Fauchet, Loup Ortiz

According to the study Impact of climate change on insurance by 2050, produced by the FFA, the cost of climate-related claims should double over the period 2020-2050.

11 July 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

The Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio decreased to 106.3% as asset declines from poor investment performance exceeded liability gains from continued discount rate increases

08 July 2022 - By Jeremy D. Palmer, Christopher T. Pettit, Ian M. McCulla, Cameron Kinnick

Uncertainty remains regarding COVID-19’s impact on Medicaid MCO financial performance, including the deferral of care, pent-up demand, and future claims.

08 July 2022 - By Eamonn Phelan

This briefing note discusses the guidelines put in place to assist firms on their journey to operational resilience as well as outlining the challenges which must be overcome in doing so.

08 July 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 11 basis points decrease in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in June

08 July 2022

In this Multiemployer Alert, we review the details of the final rule on the special financial assistance program established under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021.

07 July 2022 - By Chris Giese, Allen J. Schmitz, Annie Gunnlaugsson, Kevin Brown

The second of a series of articles exploring actuarial considerations related to public long-term care programs using a social insurance framework.

06 July 2022 - By Prannoy Chaudhury

While 'sidecar' reinsurance vehicles have been a common structure in the U.S. property and casualty industry, their use has become more common in the life and annuity industry as well.

06 July 2022 - By David Burston, Jessica Hall, Stuart Reynolds, Isabel Stansfield

Despite its ease of calculation, capital generation and return⁠—measured as a change in eligible own funds⁠—may not be the most useful metric.

06 July 2022 - By Maarten Ruissaard, Joost Broens, Freek Zandbergen

Implications of the European Commission’s proposal for the Solvency II Directive.

06 July 2022 - By Gillian Tucker

We cover some of the practical issues companies experience when calculating the impact of transitioning to IFRS17 on their balance sheets.

06 July 2022 - By Josh Dobiac, Yang Jing, Shirley Song

The introduction of IFRS 17 in 2023 will result in significant changes to the valuation of liabilities for most international insurance companies.

05 July 2022 - By Carl A. Friedrich, Michelle L Krysiak

Our comprehensive 2022 survey covers key issues in the markets for universal life, indexed universal life and variable universal life.

05 July 2022 - By Michael Daly, Hana Ghazali

Our latest survey of life insurers in Asia shows how riders have gained prominence in the past decade, providing insights on the opportunities and risks

30 June 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our June review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

29 June 2022 - By Garry Simmons

Survey: Since the pandemic began, 66% of employers report increased use of mental health resources offered through their benefits plan, and 62% indicate a significant spike in claim costs

29 June 2022 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

Public pensions funded ratio stays steady at 78.4% in May 2022

27 June 2022 - By Zorast Wadia

Rising interest rates and regulatory changes have helped raise funding levels of DB plans enough to make unfreezing them a sensible option for many sponsors.

27 June 2022 - By Ian Humphries, Katie M. Nelson

We review the M&A worldwide for life and health insurers in 2021, and an outlook for 2022 and beyond.

24 June 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our May review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

23 June 2022 - By Eric J. Wunder, Joe Michels

While few companies use the same firm for auditing and actuarial services, it makes sense for all to keep them separate rather than risk a fine or lawsuit.

23 June 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, increased by 90 bps from 97.7% to 98.6% during May

21 June 2022 - By Nicole Kappelhof, Maarten Ruissaard

We review EIOPA’s report, which focuses on the materiality of the insurance sector exposure to physical climate risks.

20 June 2022 - By Michael Paczolt, Juliet M. Spector

With medical expenses in workers’ compensation continuing to rise, data is the key to developing reliable frameworks to understand and benchmark the costs.

20 June 2022 - By Richard L. Gordon, Rebecca A. Sielman

Public plans shed a further $243 billion following $167 billion funded status drop in Q1 2022

16 June 2022 - By Charles J. Clark

With inflation at 40-year highs, the next revision of IRS limits for retirement plans will affect labor costs, talent recruitment and retention efforts in 2023.

16 June 2022 - By Joe Neary, Courtney Williamson

As an LTC benefit reduction option, coinsurance could allow for maximum coverage, reduce the impact of a rate increase and lower liability for the insurer.

15 June 2022 - By Farzana Ismail, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Life insurance in Indonesia: Our review of industry developments from the first quarter 2022.

14 June 2022 - By Andrew Provines

We discuss 3 claim types public-entity risk pools face: false arrest and wrongful convictions, land use violations, and civil rights violations and retaliation.

09 June 2022 - By David Kirk, Susan Melmed, Richard Taylor, Chris van der Merwe

In 2022, South African insurers have benefited from the state of disaster being lifted and ratings upgrades, but not all the news is positive.

09 June 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Lewis Duffy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies.

07 June 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

The Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio increased for the sixth consecutive month and settled at 107.0% at the end of May.

07 June 2022 - By Ginny Boggs, Jessica McDevitt, Jinnie Olson

Now is the time for plan sponsors to reacquaint themselves with the SECURE Act's DC plan lifetime income disclosure requirements as the deadline quickly approaches.

07 June 2022 - By Stuart Silverman, Justin Li, Chelsea Wang

Insurers need to understand the potential implications of an ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and consider appropriate changes in product, assumptions and capital.

07 June 2022 - By Aisling Barrett, Cormac Gleeson

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (“EIOPA”) recently published its finalised reports on the revision of the Guidelines on Contract Boundaries, and the Guidelines on the Valuation of Technical Provisions.

06 June 2022 - By Farzana Ismail, Joshua Winata

OJK’s new regulation aims to protect policyholders and improve transparency in the unit-linked Indonesian life insurance market, but carriers have concerns

06 June 2022 - By Safder Jaffer, Muhammad Asad Irshad

A 2021 report of 29 insurance companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange Tadawul reveals the impact of COVID-19 restrictions and the economic rebound as pandemic pressures eased.

06 June 2022 - By Thomas Peplow

When describing the benefits of continuous delivery to a risk team, it’s important to focus on the fact that continuous delivery mitigates risk

03 June 2022 - By Robert Eaton, Andrew H. Dalton

A rising magnitude and volume of rate increases have increased the prevalence of reduced benefit options, along with a focus on their value.

03 June 2022 - By Stephanie Scholz, Robert Eaton

Financing and designing acceleration-only riders in a consumer-friendly manner can help companies provide more LTCI coverage for the oncoming wave of retirees

03 June 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 146 bps as of the end of May 2022, down 2 basis points from the previous month, driven by a slight increase in long-term interest rates.

03 June 2022 - By Leighton A. Hunley, David Evans

Community leaders, policymakers, and business executives are increasingly asked if they are incorporating climate forecasts into their decision-making.

02 June 2022 - By Eamonn Phelan, Eamon Comerford, Alison Walsh

To optimise the use of capital under Solvency II, companies can turn to Board-approved future management actions, providing a highly tailored solution.

02 June 2022 - By Sinéad Clarke, Eamon Comerford

Amendments to EU regulations that take effect in August integrate sustainability risks and ESG considerations for the Solvency II risk management framework.

02 June 2022 - By Lauren Efferding

With greater participation of carriers and networks, the ACA individual marketplace is now a viable solution for employer health plans, especially with ICHRAs.

31 May 2022 - By Joanne Buckle, Alexander Krauskopf , Natasha Singhal

Using historical data in the U.K. and Germany to help medical insurers better understand the morbidity and mortality risks from climate change

31 May 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our April review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

31 May 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our May review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

31 May 2022 - By Paul R. Houchens, Liam Plunkitt

This report provides an analysis of the recently released 2020 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Scorecard.

26 May 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 60 bps from 98.3% to 97.7% during April

26 May 2022 - By Nancy Watkins

A new pricing approach called Risk Rating 2.0 harnesses catastrophe models to help better understand flood risk.

25 May 2022 - By Neil Cantle

In the May issue of The Actuary, we examine how our increasingly interconnected world makes it challenging to predict future outcomes.

25 May 2022 - By Mike Gaal, Paul R. Houchens, David M. Liner, Annie Man, Andrew L. Naugle, Doug Norris

In 2022, the cost of healthcare for a hypothetical American family of four covered by an average employer-sponsored preferred provider organization (PPO) plan is $30,260, according to the Milliman Medical Index (MMI).

24 May 2022 - By Juliet M. Spector, Tim F. Kempen, Evan Pollock, Cade Dombrowski

An industry survey of assumptions and methodologies in the individual long-term care (LTC) market.

24 May 2022 - By Josh Dobiac, Clement Bonnet, Clara Yan (Robeco), Denis Resovac (Robeco)

As interest grows, insurance companies are framing new strategies and facing new challenges as they implement sustainable investing practices.

24 May 2022 - By Brian Colgan, Farzana Ismail

Insurers recognise opportunities in the Syariah market in Indonesia, but a majority still need to decide whether to spin-off or transfer portfolios

24 May 2022 - By Katherine Warren, Jeffrey T. Marzinsky, Zorast Wadia, Dominick Pizzano

Join us while we share insights and market outlook from the 2022 Milliman Pension Funding Study which looks at the funded status, P&L and balance sheet impact alongside the key economic assumptions of the largest US corporate sponsors of defined benefit plans.

24 May 2022 - By Chad C. Karls, Eric J. Wunder

For the medical professional liability (MPL) market, 2021 featured the return of a firming market and the expected associated rate increases

23 May 2022 - By Travis J. Grulkowski, Christine M. Fleming, Alex York, Sam Sager, Brekk Hayward, Joe Michels

Federal black lung claims differ from other workers’ comp due to multiple potential payers, complex adjudication, much longer reporting and payment lags.

23 May 2022 - By Libby Bunzli, Zachary Fohl, Christopher T. Pettit, Diane Sargent, Maureen Tressel Lewis

Five ways Medicaid MCOs can prepare for the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency

20 May 2022 - By Rebecca A. Sielman, Richard L. Gordon

Rocky markets cause $167 billion drop in funded status in the first quarter of 2022, leading to the public pensions’ funded ratio falling to 82.7%.

20 May 2022 - By Melody Craff, Will Fox

How do you go about transforming your processes into a system for transforming data into meaningful business insights?

19 May 2022 - By Paul L. Correia

My state recently mandated paid family and medical leave; should my company continue offering short-term disability?

18 May 2022 - By Andrew Provines, Karl Goring

Parametric policies, which pay based on the magnitude of an event, can bridge coverage gaps that are difficult to insure with a traditional indemnity policy.

18 May 2022 - By Charles J. Clark

With inflation at 40-year highs, the next revision of IRS limits for retirement plans will affect labor costs, talent recruitment and retention efforts in 2023.

17 May 2022 - By Charles J. Clark

Congress proposes building on the Secure Act of 2019, with a list of changes to U.S. tax-qualified retirement plans, including catch-up contributions.

17 May 2022 - By Aaron Shapiro, Rebecca Ross

We provide an overview of the requirements of Actuarial Standard of Practice No. 51, and then look at how it has been implemented with pension plans.

16 May 2022 - By Charles J. Clark, Karina Guerrero

If the SECURE 2.0 bill becomes pension law plan sponsors and governance boards will need to assess the impact of this mandatory eligibility change for their retirement programs.

16 May 2022 - By Charles J. Clark, Kara Tedesco

Our latest Benefit Alert discusses some of the details and complexities of a Congressional bill that aims to modify the Secure Act of 2019

13 May 2022 - By Paul R. Houchens, Penny Edlund, Libby Bunzli

A summary of available data sources that can assist state Medicaid agencies in evaluating health disparities and measuring progress toward health equity goals

13 May 2022 - By Stephen J. Koca, Leah A. Windt

The potential passage of California Assembly Bill 35, amending key provisions of the state’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act will have reverberations for years to come.

12 May 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Lewis Duffy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from various regulatory agencies.

10 May 2022 - By Sarah Murray

When deciding whether or not to terminate a pension plan, the plan sponsor should consider the accounting effects of settling the plan’s obligations.

10 May 2022 - By Julie Cannaday, Nancy Kariel

Lump sum window: Engaging communications produce higher response rates

10 May 2022 - By Mary Leong, Jake Pringle

What are annuity placements and why do I keep hearing about pension risk transfers?

10 May 2022 - By Kerry Forrester, Rebecca A. Sielman

A step-by-step guide to charting your path to plan termination

10 May 2022 - By John Paul Augeri

Microsoft’s Vicky Nevin, head of international compensation and benefits, shares her benefits priorities and challenges for 2022, in this conversation with Milliman’s global EB leader John-Paul Augeri.

09 May 2022 - By Stephen R. DiCenso, Kathryn Kern

How a well-governed and structured insurer can build a lasting enterprise-risk-management framework to address climate change risk.

09 May 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Milliman 100 PFI: The funded ratio of the largest corporate defined-benefit pension plans increases to 106.7% despite a 4.66% loss in asset values

09 May 2022 - By Aisling Barrett, Alison Walsh

In 2021, Irish life insurers significantly grew premiums, improved solvency ratios, and increased use of the volatility adjustment.

06 May 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 148 bps as of the end of April 2022, down 20 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

03 May 2022 - By Chris Smith, Adam Singleton, David C. Lewis, Brian Allen

Legislation requiring hospitals to publicly post data about negotiated prices for all hospital services unlocks significant potential opportunity for stakeholders working with healthcare strategy and analytics.

03 May 2022 - By Brian N. Anderson, Rebekah D. Bayram, Marc Guieb

We detail the latest on pharmacy news, trends, and insights, including items on the company and state levels, FDA approvals and launches, and clinical trials.

03 May 2022 - By Marcus Scheffer, Lennart Albertsen, Peter H. Sun, Neil Dissanayake, Chunpu Song, Sihong Zhu, Jessica Crowson, Kelly Yang

ESG investing returns have been comparable to the general market, showing how investing in the space is an opportunity, not a constraint

28 April 2022 - By Eric J. Wunder, Zachary A. Fischer

Medical professional liability specialty writers in 2021 fared better than many observers anticipated just 12 months ago.

28 April 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Alan Perry, Charles J. Clark

The year-end 2021 funded ratio for the Milliman 100 companies settled at 96.3%, a large improvement from 2020’s funded ratio of 88.1%.

27 April 2022 - By Michael Paczolt

Claims systems typically do not capture accurate data on attorney representation. Using Milliman Nodal’s proprietary natural language processing (NLP) algorithm, we identified claims with references to plaintiff attorney representation in the adjuster notes.

27 April 2022 - By Florin Ginghina, John Jenkins, Russell Ward, Sihong Zhu

Interest in illiquid assets continues to grow in terms of increased breadth and quantity of investment, according to our 2021 survey of U.K. life insurers.

26 April 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our March review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

26 April 2022 - By Stuart Kliternick

While the Pension-Protection Act yield curve hasn’t shown signs of spiking, plans and participants still need to know of the negative impact of rising rates.

26 April 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 60 bps from 98.9% to 98.3% during March.

26 April 2022 - By Yan Fridman, Zohair Motiwalla

We discuss key issues and questions to consider before a principle-based reserving framework for non-variable annuities is finalized.

26 April 2022 - By Mike Gaal, Erica Reijula, Erik Krisle

Recently released FAQ answers for the Transparency in Coverage Final Rules substantially impact the usability of information about healthcare prices available to consumers and other stakeholders.

26 April 2022 - By Jordan Cates, Chandler Bentley, Julia M. Friedman, Adam Barnhart

Lower premiums, richer supplemental benefits, and additional flexibility help drive enrollment gains in an increasingly competitive Medicare Advantage market.

22 April 2022 - By Bartosz Gaweda, Christoph Krischanitz, Rémi Bellina, Jeff Anderson, Joe Long, Noriyuki Kogo, Saiki Justin Makino, Scott Chow

As traditional insurers face competition from startups, they are well positioned to harness vast amounts of new data with the help of their actuarial teams.

22 April 2022 - By Julia M. Friedman, Michelle Klein, Ivan Yen

Do MAOs offering benefits that appear with a checkmark on the CMS’s Medicare Plan Finder end up attracting more beneficiaries?

22 April 2022 - By Melissa Huenefeldt

In the search for appropriate benchmarking figures, insurers need to ask the question: Who is my peer?

22 April 2022 - By Alison Counihan, Lalit Baveja

This paper examines implementation of value-based healthcare and how it can link to quality outcomes.

22 April 2022 - By Jenica Ghorashi

Markets pulled back over another volatile quarter, down across the board

20 April 2022 - By Michael J. Peatrowsky, Lee Townsend

Cash balance plans blend the features of a traditional defined benefit retirement structure with the look and feel of a 401(k)/profit-sharing plan.

20 April 2022 - By Robert Eaton, Curt M. Clingerman, Karen K. Rudolph, Deyu Zhou

This note serves to assist valuation actuaries setting reserves for combination products, supplementing the NAIC’s Valuation Manual

19 April 2022 - By Andrew Netter, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Year-end results reflect strong performance across the industry, IIF compositions analyzed, reserve releases begin, rising rates likely to drag on NIW in 2022

16 April 2022 - By AJ Ally, Matt Berman

We discuss three primary targets to reduce prescription drug costs in the U.S., with potentially substantial changes in pricing for Medicare Parts B and D.

12 April 2022 - By Brian N. Anderson, Rebekah D. Bayram, Marc Guieb

We detail the latest on pharmacy news, trends, and insights, including items on the company and state levels, FDA approvals and launches, and clinical trials.

11 April 2022 - By John Donohue

While the Secure 2.0 bill’s auto-enrollment feature would help people save for retirement, it would lead to significant administrative issues for many plans including Taft-Hartley plans.

08 April 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Lewis Duffy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from EIOPA, FCA and ESAs.

07 April 2022 - By Daniel D. Skwire, Douglas W. Taylor, Paul L. Correia, Christin Kuretich

The latest Disability Newsletter covers an annual study on profitability, state-mandated Paid Family and Medical Leave programs, and more.

07 April 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Milliman 100 PFI: The funded ratio of the largest corporate defined-benefit pension plans rose to 105.2% as of March 31, up from 102.5% a month earlier

06 April 2022

Insurance industry impact and actionable steps for insurers to integrate climate risk assessment throughout their organisations.

05 April 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 168 bps as of the end of March 2022, down 13 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

04 April 2022 - By Brian Colgan, Muhammad Ismail, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Life insurance in Indonesia: Our review of industry developments from the fourth quarter 2021

01 April 2022 - By Julia M. Friedman, Mary Yeh

In a competitive Medicare Advantage marketplace, MAOs can differentiate themselves by offering supplemental benefits such as D-SNPs.

01 April 2022 - By Julia M. Friedman, Mary Yeh

In a competitive Medicare Advantage marketplace, MAOs can differentiate themselves by offering supplemental benefits such as D-SNPs.

31 March 2022 - By Ryan Cook

We explore potential reasons for the surge in pension risk transfers, which rose 42% to around $38 billion in 2021.

31 March 2022 - By Trever Mertz

Second-generation legal e-billing systems have moved beyond the basic auditing function of their earlier counterparts and can now deliver actionable insights into legal spend and the allocation of defense resources.

31 March 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our March review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

30 March 2022 - By Victor Huang

How we use futures contracts to manufacture put-option payoffs rather than purchasing puts directly, a likely more cost-effective approach over the long-term.

29 March 2022 - By Ellyn Russo

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza positivity rates have remained at the lowest levels documented in modern history

29 March 2022 - By Jason Karcher, Jordan Pettibon, Hanna Holzer

We estimate the financial impact of the federal requirement for employers and individual insurance plans to cover self-administered and self-read COVID-19 tests.

28 March 2022 - By David Byron, Noah Champagne, Brent Jensen, Colleen Norris

In the new REACH model, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has made several program adjustments, building on existing concepts.

28 March 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our February review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

25 March 2022

The interest rate is perhaps the single most important assumption made to ensure a pension plan has enough money to pay promised benefits

24 March 2022 - By Kevin Pierce, Josh Collins

New research offers key takeaways for plans that might participate in the Part D Senior Savings Model, so they can evaluate how it aligns with their 2023 strategy.

24 March 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost, as a percentage of accounting liability, decreased by 100 bps from 99.9% to 98.9% during February.

23 March 2022 - By Abby Hirshkowitz, Katie Barham

Review of benefits, rights, and features prior to plan termination is a wise course of action, given the complexities that come with the process.

23 March 2022 - By Nick Ortner, Kelly Backes

A primer on CMS’s Medicare Advantage model for hospice value-based insurance design, which first became available for contract year 2021.

23 March 2022 - By Ellyn Russo, David V. Williams

Expanding the utility and consistency of existing claims-coding processes may offer a low-effort, high-value return for health economics and outcomes research

23 March 2022 - By Brian Colgan, Muhammad Ismail, Halim Gunawan, Richard W. Holloway

Life insurance in Indonesia: Our review of industry developments from the third quarter of 2021

17 March 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Lewis Duffy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from the European Supervisor Authorities, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority and Financial Conduct Authority.

15 March 2022 - By Michael Paczolt

As the claims triage process experiences more complex pressures, advances in artificial intelligence are giving insurers rich data and actionable insights to efficiently allocate resources and lower claims costs.

14 March 2022 - By Farzana Ismail, Alex Bryant

We cover key changes in the Exposure Draft, with a focus on new requirements related to estate management and management of small or shrinking par funds.

14 March 2022 - By Julia M. Friedman, Mary Yeh

In 2022, Medicare Advantage rules allow plans to cover up to three packages of combo benefits.

14 March 2022 - By Mike Bergerson, Missy Gordon, John Hebig

Milliman completed a survey on premium rate increases for the long-term care (LTC) insurance industry.

14 March 2022 - By Timothy Paris

Milliman Variable Annuity Mortality Study shows mortality increases of 11% as a result of COVID-19 pandemic.

10 March 2022 - By Brian Colgan, Farzana Ismail

To have a well-considered strategy for a Syariah window, it is necessary to develop credible assumptions around new business volumes and expenses.

10 March 2022 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

Mortgage originations declined during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021 compared to the third quarter (Q3) of 2021.

09 March 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Despite financial market declines, rising discount rates boosted corporate pension funded ratio to 102.4% in February, up from 100.9% a month earlier.

09 March 2022 - By Brent Jensen, Andy McBeth, Jeremy J. Hamilton, Matthew Hayes

Join us in a discussion of several areas of trend impacting bids in 2023.

07 March 2022 - By Phil Ellenberg, Shyam Kolli, Tushar Makhija, Greg Sgrosso

We analyze information from 374 Medicare Advantage organizations across 43 states, with the data revealing the majority of them profitable.

07 March 2022 - By Robert Bugg, Amy Nicholson, James Wilkie

We clarify the Financial Conduct Authority’s approach to the review of Part VII insurance business transfers.

07 March 2022 - By Christin Kuretich

Learn about five trends and creative approaches heading into 2022 for supplemental health benefits, on this episode of Critical Point.

04 March 2022 - By Alex York, Christine M. Fleming

One in 10 underground coal miners who worked for at least 25 years have black lung disease, according to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

03 March 2022 - By Victor Huang

As inflation intimidates the markets, a futures-hedging strategy can provide better portfolio risk management, giving downside protection against market volatility.

03 March 2022 - By Cody Webb, Melody Craff, Molly Barth, Larry Baeder, Dale N. Skinner, Thomas Pu

Carbon dioxide poisoning found consistently among populations affected by four hurricanes points to how climate events can have other health effects.

03 March 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 181 bps as of the end of February 2022, down 9 basis points from the previous month, driven by an increase in long-term interest rates.

03 March 2022 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Renuka Subramaniam, Tharan Ganesan, Muhammad Hanif Saiful

Get the latest in the Non-Life Insurance market in Indonesia such as market performance, market news, and general Syariah Insurance.

02 March 2022 - By Adél Drew

Operational resilience is top of mind for U.K. regulators, appearing in Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority business plans for 2022.

28 February 2022 - By Gillian Tucker

With the January 2023 effective date of IFRS 17 fast approaching, insurers and reinsurers turn their attention to comprehensive validation of models and results.

28 February 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our February review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

28 February 2022 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Tharan Ganesan

Get the latest in the Non-Life Insurance market in Indonesia such as market performance, market news, and general Syariah Insurance.

25 February 2022 - By Michael Mikhitarian, Timothy J. Herman

Annuity purchases offer one way of transferring the risks and responsibilities of a pension plan, but CFOs need to carefully consider the bidding process.

25 February 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our January review of the markets and Solvency II discount rates.

24 February 2022 - By Bruce R. Mitton

Defined benefit pension plans have fallen out of favor, but their lifetime obligations leave plan sponsors wondering if termination is the answer.

23 February 2022 - By Pat Ryan, Brent Jensen

This paper describes seven key considerations for each ACA carrier to keep in mind for success.

23 February 2022 - By Juliet M. Spector, Mike Bergerson, Robert Eaton, Andrew H. Dalton, Daniel A. Nitz, Allen J. Schmitz, Chris Giese, Jeff Anderson, John Hebig, Missy Gordon, Nicole Gaspar, Qiuwen Peng, Annie Gunnlaugsson

We review current projects in long-term care (LTC), such as LTC development in Asian market, Milliman LTC Advanced Risk Analytics, and upcoming studies.

23 February 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Pension plan sponsors as of Jan. 31 saved 3.6 percentage points in annuity pricing using a competitive bidding when compared with the average industry buyout.

22 February 2022

We recap the trends in the LIBOR rates, SOFR trade and volume counts and those for other currencies for January in this final issue.

18 February 2022 - By Sinéad Clarke, Erin Moorhead

The Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”) was established to develop recommendations for more effective climate-related disclosures.

17 February 2022 - By Tyler Armstrong, Robert Eaton, Randy Beams

This article discusses the pros and cons of a claim cost model versus an integrated first-principles model for use in modeling Hybrid Life and Health products.

17 February 2022 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

Listed are the key administrative dates and deadlines for 2022 for defined contribution retirement plans.

17 February 2022 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

Listed are the key administrative dates and deadlines for 2022 for multiemployer defined benefit plans.

16 February 2022 - By Chris Giese, Annie Gunnlaugsson, Evan Pollock

The onset of COVID-19 and attempts to control its spread, have introduced volatility into the long-term care insurance industry.

16 February 2022 - By Marcella Giorgou

We provide plan sponsors the latest information regarding the coverage requirements for OTC COVID-19 tests, based on recent FAQs issued by federal agencies.

16 February 2022 - By Hervé Andrès, Alexandre Boumezoued, Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Rikiya Ino, Daren Lockwood, Fiona Ng, Russell Ward

Challenges for companies in the alternative asset space include building an internal model and accounting for regulatory treatment for capital set aside.

14 February 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, Financial Conduct Authority and Prudent Regulation Authority.

14 February 2022 - By Ali M. Heinrich, Kali Schweitzer

We discuss the controversy around the new drug Aduhelm, Medicare stakeholder considerations and impacts, and implications of CMS proposed coverage.

14 February 2022 - By Nina Lantz, Rex Barker, Tim Connor, William Wade

Aggregate funding levels for multiemployer pensions improved to 91% by year-end 2021, up from 88% a year earlier.

10 February 2022 - By Brian N. Anderson, Rebekah D. Bayram, Marc Guieb

We detail the latest on pharmacy news, trends, and insights.

10 February 2022 - By Melissa Huenefeldt

Understanding who is the data source—and the format and content of the tables and graphs—can prevent you from misinterpreting data analytics in risk management.

10 February 2022 - By Courtney R. White, Tracy A. Margiott, Sara Yi, Greg Sgrosso

What is the new frontier for Part D?

09 February 2022 - By David Stoddard, Michael Halford , Kathryn Elizabeth Mohr

The 2021 Milliman Multiemployer Health and Welfare Study analyzes various financial disclosures for plans nationwide.

08 February 2022 - By Cody Webb

The podcast explores the impact of hurricanes on the health of populations, as natural disasters grow more frequent due to climate change.

08 February 2022 - By Colin Finch

Risks such as COVID-19, climate change, cyberattacks, and evolving socioeconomic issues are not isolated to one side of a balance sheet, or one fiscal year.

08 February 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio rises to 101.4%

08 February 2022 - By Stephen R. DiCenso

New York domestic insurers need to focus on two specific action steps in the wake of guidance issued on managing the financial risks from climate change.

08 February 2022 - By Pang-Hsiang Chye, Ken Lim , Tananya Santipinyolert, Tarinee Sriboonchaichusakul

Overall premiums for non-life insurance rise 5.2% year over year, while net loss ratio increases in the third quarter to 69.65%, up from 54.28% third quarter 2020.

07 February 2022 - By John Hebig

To help companies obtain a better sense of the rate increase landscape, Milliman surveyed carriers about their recent LTC rate increase experiences.

04 February 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 9 basis points decrease in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in January.

04 February 2022 - By Olivier Mahieux, Romain de Harlez

With Solvency II reporting becoming routine for insurers, the Commissariat aux Assurances updates its annual actuarial reporting requirements for non-life insurance companies.

04 February 2022 - By Florin Ginghina, Jessica Crowson, Gibson Thuita

What does the PRA’s Life Insurance Stress Test cover and what will it mean for insurers?

04 February 2022 - By Karthik Tumuluru

This presentation reviews certain methods that can be used to factor in the structure of a company's IT system in the underwriting process.

03 February 2022 - By Shyam Kolli, Todd Wille

A primer for Medicare Advantage organizations in understanding the various files plans receive from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

02 February 2022 - By Somya Bansal, Joanne Buckle, Diana Dodu, Nathaniel Jacobson, Alexander Krauskopf , Monika Lis, Yunzi Xia, Rong Yi

Health insurance companies must adapt and innovate their product offerings to appeal to the expectations of freelancers and on-demand gig workers.

02 February 2022 - By Rong Yi

IT giants have started to partner up with traditional life insurers to offer mutual aid programs in the health insurance market in China.

01 February 2022 - By Nicholas Johnson, Annie Hallum, Nick Gipe

We offer key insight on the growing market of dual eligible special needs plans, which enroll beneficiaries who are both eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.

01 February 2022 - By Jill A. Bruckert, Annie Hallum, Davis Burge

We illustrate potential short-term and long-term savings opportunities, including fee-for-service and managed care.

31 January 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Our January review of the European markets featuring Solvency II rates, inflation, and volatility and hedging costs.

28 January 2022 - By David D. Evans, Leighton A. Hunley, Brandon Katz (KatRisk LLC)

The U.S. residential real estate market likely has not fully accounted for the financial costs of flooding, with few homeowners having flood insurance.

28 January 2022 - By Cody Ball, Deana Bell, Samantha D’Anna, Tracy A. Margiott, Susan Silseth

A proposed change would require Medicare Part D plans to apply all price concessions they receive from a pharmacy network at the point of sale

28 January 2022 - By Stephen A. White, David Benbow

To provide more efficiency in delivering retirement benefits, we need a fresh look at the options available for delivering them.

28 January 2022 - By Lynn Yu

Learn how one plan sponsor found relief during the COVID-19 pandemic from new laws such as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

28 January 2022 - By Orlaith Lehane , Sinéad Clarke

We summarise the latest developments in Ireland and present some examples of how insurers can meet the expectations of the central bank.

27 January 2022 - By Robert Bugg, Amy Nicholson, Kelly Yang

We review the key amendments to the PRA’s Policy Statement 1/22 on insurance business transfers and consider the potential implications.

26 January 2022 - By Doug Rodgers, Katie Biese, Levani Kvariani, Nidhi Kushwah

Farmers who tap key risk management tools, such as dairy insurance, could see increased resiliency, sustainability and profitability.

24 January 2022 - By Olivier Mahieux, Romain de Harlez

Gross written premiums in our sample of Luxembourg-based life insurers decreased 20% in 2020.

24 January 2022 - By Milliman Employee Benefits Research Group

Key administrative dates and deadlines for calendar-year single-employer defined benefit plans subject to ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code.

21 January 2022 - By Jenica Ghorashi

We take a look at the S&P 500 Index, Russell 3000 Index, and others, along with the U.S. equity, non-U.S. equity, and U.S. fixed income.

21 January 2022 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

Learn more on Solvency II discount rates, and the state of the local and global markets at month end.

21 January 2022 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost rose 60 basis points in December, to 99.9% of accounting liability .

21 January 2022 - By Joanne E. Fontana, Michael E. Weilant, David Bahlinger, Christin Kuretich, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Darrell D. Spell

In December 2021, Milliman released its second Dental Survey Premium Report. This report represents 48 carriers and $37 billion of inforce premium.

21 January 2022 - By Robert Eaton, Bill G. Mehilos, David Bahlinger, Christin Kuretich, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

In October 2021, Milliman release its fourth Worksite Life Survey Premium Report. This report represents 20 carriers and $2.4 billion of inforce premium.

21 January 2022 - By Nathaniel Sandrowicz, David Bahlinger, Christin Kuretich, Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

In December 2021, Milliman released its third Accident Insurance Survey Premium Report. This report represents 37 carriers and $3.4 billion of inforce premium.

21 January 2022 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, David Bahlinger, Christin Kuretich, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

In November 2021, Milliman released its third Critical Illness (CI) Survey Premium Report. This report represents 35 carriers and $2.2 billion of inforce premium.

21 January 2022 - By Ashlee Mouton Borcan, Jennifer O’Brien Howard, David Bahlinger, Christin Kuretich, Darrell D. Spell, Michael E. Weilant

In November 2021, Milliman released its fourth Hospital Indemnity (HI) Survey Premium Report. This report represents 33 carriers and $2.7 billion of inforce premium.

21 January 2022 - By Rebecca A. Sielman

Public pensions’ funded ratio rises to 85.5% in Q4, continuing its climb from lows in Q1 2020, with plans at their highest funding levels since 2016.

19 January 2022

We recap the main metrics for total liquidity for interest rate and overnight indexed swaps for December.

19 January 2022 - By Rosemary Maher

Life insurers are embracing the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence models and techniques in all areas of their business. We outline some of the use cases of these techniques in the life insurance industry.

19 January 2022 - By Rosemary Maher

We describe the economic backdrop of low interest rates and how low interest rates have affected areas such as product development, investment and asset and liability management strategies.

19 January 2022 - By Pauric Mullan, Patrick Meghen

A briefing note detailing Solvency II reporting deadlines in 2022 and the changes in the reporting framework relative to the previous year.

19 January 2022 - By Olivier Mahieux, Romain de Harlez, Sarah Huijzer

This briefing note looks at the year-end 2020 Solvency and Financial Condition Reports of a sample of non-life insurers based in Luxembourg.

19 January 2022 - By Maggie Alston, Brian Regan, Susan Silseth, Christopher Kunkel

Join our Milliman presenters for an overview of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the Medicare system.

18 January 2022 - By Adél Drew, Tatiana Egoshina, Jack Huffer

The simplistic nature of the standard formula for operational risk under Solvency II can lead to excessive capital requirements, so we offer another approach.

18 January 2022 - By Dominick Pizzano, Henrik Patel, Kenneth Barr

While key changes to deductions for compensation amounts won't take effect until 2027, publicly-held corporations need to plan for the changes now.

14 January 2022 - By Allen M. Klein, Alexandre Boumezoued, Amal Elfassihi

How to model the COVID-19 pandemic and forge a path to better risk insurance.

14 January 2022 - By Hervé Andrès, Alexandre Boumezoued

We describe a recent realistic modelling approach of equity volatility that offers advantages when using real world economic scenarios to analyze balance sheets.

14 January 2022 - By Sean Silva, Michael Halford

FAQs provide guidance to group health plans regarding coverage of OTC COVID-19 tests without participant cost sharing.

13 January 2022 - By Paul L. Correia

Insurers reported $19.1 billion in combined short-term disability and long-term disability in-force premium in 2020, an increase from $18.4 billion in 2019.

13 January 2022 - By Zohair Motiwalla

We highlight some of the challenges when incorporating negative interest rates into the modeling of the asset and liability sides of the balance sheet.

12 January 2022 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio ends 2021 at 99.6%, the closest it’s been to full funding since 2008.

11 January 2022 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from the EIOPA, FCA and PRA.

10 January 2022 - By Jessica Gardner, Arthur Rains-McNally, Daniel Wade

We examine how various amortization methodologies react to the volatility inherent in investment markets.

10 January 2022 - By Kimberly W. Guerriero, Anne C. Kallfisch, Aaron C. Koch

Insurers with higher claim severities will face additional strains from recent disasters, leading to potentially sizable impacts on reserving and property rates.

07 January 2022

We present a roundup of the top 10 most-read articles on the Milliman Ireland website last year, such as the Solvency II 2020 Review by EIOPA

06 January 2022 - By Mary Leong

Church retirement plans may be exempt from certain requirements under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), possibly affecting how they balance core principles.

06 January 2022 - By Jake Pringle

This issue of the Bulletin explores benefit security and determining whether a plan is on track to pay retirement liabilities in defined benefit plans.

06 January 2022 - By Delbert Zamora

Explore the principle of benefit adequacy as part of total retirement income planning with church defined benefit plans.

06 January 2022 - By Aaron Shapiro

Looking at employee retirement, church defined benefit plans need to balance the core principles of benefit adequacy, equity, and security.

06 January 2022 - By Paul Sinnott, Michael Daly, Richard W. Holloway, Wing F. Wong, Chihong An, Wen Yee Lee, Stephen H. Conwill, Philip Jackson, Heerak Basu, Shamit Gupta

Most insurers in Asia have experienced steady growth in embedded value in the first half 2021.

05 January 2022 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

Milliman reports 2 basis points decrease in Hedge Cost Index for VA guarantees in December.

05 January 2022

Our top 10 Insight articles list for 2021 shows how challenges like the pandemic and legislative changes have impacted our industries.

04 January 2022 - By Michael J. Peatrowsky, Joe Zienty

Annual contribution limits for retirement plans rise significantly in 2022, giving small business owners greater tax deferrals with DB and 401(k) pension plans.

04 January 2022 - By Carl A. Friedrich, Susan J. Saip

Our latest term-life insurance survey shows sales growing roughly 2% to $1.38 trillion in 2021 over 2020, with market share for term products fairly stable

03 January 2022 - By Neil Christy

The Prudential Regulation Authority proposed changes on Quantitative Reporting Templates, aiming to reduce the reporting burden for firms.

29 December 2021 - By Maarten Ruissaard, Maayke de Boer

On 10 December 2021 the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published a consultation on the application guidance on running climate change materiality assessments and using climate change scenarios in the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA).

27 December 2021 - By Ali LaRocco

We discuss three strategic questions for employers to ask when considering employees’ geographic access to dental providers.

27 December 2021 - By Donal McGinley, Joseph Sloan

Insurers can save time by generating automated actuarial reports using open-source tools such as Jupyter Notebook and Python.

23 December 2021 - By Raja Flores, Parth Patel, Naomi Alpert, Bruce S. Pyenson, Emanuela Taioli

The stage shift from later to earlier stage disease over the last decade was associated with improved mortality among people with lung cancer.

23 December 2021 - By Daniël van Dam, Raymond van Es, Jan Thiemen Postema

We need to start training models that reflect the world we want to live in.

23 December 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

In November, major equity indices and the euro fell, major bond indices were up, and risk-free rates for the euro declined.

23 December 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

In November, major equity indices and the euro fell, risk-free rates for the euro declined, while inflation rose.

23 December 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

In November, major equity indices and the pound fell, risk-free rates for the GBP and euro declined, while inflation rose

23 December 2021 - By Jason J. Petroske, Peter Fielek

We share best practices to maximize submissions for External Data Gathering Environment, a requirement under the Affordable Care Act.

23 December 2021 - By Adél Drew

Exponential growth for climate change could mean the work begin done now to reduce carbon emissions will have a lag before any change is seen.

22 December 2021 - By Kevin Pierce, Jake K. Klaisner, Alex Cires

The proposed changes to Medicare Part D as part of the Build Back Better Act would affect all parties involved with the program.

22 December 2021 - By Jake K. Klaisner, Kevin Pierce, Alex Cires

If the Build Back Better Act eventually passes the Senate in some form in 2022, it could potentially bring the largest changes to U.S. drug pricing in the history of Medicare

21 December 2021 - By Jenny Jin, Nathan Wilbanks

The study builds on the effort we began in 2014 to provide insights into variable annuity policyholder behavior.

21 December 2021 - By Kshitij Srivastava, Frank Fineis

Looking at utilization by variable annuity policyholders, we saw a decrease in GLWB withdrawal commencement rates, and withdrawal efficiency patterns unchanged

21 December 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

Estimated competitive retiree buyout cost rose 50 basis points to 99.9% of accounting liability in November.

20 December 2021 - By Kurt Lambrechts

Applying for IFRS 17 for the first time? Learn about the modified retrospective approach and the fair value approach.

20 December 2021 - By Andrew Netter, Jonathan B. Glowacki

Quarterly NIW composition reflects purchase market, forbearance exits continue, reserves established during 2Q and 3Q 2020 remain largely unchanged

17 December 2021 - By Jason Karcher, Andrew Bourg

Besides providers, the action affects health plans such as Medicare Advantage organizations and Part D plan sponsors, plus insurers, employers, and patients.

17 December 2021 - By Mohamed Benkhalfa, Eliott Pradat

This white paper exposes the challenges for insurers regarding cyber risks coverage.

16 December 2021 - By Stephen R. DiCenso

Examples of shifts in attitude toward climate change in the U.S. regulatory landscape.

16 December 2021 - By Brian Hartman, Courtney Larson, Christopher Kunkel, Cason Wight, Richard L. Warr

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) affects many lives and has a large impact on health systems around the world.

16 December 2021

Our monthly report reviews 18 charts showing the main metrics for total liquidity for interest rate and overnight indexed swaps, and for those same categories by tenor.

16 December 2021 - By Neil Cantle

Regulators want insurance carriers to fold climate change into their risk management and reporting, and a top-down view can identify what matters.

16 December 2021

The MicroInsurance Centre at Milliman collaborated with five different programs to develop case studies about their journeys to building a viable climate risk insurance solution.

15 December 2021 - By Despina Pantelide, George Barrett, Veekash Badal

Reserving practice can be severely affected by operational issues, so achieving best practice should be a key consideration for all firms

15 December 2021 - By Abdal Chaudhry, Miruna Dudceac, Michael Leitschkis

Life insurance companies must produce a full risk distribution in Solvency II work to capture risk interdependencies in simulations for long-term liabilities.

15 December 2021 - By Robert Eaton

LTC actuaries want to consider that actuarial assumptions based on historical data reflect some level of labor demand and supply, and that immigration has played–and will play–an important role in this equation.

15 December 2021 - By Robert Eaton

Robert Eaton and Shawna Meyer describe the speakers and topics at this year’s Virtual LTC Medical Symposium.

14 December 2021 - By Jinnie Olson, Sam Elsherbeiny

Annuity contracts via insurance companies can offer retirement plans a way to mimic or even replace regular paychecks for retiring or laid off participants

10 December 2021 - By Chris Smith, Joseph Boschert, Mike Gaal, David C. Lewis

The hospital price transparency rule introduces new opportunities and competitive threats in the U.S. healthcare system.

10 December 2021 - By Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, Isabel Stansfield

We highlight the latest noteworthy items in the life insurance industry from the EIOPA, including Solvency II data, along with actions by the FCA.

08 December 2021 - By Melissa Huenefeldt

Actuaries can help risk management professionals walk through various methodologies of allocating property and casualty insurance costs.

08 December 2021 - By Tyler Armstrong, Randy Beams, Robert Eaton

To maintain assumption integrity, actuaries use the modeling principle called conservation of mortality.

07 December 2021 - By Adél Drew

How BP’s recent closure of a few petrol stations led to a fuel crisis, and what we can learn from it in terms of risk management and operational resilience.

07 December 2021 - By Katie Torruco

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, employers can benefit from dedicating resources to nurturing employee resilience in the workplace.

07 December 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Corporate pension funded ratio declines to 97.6% in November due to investment losses for Milliman Pension Funding Index.

06 December 2021 - By Sylvia Hagin, John Miller

What is the responsibility of an insurer in returning payments received from miscoded diagnoses?

06 December 2021 - By Allan L. Bittner

Retirement plan sponsors may have the option to pay for some plan-related expenses out of assets held in trust, but how they determine which ones?

06 December 2021 - By Robert L. Schmidt, Ellen Harrington

With the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' adjustments, employer benefits with retiree health programs will need to accommodate new limits.

06 December 2021 - By Robert Bugg, Claire Booth, Neil Christy, Florin Ginghina, Amy Nicholson, Isabel Stansfield, Jennifer van der Ree, Sarah Walker

We review the U.K. life insurance market, from Solvency II to climate change, to developments in various business themes.

02 December 2021 - By Robert L. Schmidt, Sean Silva, Kathryn Elizabeth Mohr

The No Surprises Act requires plan sponsors to comply with some of the most burdensome tasks since the Affordable Care Act.

02 December 2021 - By Sean Silva, Robert L. Schmidt

We detail the latest guidance on health insurance incentives and surcharges to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations, among other topics.

02 December 2021 - By Brian N. Anderson, Rebekah D. Bayram, Marc Guieb

We detail the latest on pharmacy news, trends, and insights, including FDA approvals of changes to COVID-19 vaccine administration

02 December 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 201 bps as of the end of November 2021, up 4 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

01 December 2021 - By Dave Neuman

Using data visualization software can improve the care and outcomes for populations living with chronic diseases, helping care teams catch problems early on.

01 December 2021 - By Pingni Eng, Erica Chan

As COP26 reminds us that climate change will impact the global financial system, insurers should now be thinking about stress testing and risk assessments.

30 November 2021 - By Neil De Beger

When considering risk management, a digital portfolio simulator shows how not all fund managers offering downside protection are equal.

30 November 2021 - By Jake K. Klaisner, Kevin Pierce, Alex Cires

We detail the significant changes from the Build Back Better Act affecting the Part D program and Medicare Part B drug reimbursement.

30 November 2021 - By Drew B. Groth, Jonathan Riehl

Smart infrastructure systems and data platforms have the potential to make cities more efficient, requiring the development of novel risk management strategies.

30 November 2021 - By Jake K. Klaisner, Kevin Pierce, Alex Cires

We cover the Build Back Better Act’s provision for Medicare drug price negotiation, including Part B and Part D, benefit redesign, and other changes.

30 November 2021 - By Noah Champagne, Pamela M. Pelizzari, Sally Maraldo

The model was designed to test whether bundled, prospective, site-neutral, episode-based payments for radiation oncology services could lower Medicare expenditures while improving the quality of care.

30 November 2021 - By Eric J. Wunder, Nicholas S. Blaubach

Top-line revenue for our MPL composite grows at its fastest rate since the early 2000s, driven by more product diversification than by premium increases

30 November 2021 - By Samuel Burgess, Stuart Reynolds, Lyndsay Wrobel

We consider the impact of the pandemic to firms’ supplementary reporting metrics, and their level of Solvency II Own Funds and solvency positions.

30 November 2021 - By Alexandre Boumezoued, Leo Tondolo

Sensitivity testing with dependence has the potential for a wide range of applications in reporting, such as for Solvency II, IFRS 17, and balance sheet valuation.

30 November 2021 - By Matthew McIlvanna

The Volatility Adjustment (VA) is the most widely used Long-Term Guarantee measure under Solvency II.

30 November 2021 - By John Jenkins, Dilesh Patel

In the shift to IFRS 17, many insurance companies have turned to the fair value approach for older blocks of business when other methods can’t readily be used.

30 November 2021 - By Karen K. Rudolph

The guidance confirms that actuaries working with models have a responsibility to understand their aspects and limitations, for themselves and intended users.

29 November 2021 - By Pierre-Edouard Arrouy, Paul Bonnefoy, Alexandre Boumezoued, Yousra Cherkaoui Tangi, Grzegorz Darkiewicz-Moniuszko, Sophian Mehalla

We present a calibration technique for one complex risk neutral model, relying on neural networks and significantly reducing computational time.

29 November 2021 - By Fanny Pouget, Rémi Bellina, Mehdi Echchelh, Karol Maciejewski, Christoph Krischanitz, Bartosz Gaweda, Dominik Sznajder, Raymond van Es, Talex Diede, Kshitij Srivastava, Nathan Wilbanks, Michael Hoyer, Clement Bonnet

The emergence of data analytics and machine learning is providing insurers and reinsurers with new insights into how they drive and monitor their business.

29 November 2021 - By Neil Cantle, Abdal Chaudhry, Sinéad Clarke, Eamon Comerford, Neil Dissanayake, John Gakuya, Orlaith Lehane , Michael Leitschkis, Amy Nicholson, Sophie Smyth

Since climate change will impact insurers, we developed a useful guide to help carriers account for climate-related risks.

29 November 2021 - By Peter Thies, Rebecca Ross, Nicholas Carnaval

When it comes to pensions, how has COVID-19 affected the mortality assumptions for defined benefit plans?

29 November 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Nima Shahroozi , Grace Zhu

Since climate change will impact insurers, we developed a useful guide to help carriers account for climate-related risks.

29 November 2021 - By Neil Cantle, Abdal Chaudhry, Sinéad Clarke, John Gakuya, Orlaith Lehane , Michael Leitschkis, Amy Nicholson, Sophie Smyth

Since climate change will impact insurers, we developed a useful guide to help carriers account for climate-related risks.

29 November 2021 - By Robert W. Beal, Tasha S. Khan

Sales premiums for 2020 drop 5% to $381 million, largely attributable to COVID-19, our annual survey reveals.

24 November 2021 - By Sam Elsherbeiny

Individuals face the challenging decision of whether to contribute to their retirement plan offered via employee benefits, or pay down personal debt. Why not do both?

22 November 2021 - By Poojan Shah, Ram Kelkar, Brian J Olson

There are significant implications of the impending discontinuation of LIBOR and transition to SOFR for U.S. annuity liability valuations.

22 November 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

In October, most major equity indices rose, short-term British pound yields increased, and risk-free rates for the GBP and euro were up.

19 November 2021

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation released their Fiscal Year 2021 Annual Report, covering financial health, operations, and activities of single employer and multiemployer insurance programs.

19 November 2021 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

As interest rates rose in the second quarter (Q2) of 2021, total mortgage originations declined.

18 November 2021 - By Ram Kelkar, Fiona Ng, Michelle Shen, James G. Stoltzfus

On average, we expect the C-1 amounts to increase in the range of 5% to 20%.

17 November 2021

We don’t know whether a market correction is around the corner, so plan sponsors should remind themselves the current good news won’t continue indefinitely.

17 November 2021 - By Robert Eaton, Tim Rozar

Learn what role trust plays in the digital world of insurance and how it has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

16 November 2021 - By Melissa Huenefeldt

Operational changes impact your company’s risk management, and actuaries can help you make the appropriate adjustments

15 November 2021 - By Charles J. Clark

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) extends IRS pension plan interest rate relief to 2030 and automatically extends certain compliance date deadlines for federally declared disasters.

15 November 2021 - By Spencer Marshall, Charlie Mills

We cover the key issues insurers and providers need to be thinking about in advance of Jan. 1, when the law takes effect

15 November 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

The index shows estimated retiree buyout cost as a percentage of accounting liability decreased in October to 102.5%, from 102.7%

12 November 2021

We recap the trends in volumes and trade counts for October.

12 November 2021 - By Chong Wen Ang, Pingni Eng, David Kong

Roughly two-thirds of respondents have already started their implementation projects.

12 November 2021 - By Joanne Buckle

By applying a systematic approach, health insurers can attempt to estimate the relative cost and mortality impact of different climate-related perils and their long-term impact.

12 November 2021 - By Joanne E. Fontana, Tory Carver, Rachel W. Madden

We detail key considerations for adding dental to Medicare Part B or as a separate offering.

11 November 2021 - By Dawilla Madsen, Dominick Pizzano

As Dec. 31 rapidly approaches, there is still time for plan sponsors to review and amend retirement plans.

10 November 2021 - By Dana Kernich

With end-of-year benefit enrollment periods rapidly approaching, here are a few takeaways that can help you reach your employees with critical information about benefit changes and timelines.

10 November 2021 - By Pingni Eng, Chong Wen Ang

Insurers have the benefit of a later IFRS 17 adoption date than other countries, but face technical implementation challenges specific to the market.

10 November 2021 - By Brent Jensen, Les Kartchner

How should employers evaluate opportunities as the number and variety of point solutions in the health and group benefits market continues to grow?

09 November 2021

Review 2022 cost-of-living adjustment figures for tax-qualified retirement plans and Social Security benefits.

09 November 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, Isabel Stansfield, James Wilkie

We highlight the latest noteworthy items from the EIOPA, ESAs, FCA, and PRA relevant to life insurance companies.

09 November 2021 - By Scott Chow, Clement Bonnet, Julian Man, Michael Daly

Understand fulfillment ratios and how the Milliman Fulfillment Ratio Index's reporting in 2020 compares to 2019.

08 November 2021 - By Claire Booth, Dana-Marie Dick, Adél Drew, Lewis Duffy, Amy Nicholson, James Wilkie

This primer summarises key points to consider in addressing climate-related financial risks and opportunities.

08 November 2021 - By Samantha D’Anna, Nolan S Kurtz

Understanding beneficiary characteristics helps key entities in the Part D program provide services that maximize value for the populations they serve.

08 November 2021 - By Penny Edlund

Design and implementation of new care models mean a major undertaking for many plans, yet optimizing their value could bring substantial rewards for MCOs.

08 November 2021 - By Noriyuki Kogo, Franck Ludwig, Takeshi Niwa, Russell Ward, Freek Zandbergen, Sihong Zhu

Learn why insurers need to have a well-thought-out prescription and they need to act on it.

08 November 2021 - By Jack M. Chmielewski, Daniel W. Colby

What impacts could a proposal in the Senate infrastructure bill have on the future of defined benefit plans?

08 November 2021 - By Sanjay Mohan

It’s almost a sure bet that the process of disruptive innovation will improve healthcare, as it has for so many other industries.

05 November 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Strong investment returns drive Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio to 98.1%.

05 November 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake

Considering a more holistic retirement planning approach accounts for potential shocks to regular expenses, including energy.

04 November 2021 - By David Koenig, Robert J. Pipich, Michael J. Polakowski

Deferred or avoided care in 2020 can cause lower risk scores and revenue in 2021, which needs to be considered when developing projections for 2023

03 November 2021 - By Brian A. Sweatman, Louisa Bonds

We cover the basics of capitation and explore some of the challenges that are unique to commercial health insurance lines of business.

01 November 2021 - By Matthew Smith, Brent Jensen, Colleen Norris, Jacob Anderson

We look at the available data for how ACOs have performed and evolved over time to better understand what MSSP features may be associated with financial success.

01 November 2021 - By Daren Lockwood, Xiaohong Mo, Adam Schenck

The expected hedge cost for a hypothetical GLWB block (see Index Methodology) is estimated to be 197 bps as of the end of October 2021, up 2 basis points from the previous month, driven by a decrease in long-term interest rates.

29 October 2021 - By Brian N. Anderson, Rebekah D. Bayram, Marc Guieb

Highlights include CVS Health and OptumRx announcement, White House action plan, and FDA authorizes COVID-19 booster doses.

26 October 2021 - By Wen Yee Lee, Alex Bryant, Shir Lynn Ong

This e-Alert reviews the position of participating funds in Singapore at the end of 2020, based on public information published in 2021.

26 October 2021 - By Mike Bergerson, Andrew H. Dalton, Andrew Duxbury, Robert Eaton, James G. Stoltzfus

The Society of Actuaries Research Institute retained Milliman, Inc. (Milliman) to conduct a survey on the impact of COVID-19 on long-term care (LTC) insurance mortality, voluntary lapse, and morbidity experience.

26 October 2021 - By Jim Mulshine, Bruce S. Pyenson

Making screening for lung cancer as common as those for breast and colorectal cancer would substantially reduce the death rate of the disease.

26 October 2021 - By Claire Booth, Adél Drew, Amy Nicholson, James Wilkie

With insurers being required to embed financial risks from climate change into their frameworks, we highlight recent updates and cover some key considerations.

25 October 2021 - By Rebecca A. Sielman, Richard L. Gordon

Surging market returns have lifted pension assets, resulting in an estimated aggregated funded ratio mid-year of 85.0%, up from 70.7% at the same point in 2020.

22 October 2021 - By Frederick (Fritz) Busch, Dustin Grzeskowiak

We outline key product considerations for those designing, developing, managing, or purchasing primary-care subscription-based products.

22 October 2021 - By Melissa Huenefeldt

We discuss why a carrier’s need for collateral can represent a large portion of an insured’s cash or revolving debt and how it works.

22 October 2021 - By Nina Lantz, Yutaro Seki , Aaron Shapiro

More on the finer points of ARP relief: We detail the recently issued guidance for defined benefit plans to consider going forward

22 October 2021 - By Mary Leong, Ryan Cook

With pension risk transfers on the rise, plan sponsors need to monitor the annuity buyout market when considering a plan termination or de-risking strategy.

21 October 2021 - By Neil Dissanayake, Peter Lin, Nima Shahroozi

September delivers some ups and downs: Equity and bond markets mostly fell, risk-free rates rose, UK inflation increased, and volatility notched upward.

20 October 2021 - By Jenica Ghorashi

Markets were mixed over the quarter as higher volatility returned, providing minimal results following strong performance in the first half of the year.

19 October 2021 - By Hana Ghazali, Derek Ling, Michael Daly

New developments give potential for Hong Kong insurers, although various challenges will need to be overcome.

18 October 2021 - By David Kirk, Avashni Rossouw, Ishkar Singh

Effective executives and boards are challenging their thinking and decisions as they manage the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

15 October 2021 - By Robert Eaton, Jennifer O’Brien Howard

Adding benefit riders to policies provides meaningful coverage for those who need it, and carriers usually can do so at a relatively low cost.

14 October 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark, Bret Linton

Here to discuss pension risk mitigation versus risk transfer are Zorast Wadia, a principal with Milliman, and Bret Linton, the Employee Benefits Practice director at Milliman.

14 October 2021 - By Brian Colgan, Chong Wen Ang, Philip Jackson

What challenges are insurers facing when implementing PSAK 74 for companies in Indonesia?

14 October 2021

Our monthly report reviews 20 charts showing the main metrics for total liquidity for interest rate and overnight indexed swaps, and for those same categories by tenor.

13 October 2021 - By Michael Paczolt

As analytics move increasingly into operations, we aim to demystify the topic and bring it easily within operational reach to claims professionals.

13 October 2021

IRS Notice 2021-57 was just released regarding the temporary relief provisions other than the special financial assistance program provided by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP).

12 October 2021 - By Joanne Buckle, Natasha Singhal

UK health insurers showed strong positions at year-end 2020, with a weighted average SCR coverage ratio of 198%, versus 178% in 2019.

11 October 2021 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki, Judith-Anne Brelih

Unlike 2007, a low inventory, higher costs for materials, and labor shortages now drive price appreciation, rather than loose underwriting and speculation.

11 October 2021 - By Zorast Wadia, Charles J. Clark

Asset losses and increased liabilities leave the Milliman 100 PFI funded ratio flat compared to August.

11 October 2021 - By Jonathan B. Glowacki

Evaluating a CRT transaction requires the ability to process large loan pools, the structure of the transaction, and outcomes over a range of possible outcomes

08 October 2021 - By David Kirk, Richard Taylor, Avashni Rossouw, Susan Melmed, Chris van der Merwe

Rollercoaster quarter included rioting that caused widespread damage and substantial claims, while some insurers announce mandatory vaccination plans.

08 October 2021 - By Chris Giese, Allen J. Schmitz, Kevin Brown, Annie Gunnlaugsson

First in a series of articles, we discuss the features of public long-term care programs and actuarial considerations surrounding them.

07 October 2021 - By Jill Van Den Bos, Shelley Moss

While some employers have started to charge the unvaccinated as much as $200 more in premium per member per month, we estimate a modest gap of about $9 to $46

07 October 2021 - By Neil Christy, Oliver Gillespie, Isabel Stansfield, James Wilkie

We cover the latest noteworthy items from the EIOPA, ESAs, EC, PRA and FCA relevant to life insurance companies.

07 October 2021 - By Brian Colgan, Halim Gunawan, Muhammad Ismail, Richard W. Holloway

Life in Indonesia: Our review of industry developments from the second quarter.

07 October 2021 - By Jamie Shooks

We highlight key metrics for risk managers and others to focus on when dealing with actuarial reports.

07 October 2021 - By Yuri Liu, Sheryl Hou, Guanjun Jiang

Actuaries can help design and improve programs to optimize performance and economic value by conducting scenario testing on program changes and other analyses.

04 October 2021 - By Dominick Pizzano, Henrik Patel, Kenneth Barr