Blog

Understanding the primary causes of mortality in the United States is crucial for several reasons, particularly concerning individual well-being and life insurance mortality.  It's equally important to grasp the variables influencing mortality trends and what we might anticipate in the future, as these factors may significantly impact underwriting guidelines and policy pricing. Below is a summary of the main causes of death in the US as of 2023, accompanied by explanations of each cause.  Additionally, there is a discussion about the "headwinds and tailwinds" faced by the life insura...

  Our Summer of '24 Blog features a variety of sales ideas, client materials, underwriting advice, and product insights to help you finish the year strong.  You'll find some of these ideas useful every day, and some of them worth keeping in your pocket for when you come across clients who have unique and specific needs.  We selected these six topics as most likely to set you apart from the competition, and to give you an edge as 2024 comes to a close. Private Split Dollar If your client's estate could benefit from a trust funded with life insurance, but they want to fund the pol...

Life insurance rarely figures prominently in U.S. Supreme Court cases. But there are scattered exceptions, and on June 6 2024, the Court released its decision in Connelly v. United States, originally a Tax Court case involving life insurance in an entity stock redemption arrangement between two brothers who owned a closely held corporation. The Court ruled in favor of the IRS and held that in this case, for purposes of establishing the value of the corporation for estate taxes, the corporation's obligation to purchase the deceased brother's shares did not offset the value of corporate owned li...

The 2024 Pacific Life Underwriting Symposium took place recently with an excellent slate of discussion topics and life insurance industry representation.  Most platform discussions were in a panel format with Pacific Life, Distribution, Reinsurance, Retrocessionaire and Technology representatives contributing and participating. It's not often that we have the opportunity to pull together important life industry players to exchange views on critical and relevant underwriting topics that impact our businesses.  Congratulations go to Susan Ghalili and her team at Pacific Life for being ...

Underwriting in the large case life insurance market has always had its challenges.  Client and advisor expectations are high, and the demands for convenience, ease and speed are often at odds with the circumspect and proven procedures that carriers require when mistakes can be costly for all parties involved.  So when it comes to innovation in large case underwriting, there is often an abundance of caution before making changes to existing guidelines, standards and processes.  The primary reasons for this trepidation are typically adverse risk selection and mortality.  Bec...

The popularity of Index Universal Life products has stirred up the creative talents of many professional financial advisors, and nowhere has that creativity been more apparent than in the area of policy loan rescues.  This presents a significant opportunity to bring value to clients and generate a new sale, but it requires a high degree of expertise to navigate successfully.  This article will review rescue strategies so that you have a better idea of what works and what doesn't.  In addition, the Windsor case design team is fully conversant on the options and approaches that ca...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is top of mind today in the business community and elsewhere, and if estimations are correct will continue to be so in the future. It has been described in terms such as "transformative" and "next level," and promises to be just that. And since computer systems perform tasks, it is predicted to offer a myriad of efficiency, productivity, complex problem solving and other important benefits. The uses of AI are potentially limitless, especially in the life insurance industry where business is based upon knowledge and data. To better understand AI and what the future ...

DuWayne Kilbo, MBA, FLMI,  Senior Vice President and Chief Underwriter, Windsor Insurance Associates, Inc. Cindy Davis, FALU, FLMI, ACS, Vice President, Senior Underwriting Consultant, Underwriting/International NFP High net worth individuals and families exist all over the world. In today's global economy, you probably have clients with friends or relatives living abroad who are looking to buy life insurance from U.S. based companies.This is especially true since COVID has subsided, and countries have opened their borders to allow travel.   COVID lockdowns created a pent-up demand f...

The future is uncertain; however, at times one gets a glimpse of possibilities that may soon have enormous impact on underwriting. In addition, there are several developments affecting underwriting and the life industry today, especially concerning the regulatory environment and the use of data and algorithmic solutions in life underwriting. All of this and more was presented and discussed at the recent Association of Home Office Underwriters (AHOU) meeting. This year's AHOU was the largest on record with nearly 1000 attendees. Participants included underwriting leadership from all major life ...

Last month we featured guest Bobby Samuelson and Windsor's Marc Schwartz in a conversation about "The World of Life Insurance – Version 2023." In the course of that discussion, Marc and Bobby both touched on the recent introduction of Variable UL products based on the success of Registered Index Accounts, with Bobby saying "I'm excited to see how this corner of the market develops over time. It's nothing but positive for distributors, agents and consumers." Today's blog, originally a podcast, brings together Marc, Jeff Driscoll of NFP, and moderator Kristin Williams, NFP's Senior VP of Strateg...