COVID-19 Individual Life Mortality To Be Examined In New Study

Three industry organizations are partnering on a joint mortality experience study that will compare individual life mortality involving COVID-19 now and into the near future.

LIMRA, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and TAI are currently working on an inaugural report to release later this summer.

“This study will help our members understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mortality, and identify the market segments that are most likely to see the greatest impact from the disease,” said Marianne Purushotham, corporate vice president and head of LIMRA Data Sciences and Center of Excellence in Analytics. “This data may also help our industry predict potential outcomes from future pandemics, enabling life insurers to conduct more effective scenario planning and preparations.”

This experience study will make use of the individual life insurance data stored in the TAI Reinsurance Administration system, which includes over 90 percent of the top 50 life insurers in North America. Leveraging this data will help provide a faster and more consistent data collection process and will reduce the burden on insurers to find resources to compile data.

“This joint research project will provide a deeper understanding of the current state of mortality in the individual life insurance industry,” Cynthia MacDonald, FSA, MAAA, senior experience studies actuary at the SOA. “The potential findings will help provide timely, meaningful data to help SOA members manage individual life insurance mortality risk through COVID-19.”

Organizations interested in participating in this study can contact TAI directly.