Ch 12: General business environment, 2 Flashcards
Summary Card
- Economic environment
- Expenses
- Legal risks
- Regulation
- Taxation
List the factors in the general business environment which affect a life insurer’s business (8)
Another useful acronym from CA1/ARM
(CREATE GREAT LISTS)
DERLF PEP
- Distribution channels used and their impact
- Economic environment
- Regulatory contraints/opportunities
- Legal environment
- Fiscal regime
- ropensity of consumers to purchase products
- Expenses and commission
- Professional guidance
Useful CA/ARM list for the external environment within which insurer’s operate
- Competition & the underwriting Cycle
- Regulation
- Environmental & Ethical considerations
- Accounting standards
- Tax
- Economics (interest rates, inflation, economic growth, exchange rates)
- Governance (corporate)
- Risk management (operational, credit, market)
- Experience from overseas
- Adequacy of capital and solvency requirements
- Trends (demographics
- Lifestyle
- International practice
- Social trends
- Technological changes
- State benefits
Describe how an insurer may be affected by the economic environment in which it operates.
(4)
- Consumers may see insurance products as more/less attractive
- Available asset types/expected returns
- infl insurer’s investment choice and
- prob of securing pricing return assumed
- Volatile investment markets usually => more expensive insurance prods and possibly less take up of them.
- Insurers will tend to have relatively higher capital requirements as result of increased uncertainty of investment return
- Insurer investing in more risky/speculative markets is likely to seek greater expected return on capital and there’s greater risk of required return not being achieved.
Outline
- main types of expenses an insurer may incur in running business and (6)
- what they are influenced by (3)
-
Commission
- initial, payable on acquisition of new policy
- renewal, payable on premium renewal
-
Management expenses
- Indirect
- overheads: incurred irrespective of new/in-force business e.g. costs of general management, property
- Direct:
- incurred directly for new business written/maintain existing business
- fixed: stable in short term, doesn’t change with busines written
- variable: change with volumes of business written
- Indirect
- Expenses influence by
- wage/salary levels
- general levels of prices
- prices of specific commodities
State 2 main risks with regard to expenses
- Profitability risk
- loadings insufficient to meet actual expenses incurred
- Risk that company cannot control costs
- poor management
- inflation
Explain how legal risks may arise for an insurer (5)
- PRE
- some principle of acting unfavourably to insurer
- e.g flexibility in bonus method being constrained
- legally required to distribute profits in way that is kept consistent with PR
- Unfair terms voiding contract
- e.g. if particular charge reviews by fixed rate, say, specified in contract seen as unlawful
- risk of ability to review charges being removed
- New legislation over time
- that could change legal contract betwen insurer and existing policyholders
- Misprepresentation
- inconsistency in policy documents and other relevant representations made by company or its agents
- Insurance contracts spanning several years
- hence open to developing legal cultures, interpretations, court judgements
State main advantages and main disadvantages of life insurance company regulation
(1,4)
(1,2)
- Main advantages:
- protection of policyholder interests
- companies don’t always manage affairs properly
- large sums of money over long term
- public need confidence
- Main disadvantages
- Cost to policyholder either directly and/or indirectly e.g. through reduced innovation
- Impacts contract design
List 8 regulatory restrictions commonly imposed on life insurance companies
- Types of contract that can be offered
- Contract terms and conditions e.g. how surrender values are calculated
- Ability to underwrite e.g. prohibition on use of generic testing/past claims history
- Rating factors that can be used to calcualte premiums
- Premium rates/charges
- Sales channels/sales procedures or info given during sale
- Amount of business that maybe written (indirectly) e.g. due to minimum reserving/solvency capital requirements
- Investments e.g. types of assets allowed whether mismatching allowed
List direct and indirect ways in which regulatory framework might affect insurer’s choice of investments
(1,3)
(1,2)
- Direct, restrictions on
- types of assets company can invest in
- amount of any particular asset admissable for solvency
- extent to which mismatching is allowed at all
- Indirect
- Certain assets may allow use of higher discount rate in statutory valuation of liabilities and so reduce value of liabilities
- May be regulatory requirement to allwo for mismatching reserve
Briefly describe 2 common ways of taxing life insurance business
(1,4)
(1,1)
(1,1)
-
Profits basis
- Tax on annual profits of business, where profits means excess of change in value of assets over change in value of liabilities
- Reserves used will generally be supervisory basis, because limit’s company’s ability to manipulate reserve amt, hence taxable profit
- Focuses on shareholder profit
- profit distributed to WP policyholders automatically excluded from profit calc, since they would increase reserves and reduce assets
-
I - E basis
- Tax payable on investment income/gains less some or all of operating expenses of company
- In addition, may be tax on premium income
Describe how taxation system can influence product design and sales for life insurance company
For policyholder (1,2)
For insurer: current implications (3,1)
For insurer: future implications (2)
For policyholder
- Tax treatment in policyholder’s hands can influence buying habits, and attractiveness of life insurance
- tax treatment of premiums paid
- particulalry when premiums are deductible from individual’s taxable income in part/full/not at all.
- tax treatment of eventual policy benefits
- tax treatment of premiums paid
For insurer: current tax implications
- Product design make use of opportunities offered
- ability to maximise favourable taxation treatment may force constraints on product design
- Tax concessions helps ease sales of certain contract types easier
- Tax treatment impacts life insurance attractiveness
- tax treatment of insurer’s funds
For insurer: future tax implications
- Taxation risk from changes over time, important to bear in mind when benefits gauranteed over long term
- existing policies not immune from effects of changes
- company risks making less profits that anticipated in pricing
Briefly discuss the impact of professional guidance on products which life insurers choose to sell
(1,2)
(1,6)
- Actuarial associations often issue professional guidance for actuaries advising life insurers
- give framework to consider when carrying out resposibilities to maintain professional standards
- necessity thereof depends on extent that legislation limits actuary’s judgement
- Helps to not restrict actions of actuary, as the standards can support the advice given
- Guide interpretation of governemtn regs if gov doesn’t want to be overly prescriptive
- Adds safeguards
- Ensures consistency
- Certain standard
- Generate consumer confidence