David A. Rains, Managing Director and Healthcare and Life Specialty Leader and Michael R. Parker, Managing Director, Senior Business Development Broker

It is likely that the enduring differentiators among companies selling variable annuities will be how they access customers and the experience they provide to customers. Rapidly concentrating market shares will favor insurers with modular product design and management, with clean components that can be separately capitalized or reinsured as needed to optimize capital usage.

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David A. Rains, Managing Director and Healthcare and Life Specialty Leader and Michael R. Parker, Managing Director, Senior Business Development Broker

Next generation products will soon arrive to deliver the guaranteed retirement solutions today’s workforce needs and which variable annuities with guaranteed minimum withdrawal benefits currently address, albeit in overly complicated products. The successful annuity writers of the future will:

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David A. Rains, Managing Director and Healthcare and Life Specialty Leader and Michael R. Parker, Managing Director, Senior Business Development Broker

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In the meantime, this complexity and the difficulty in explaining variable annuities to consumers has heavily slanted sales toward expensive, commission-based channels more comfortable with products that are “sold, not bought.” Yet, as has been the historic trend for other financial products and services, demand for simpler, more transparent annuity products that encourage value shopping will be essential in driving future growth. This should favor easy-to-understand, fee-based product designs that investors buy rather than commission-based products agents must sell.

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David A. Rains, Managing Director and Healthcare and Life Specialty Leader and Michael R. Parker, Managing Director, Senior Business Development Broker

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With the erosion of defined benefit pension plans and uncertainty around the future of Social Security, the current workforce must find new ways to responsibly manage their income into and through retirement.

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Eric Paire, Head of Global Partners & Strategic Advisory, EMEA

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Movement Within Capital Ratios Leading to Uncertainty Amongst Mid-Size Companies

The impact of the Solvency II capital ratio on composite life and property/casualty balance sheets is proving more substantial than some companies initially expected, according to Eric Paire, Head of Global Partners & Strategic Advisory, EMEA at Guy Carpenter. This development is due to the double impact of market volatility and volatility within the solvency ratio itself.

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Eric Paire, Head of Global Partners & Strategic Advisory, EMEA

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Movement Within Capital Ratios Leading to Uncertainty Amongst Mid-Size Companies

The impact of the Solvency II capital ratio on composite life and property/casualty balance sheets is proving more substantial than some companies initially expected, according to Eric Paire, Head of Global Partners & Strategic Advisory, EMEA at Guy Carpenter. This development is due to the double impact of market volatility and volatility within the solvency ratio itself.

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David Flandro, Global Head of Business Intelligence, Julian Alovisi, Assistant Vice President and Lucy Dalimonte, Senior Vice President
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Given that economic expansion generally drives increased demand for insurance products, developing economies have also seen rapid rates of growth in insurance premiums over the last decade. Between 2001 and 2010, total insurance premiums grew by about 11 percent per annum in emerging markets, according to Swiss Re (1). This compares to growth of just over 1 percent in industrialized economies. In addition, twelve of the thirty largest developing economies (in terms of gross domestic product (GDP)) saw total non-life premiums grow more than 100 percent from 2004 to 2008 (2), prompting several large international insurers to increase their presence in these markets.

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Nick Frankland, Chief Executive Officer, EMEA and Franck Pinette, Chief Executive Officer, European Life Business,
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Life and non-life reinsurance are different. One of the major differences is the prominence of the role of the reinsurance broker in non-life reinsurance - more than 75 percent of non-life business is transacted through brokers. This compares with only 5 percent transacted in life reinsurance. Why is there such a pronounced difference? And why is the life market developing a need for more frequent use of brokers?

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