How Do Life Insurance Companies Determine Rates?

  1. 4330 POINTS
    Jerry Vanderzanden, CLU, ChFC
    Co-Founder, Coastal Financial Partners Group, California
    Actuaries and marketing executives for an insurance company collaborate during the product development process. The pricing process is really a misnomer: The rates actuaries come up with are by costing more than pricing and then refined by matching up with market based pricing and competitive analysis from the marketing participants in the process. Assumptions from the actuaries for cost of capital, mortality experience, persistency, investment, expense, profitability, volume, etc. go into the mix and are tweaked in an iterative process.
    Answered on April 30, 2013
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  2. 7647 POINTS
    Mark Bartlett CLCS
    Branch Owner, TWFG Insurance Services, Fremont California and the Greater Bay Area Representing Dozens of Insurance Carriers
    In answer to your question each individual life insurance company determines it own rates based on information they currently have available to them which would include, past experience, current trends, and future estimates. This allows the insurance carrier to offer a quality product at a competitive rate with staying profitable. Pretty much all carriers use the same criteria but not all have the same experiences or look at future outcome the same way which is why you have variable pricing from different companies.
    Answered on April 30, 2013
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  3. 12689 POINTS
    Ted Ratliff
    Owner, SFS Associates,
    Life insurance rates are based on a complicated set of actuarial tables based on mortality.  To simplify it, they look at the statistics of how long the average person is expected to live if they are a non-smoker.  They also look at gender.  There is a mortality table that all insurance companies use.  They will use that table to determine rates for the average person (standard rates).   They then look at health factors to determine preferred rates for the very healthy and various rate tables as a persons health factors decline and accumulate until a person is no longer considered insurable by a standard policy.
    Answered on June 26, 2013
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  4. 0 POINTS
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    David RacichPRO
    Fountain Hills, Arizona
    In my career, life insurance companies seem to price their profitability margins against the actuarial tables of the 2001 CSO and create rates based on their actual mortality experience and predicted policy lapses. It is not a science. The pricing difference between companies can be 25% among the top 35 carriers, so it pays to shop.
     
    Answered on June 26, 2013
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  5. 4249 POINTS
    Gary Lane
    President, Lane Independent Agency, Southern California
    What is your age? How about your health? Are you married? What is your occupation? What sports are you active in? Where do you live? How often do you see your doctor? Do you smoke? Take alcohol? How often? Do drugs? Which and when? How long ago did you quit doing any of these? Those are some of the things carriers will consider. Thank you. GARY LANE.
    Answered on July 18, 2014
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