Resources for Actuaries

Research And More

LIMRA and LOMA provide a wealth of services for today’s actuaries. This page links you to these helpful resources:

Research reports and articles
Peer forums
Professional development programs

LIMRA and LOMA conduct research in areas directly supporting actuarial knowledge and decision-making, including our research partnership with the Society of Actuaries. We work together to provide you with current data related to actuarial experience for life, health, and annuity lines of business. We can also accelerate your industry knowledge and on-the-job effectiveness with conferences, peer forums, and professional development programs developed by industry experts.

Related Benchmark Research

Product Development

SOA Study: Understanding the Product Development Process of Individual Life Insurance and Annuity Companies (2018)

Use this Society of Actuaries (SOA)-sponsored study to understand and improve the product development process for individual life insurance and annuities.

Engaging Mortality

Use mortality to build customer engagement right into your products — you don’t have to rely solely on customer engagement programs.

Simplified Issue Made Simple (2017)

Learn more about one of the hot topics in the life insurance industry: simplified issue!

U.S. Critical Illness Insurance: Product Profiles (2015)

The critical illness market is constantly changing as carriers continue to introduce new and updated critical illness products. What does the critical illness product landscape look like today?

Product Development: 2010 (2011)

Has the Great Recession spawned product innovation? This report surveyed companies to find out.

Guaranteed Uncertainty: Socioeconomic Influences on Product Development and Distribution in the Life Insurance Industry (2011)

LIMRA and the Society of Actuaries sponsored a joint research study that identifies the key socioeconomic trends influencing the need and demand for the life insurance industry's products and services.

Individual Life Product Development Process: The Need for Speed (2007)

Getting products to market faster and more efficiently is increasingly important in meeting strategic goals. See the average timelines for taking various life products from idea to implementation and learn what companies have done to improve the individual life product development process.

U.S. Individual Life Insurance Sales

Size it up — quarterly U.S. individual life insurance sales results reflecting 85 percent of the premium market, as well as annual industry estimates and the comprehensive U.S. Individual Life Insurance Yearbook. Updated U.S. Individual Life Insurance Sales, Industry Estimates (1975 - 2023).

2024 GenAI Insurance Trends

In this whitepaper, learn about five key GenAI trends influencing the financial services industry.

U.S. Long-Term Care Insurance Persistency

Long-lasting benefit? Find out about U.S. industry long-term care insurance product-persistency experience benchmarking, product development, and planning.

Combination Products

2023 Canadian Life Insurance Barometer

The Canadian Insurance Barometer is a study that tracks the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers in Canada, with a particular focus on life insurance.

2024 Insurance Barometer Study

The Insurance Barometer is an annual study that tracks the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of adult consumers in the United States, with a particular focus on life insurance.

Securing the Future

New data from the 2024 Insurance Barometer Study — 42% of American adults say they need (or need more) life insurance, representing a life insurance need-gap for about 102 million adults.

Individual Life Combination Products

A detailed look at the state of the combination product market.

Underwriting

Transforming Underwriting: Automated Underwriting Company Practices for Life Insurance in 2017

As technology advances, expectations for faster, simpler transactions are increasing. Automated underwriting can help companies meet these expectations.

TechTopics: Spotlight on Automated Underwriting (2017)

In this update, we share some of what we’re seeing and hearing about advances in automated underwriting in the life insurance industry.

Automating Underwriting for Life Insurance: Company Practices Study (2016)

Automated underwriting solutions offer a way for companies to access the information they need to make informed decisions and issue policies faster, with benefits for all stakeholders.

U.S. Individual Life Insurance: COVID-19 Mortality Experience Study

Explore the impact of COVID-19 on individual life insurance claims experience.

U.S. Individual Life — Quarterly COVID-19 Reported Claims Updates

These quarterly reports provide an update of COVID-19 and pandemic related reported claims. Data from 32 companies representing approximately 72 percent of the industry face amount in-force are included in this analysis. LIMRA, RGA, TAI, and the SOA jointly collected the data supporting the results of this report.

US Individual Life — COVID-19 Mortality Experience — Cause of Death Report

Learn about the results of a cause of death (COD) analysis focused on how the rates of death from various causes were impacted throughout the pandemic period, through the fourth quarter of 2021.

Analytics

Center of Excellence for Analytics

Identify risks and opportunities by tapping into LIMRA’s predictive analytic expertise and community.

2023 Digital Transformation in Workplace Benefits

How are U.S. workplace benefits carriers investing in digital transformation?

The People Imperative: Technology and Talent in the Insurance Industry

What does it take to hire and retain the best technology talent? Technology represents one of the biggest opportunities and threats to the life and annuity industry.

The People Imperative: Advanced Analytics Roles in the Insurance Industry

Data science and advanced analytics will drive growth in the life and annuity industry. This report discusses talent trends and offers strategies to attract and retain employees with these skills.

Inside Insurance Analytics: Ethical, Methodological, and Risk Management Best Practices

LIMRA asked analytics leaders in the life and retirement industries about their best practices for handling ethical, methodological, and other analytics-related risks. Here are our findings.

The Emerging Technology Series

This series of reports focuses on critical emerging technologies topics for the financial services industry, as organizations pivot to meet current and post-pandemic needs.

LOMA Research Resources

LOMA Research Briefs

Concise research summaries on a variety of industry topics, including actuarial issues.

LOMA Quick Queries

Peer surveys from LOMA’s committees including actuary-related topics.

Actuarial Compensation Report

This special report pulls data for actuarial positions featured in the U.S. Executive and U.S. Non-Executive Compensation Surveys.

Service Turnaround Times Survey - North America

Life insurance and annuity turnaround times study by product.

Upcoming Related Events

Life Insurance Conference

This premier conference offers life insurance conference professionals the opportunity to network with peers and leading industry experts while participating in cross-functional learning.

Retirement Industry Conference

This important conference covers the latest strategic, sales, product, operations and administration, marketing and distribution trends as well as regulatory issues that impact the retirement industry.

Supplemental Health, DI & LTC Conference

The Supplemental Health, DI & LTC Conference provides a unique opportunity to consider a cross-functional view of supplemental health products, individual disability insurance, and long-term care standalone and combination products.

Marketing Forum

This event focuses on areas critical to today’s marketers, including Digital Initiatives, Consumer Insights, Customer Experience, and overall Marketing Strategy.

LIMRA Annual Conference

The LIMRA Annual Conference is one of the largest gatherings of senior executives representing diverse sectors of the financial services industry.

Study Groups and Committees

Advanced Analytics Study Group

Study Groups are a great way to network with others in the industry

LOMA Chief Actuary Committee

Provides a forum for Chief Actuaries to discuss trends, strategies, and best practices in all areas that impact chief actuaries, including product development, risk management, financial reporting, investments, tax, talent management and development, education, professionalism, technology and other issues facing the industry.

LOMA New Business Committee

Assists member companies in the improvement of their new-business operations in areas such as policy issue, underwriting, compliance, and technology by way of sharing information as well as discussing various methods of operation and practices.

LOMA Product Development Management Committee

Directs its primary attention to improving the annuity product development/management process within the industry, improving product design in order to better meet consumer/distribution needs, gaining a better understanding of industry related issues. The product focus is primarily on individual annuity products with a lesser focus on individual life insurance products.

LOMA LIC Finance & Actuarial Committee

A committee of the Life Insurer's Council, the Finance and Actuarial Committee is an opportunity for members of small and medium-sized life insurance companies to network and develop resources with peers.

Education and Training

Strategic Leadership

Engage new thinking, new skills, and new capabilities for today's leaders.

Underwriting short online courses

Taking underwriters to the next level, this series of short online courses covers over 200+ topics (medical, non-medical, and financial risks) in all areas of underwriting, and has been carefully designed to complement LOMA courses as well as the FALU designation.

Underwriting Life and Health Insurance (UND 386)

UND 386 introduces risk assessment principles applied to underwriting individual and group life and health insurance, including specialized policies and supplemental coverages.

Related News

LIMRA: U.S. Life Insurance New Premium Tops $3.7 Billion in First Quarter 2024

Total U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium fell 1% year over year to $3.73 billion in the first quarter, according to LIMRA’s U.S. Life Insurance Sales Survey.

In-Plan Annuities Are Gaining Momentum in the Workplace, Are They Poised to Be the Next Big Thing? Maybe.

Facing the potential of more than 25 years in retirement, many of today’s workers worry about running out of money. While half of retirees enjoy guaranteed lifetime retirement income from a pension, just 15% of current private-sector workers have access to a defined benefit (pension) plan. Thanks to the SECURE Act, more employers are interested in offering workers the option to invest in lifetime annuity products within their 401(k)s, creating a pension-like income in their future retirement.

LIMRA: Powered by Whole Life Sales, Canadian Life Insurance New Annualized Premium Increased 2% in First Quarter 2024

Canadian life insurance new annualized premium increased 2% year-over-year to $445 million (CAD) in the first quarter 2024, according to LIMRA’s Canadian Individual Life Insurance Sales Survey. The number of policies sold was level with results in the first quarter 2023.

LIMRA: First Quarter U.S. Annuity Sales Mark 14th Consecutive Quarter of Growth

Total U.S. annuity sales were $106.7 billion in the first quarter of 2024, 13% above prior year results, according to results from LIMRA’s U.S. Individual Annuity Sales Survey, which represents 92% of the total U.S. annuity market. This is the highest first quarter sales results since LIMRA started tracking sales in the 1980s.

LIMRA: Life Insurance Sales Dip Slightly in First Quarter 2024

Total U.S. individual life insurance new annualized premium slipped 1% year over year to $3.76 billion in the first quarter, according to LIMRA’s preliminary U.S. Life Insurance Sales Survey.

Research And More

Sales Results and Forecasts - Individual Insurance

Sales Results and Forecasts - Workplace Benefits

U.S. Persistency Studies

International Persistency Studies