Mortality

At Hannover Re, understanding mortality risk is at the heart of our offering for life insurers. We use data driven insights, market knowledge and an innovative mindset to ensure that our clients are able to offer competitive products that meet the needs of the modern consumer.

The assessment of mortality cover inevitably brings with it the need to obtain full and accurate data from the end-customer. This can be a lengthy process, involving extensive questionnaires, medical examinations and a great deal of coming and going between customer and insurer before a policy can be issued. Advances in digital technology can significantly shorten the timeframe through links to third party data. Studies show that the end-customer is willing to share data if the benefits are clear and data protection compliance is assured. Quick yet thorough underwriting is now a reality for many. 

Technological advances are leading to improvements in the pricing of mortality risks due to the availability of more detailed information. Data science, including machine learning, plays a major role, identifying patterns and allowing us to pick up personal characteristics which might change our view of the risk. This can help insurers to charge more tailored prices, and potentially undercut competitors where market pricing is inaccurate.

Devices such as smart watches have advanced from metrics linked to physical activity – step count, calories burned, distance covered, to tech which measures heart rhythms, aerobic capacity, sleep patterns and more. As a result, the focus of wearables has expanded from activity recording to health and wellbeing management. We are working actively with partners on weaving wearable data into an insurance product, process or journey and even in supporting incentive programmes for proactive self-care behaviour. The change in focus from fitness to health has the potential to significantly widen the appeal of the technology, bring down claims costs, and therefore bring down insurance prices for customers.

Another field of growing significance in terms of mortality cover is behavioural economics. Techniques such as question framing can be used to detect under-disclosed information such as smoking habits, or help customers make more appropriate economic decisions at the point of purchase. As part of our tailored solutions, Hannover Re would be pleased to assist your organisation in tapping into the power of  behavioural economics to enhance your client offering.