Could Interest Rates Shoot Up Like a Rocket?

COVID-19 turned what looked as if it was going to be a pretty good, dull 2020 for U.S. life insurance and annuity issuers into a year of terror. (Related: Is the World Functional Enough to Support Life Insurance?) One guiding question is: Interest rates. If inflation goes up, couldn't rates go up? What then? For five other questions that may come up often when we're covering the life and annuity sectors in 2021, see the slideshow below. Here's a review of the questions we proposed for the life and annuity markets for 2020, and how relevant those questions ended up being. 1. Is the world functional enough to support life insurance? Value of Question: Excellent. Answer: To be determined. 2. Wait, what's "principles-based reserving"? We forget. Value of Question: Incomplete. Answer: COVID-19 distracted us, and we lost track of what's happening with the effort to move life insurers to a new approach to establishing insurance reserves. 3. Will Ebola or some other disease lead to a spike in death claims? Value of Question: Excellent. Answer: Yes. 4. Will the return of estate taxes become for Democrats what the return of risk pool coverage for people with health problems is for the Republicans? Value of Question: Satisfactory. Answer: To be determined. But this does not seem to be the most interesting question that could be asked about the Democrats' future financial services plans. 5. Will life insurers become the nation's real wellness monitors? Value of Question: Good. Answer: Maybe. Many companies are still sending out press releases about wellness engagement. — Read The Year 2020, for Agents, on ThinkAdvisor. — Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.