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Julien Descombes. Credit: Swiss Re

Life Health > Life Insurance > Life Planning Strategies

Swiss Re Underwriter Hopes Death Rates Will Improve

By Allison Bell

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An executive who affects what life insurance costs throughout the world says death rates in many countries still seem to be about 5% to 10% higher than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Julien Descombes, the chief underwriting officer for life and health reinsurance at Swiss Re, talked about mortality trends during a webinar organized by a Swiss Re research arm, the Swiss Re Institute.

“I call it the COVID hangover,” Descombes said.

But Descombes said Swiss Re is still hoping that mortality will get back on track in a few years and that world life expectancy estimates will improve.

What it means: Those helping clients with retirement planning, estate planning, annuity purchases or life insurance purchases — or any other matters involving mortality and life expectancy estimates — need to continue to allow for extra uncertainty about mortality.

Reinsurance: A reinsurance company provides insurance for insurance companies.

The cost and availability of reinsurance affects what the direct writers sell and how much they charge for life insurance, annuities and other products.

The big picture: The Swiss Re Institute held the webinar to go over its global economic and insurance forecasts for 2024.

Jerome Jean Haegeli, Swiss Re’s chief economist, said that concerns about the effects of rising interest rates and geopolitical risk remain but that conditions look good overall.

Descombes suggested that global conditions for sales of life insurers’ retirement products should be strong for the next 20 years, and especially in China and other emerging markets.

Thanks to the increasing the number of older, middle-income people in places like China, more than half of the world’s retirement product sales will be coming from emerging markets, up from 45% five years ago, Descombes said.

Mortality: Death rates are still noticeably higher than they were in 2019 in places like the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, Descombes said.

“COVID is still present,” he said. “Health care systems in many countries have not yet fully recovered.”

But “we remain optimistic about long-term future mortality improvement,” he added.

Descombes cited falling COVID rates, health care system recovery and wellness efforts as factors that should cause death rates to fall and push up life expectancy.

COVID-driven improvements in vaccine technology should also help, by providing new ways for doctors to prevent and treat COVID, Descombes said.

Julien Descombes. Credit: Swiss Re

Allison Bell

Think_Allison

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