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I received request from some of you who do not have Facebook account to publish the video on this blog as the link on the right hand panel does not work properly. Here it is:

Desk calendars to be given away

We have 20 desk calendars to be given away to Insurance News regular readers.

To receive one of the calendars, all you have to do is email us a scanned copy of your recent business card.

The calendar will be mailed to the business address on your business card and due to cost constraint, we will only mail to an address in Malaysia.

The first 15 readers with an insurance related job title (including but not limited to actuarial title) on their business cards will be sent a desk calendar. The 16th to 20th readers with an actuarial title on their business cards will also receive the same.

Budget 2010

We have been covering Budget 2010 live today. In case you missed it, you can still visit Insurance News Twitter version for a list of Budget announcements related to the insurance industry.

Actuary - 6th best paid job in US

Actuary ranks number 6 in the top-paying jobs in US with a median salary of US$129,000. The top pay was reported to be US$257,000.

Source: CNN Money

Announcement

There will be minimum update on this blog this week. We are covering EAAC live from Seoul through Twitter. Other insurance news this week are also covered through Twitter.

We are on Twitter

You may now follow Insurance News on Twitter!

In addition to news published here, the Twitter version will also cover brief news not published here, news break and even rumours (afterall Twitter is what the little bird tells you!). We will clearly label rumours and will not be responsible for their accuracy!

To follow us on Twitter, go to the main page and click on Twitter logo on the right hand side of the page.

You can also follow TAS Search Vacancies by going to the webpage and again click on the Twitter logo (on the left this time). New job vacancies will get tweeted first.

IBSL suspends Ceylinco Takaful for 3 weeks

The Insurance Board of Sri Lanka (IBSL) has prohibited Ceylinco Takaful Ltd from issuing new general insurance policies for 3 weeks. Renewal is considered as new business for this purpose.

Source: IBSL

A marketing idea for you

If you are looking for new marketing ideas, Aviva UK may have something that interests you.

A research in UK found that 40% of new parents have no life insurance in place. Aviva therefore offers free cover of up to £10,000 to those with 1st offspring aged less than 6 months. The cover ends on the child's 1st birthday.

The free cover is available through advisers, hence creating an opportunity for the advisers to conduct a financial evaluation for the new parents.

Any insurance company wants to copy the idea here?

Source: Insurance Daily

ILP Gold Fund

Can you buy an investment-linked product in Malaysia that has unit fund invested in gold?

A quick check on the ILP funds that have their unit prices published in Business Times seems to suggest that there is currently no such fund available.

Banks have already embarked on various gold products including physical investment in gold coins, pendants and gold bars. There are also passbook gold investment accounts offered by some banks. You may also buy gold-linked capital protected unit trusts from the market.

Gold generated strong investment returns of 16% in the past 6 months and 43% in the past 24 months.

If there is no ILP gold fund in the market, for insurance product developers out there reading this blog, you may want to explore the feasibility and be the first insurer to launch the fund.

Source: The Star

A(H1N1) death rates

For actuaries out there, in case you are pricing a product to cover death risk for A(H1N1) patients, the world death rate currently stands at 0.42%. This is equivalent to the mortality rate of a male aged 50, according to the latest Malaysian insured life table M9903, definitely not to be taken lightly. (In layman's terms, the chance of an A(H1N1) patient dying is the same as the chance of a male aged 50 dies due to all causes before he reaches age 51).

The table below shows the death rate by country:



Source: The Star

Insurance cover for HIV-positive

PruProtect, a joint venture between Prudential and a South African firm, is offering life insurance cover for HIV-positive people in UK.

The sum assured is up to £250,000 for a maximum term of 10 years.

Not all HIV-positive people will be able to get cover, initially the target is 7% of these people. In the near future, this will move up to 20%.

Source: Telegraph

Actuarial science - top choice for boys in Kenya

Do you know that actuarial science is 1 of the most popular courses in Kenya?

Actuarial science is taught at University of Nairobi's School of Mathematics. 6 of the top 10 boys among the secondary school leavers chose to study actuarial science there.

Source: Sunday Nation

Industry New Business Statistics

The general insurance industry grew 3.2% in 2008 recording RM10.5 bil gross direct premium, contributed strongly by the non-motor sector.

Other industry statistics:

• Medical & health grew 16.7%
• Liabilities grew 10.5%
• PA grew 9.2%
• Life insurance NB annual premium equivalent: RM7.2 bil (2008), RM7.6 bil (2007)
• Ordinary life: 18.6% growth

Source: The Star

NAIC decided not to ease capital requirements

NAIC has rejected the life insurance industry's request to ease capital requirements. The request if approved would have freed up 6 to 7% of life insurers' total adjusted capital.

Source: Yahoo! Finance

PPI sales to be restricted

UK will ban the sale of Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) alongside unsecured loans and credit agreements from 2010. The reason is the cover is frequently mis-sold and the rates are uncompetitive.

PPI provide cover for repayment of unsecured loans if the borrower loses their job, becomes too ill to work, or dies.

Source: Insurance Daily

Spouses with Same Sex are Allowed

This may not come to this region soon.

In US, Blue Cross & Blue Shield announced that legally married same-sex couples will be entitled to enjoy spousal benefits in the health insurance plans.

While we do have health plans designed with spousal benefits in Malaysia (in particular employer-sponsored plans), same-sex marriage is not yet legal here.

The decision by Blue Cross & Blue Shield would put some challenge to the actuaries. Typically claims statistics are collected by sex. The spouse of a male policyholder is always assumed to be a female and vice versa. With same-sex spouses allowed, theoretically the pricing would be out. It would be interesting to see how US actuaries allow for this. Anyone with knowledge in this is welcome to comment on this.

Source: WKBW