Macro Commentary
#361 | Cap Price Pressure
Quick Take When AG 49 was adopted in 2015, it established the supremacy of a single crediting methodology - an S&P 500 annual point-to-point with a 0% Floor, 100% participation rate and non-guaranteed Cap. This Benchmark Index Account is what…
#358 | The Asset Side
Quick Take Now that the liquidity crisis in banking seems to have ebbed, a new potential crisis is emerging - credit. There is a real and growing prospect of significant losses in certain asset classes that have enjoyed more than…
#354 | SVB, Liquidity & Life Insurance
Quick Take The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has shaken confidence in the financial system and raised questions about whether life insurers could find themselves in a similar situation. At first blush, the data is not comforting. SVB's unrealized capital…
#333 | Mid-Year Statutory Results Round-up
Quick Take As tumultuous as the economic environment has been this year, life insurers have shown a surprising level of resiliency. Aggregate surplus across the 18 life insurers in the sample is down just 1.8%, with the Big 4 mutuals…
#312 | The New Money Tipping Point
With rates making a decisive and sustained move upwards for the first time since 2019, we have to ask an uncomfortable question – at what point will life insurers begin to wall off in-force portfolios and offer new portfolios that…
#305 | The Specter of Rising Interest Rates
Not withstanding Russia’s horrific invasion of Ukraine and the potential impacts to the financial system, we are facing – for the first time since 2020 – the specter of a persistently rising interest rate environment. This time feels different. Think…
#262 | Inflation & Life Insurance
The picture for this post is a meme that has apparently been floating around the Reddit forums that have been instigating the surges in trading and prices of stocks, digital currencies and other commodities. Usually it's accompanied by the caption…
#211 | The Emerging Credit Event
Although most of the attention in the media has focused on the impact of the response to COVID-19 on equities, the proper functioning and pricing of credit is far more important for life insurers. The last two weeks have seen…
#208 | Taking Stock of the TNX
Although the public and the media are completely fixated by COVID-19 and the dramatic oscillations of the equity markets, we insurance folks are watching a different metric – the 10 Year Treasury yield (TNX). Since February 20th, the S&P has…
James Christie | Here We Go Again – With A Twist
The story currently playing out in the bond and equity markets seems eerily similar to what we saw in 2008 and 2009. Significant volatility in the equity markets combined with declining interest rates and rate actions by the Fed. In…
