An in-depth look at the increasingly significant convergence between the insurance industry and the capital markets. This important publication, by two premier financial experts, explores the unique convergence of finance and insurance. The book covers the basics of property-casualty insurance, securitizing insurance risks, looks at life insurance in the United States and ALM in insurance. It addresses the questions and concerns of investment banks, brokerage firms and the insurance/reinsurance sector itself, examines ongoing trends and issues, and how current market pressures on insurance companies do not just create challenges but actually point the way to future promising developments.

Unassuming but formidable, American maritime insurers used their position at the pinnacle of global trade to shape the new nation. The international information they gathered and the capital they generated enabled them to play central roles in state building and economic development. During the Revolution, they helped the U.S. negotiate foreign loans, sell state debts, and establish a single national bank. Afterward, they increased their influence by lending money to the federal government and to its citizens. Even as federal and state governments began to encroach on their domain, maritime insurers adapted, preserving their autonomy and authority through extensive involvement in the formation of commercial law. Leveraging their claims to unmatched expertise, they operated free from government interference while simultaneously embedding themselves into the nation's institutional fabric. By the early nineteenth century, insurers were no longer just risk assessors. They were nation builders and market makers. Deeply and imaginatively researched, Underwriters of the United States uses marine insurers to reveal a startlingly original story of risk, money, and power in the founding era.

The business guide to Big Data in insurance, with practical application insight Big Data and Analytics for Insurers is the industry-specific guide to creating operational effectiveness, managing risk, improving financials, and retaining customers. Written from a non-IT perspective, this book focusses less on the architecture and technical details, instead providing practical guidance on translating analytics into target delivery. The discussion examines implementation, interpretation, and application to show you what Big Data can do for your business, with insights and examples targeted specifically to the insurance industry. From fraud analytics in claims management, to customer analytics, to risk analytics in Solvency 2, comprehensive coverage presented in accessible language makes this guide an invaluable resource for any insurance professional. The insurance industry is heavily dependent on data, and the advent of Big Data and analytics represents a major advance with tremendous potential – yet clear, practical advice on the business side of analytics is lacking. This book fills the void with concrete information on using Big Data in the context of day-to-day insurance operations and strategy. Understand what Big Data is and what it can do Delve into Big Data's specific impact on the insurance industry Learn how advanced analytics can revolutionise the industry Bring Big Data out of IT and into strategy, management, marketing, and more Big Data and analytics is changing business – but how? The majority of Big Data guides discuss data collection, database administration, advanced analytics, and the power of Big Data – but what do you actually do with it? Big Data and Analytics for Insurers answers your questions in real, everyday business terms, tailored specifically to the insurance industry's unique needs, challenges, and targets.

This media sales primer serves as a step-by-step manual to assist students in attaining sales proficiency and confidence. The author employs a practical, hands-on approach, enabling readers to develop valuable professional and interpersonal skills and to improve their options for obtaining sales positions. Underwriting 101 covers the activities involved in sales work, such as developing sales kits and presentations, handling objections, writing proposals, closing, and preparing underwriting announcements. Role-playing, sales promotion, résumé preparation, and interviewing are also covered. Special features include: *materials needed to teach the 15 week course, including a syllabus, calls schedule, positioning worksheet, sample proposals, sample résumé, sample cover letter, and course evaluation; *comments from former students who have secured sales positions upon completion of the course; *underwriting announcement guidelines for FCC conformation; and *a guide to Internet research tools for sales presentation enhancement. Intended for upper-level students in radio or broadcast sales courses, Underwriting 101 will be useful to sales instructors with or without sales experience. It is also appropriate for use in college radio stations, as a resource for sales departments.

Experts discuss the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of genetic testing in determining eligibility for life insurance. Insurance companies routinely use an individual's medical history and family medical history in determining eligibility for life insurance; this is part of the process of medical underwriting. Insurers have also long used genetic information, often derived from family history, in underwriting. But rapid advances in gene identification and genetic testing are changing the way we look at genetic information. Should the results of genetic testing (which might identify a predisposition toward disease not related to medical history) be available to life insurance medical underwriters? Few if any life insurers currently require genetic testing, but there are no laws or regulations prohibiting its use. Genetics and Life Insurance examines the complex economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of genetic information in life insurance underwriting. The contributors are legal scholars, representatives of the life insurance industry (including an actuary and an insurance physician), a geneticist, a genetic counselor, a philosopher, and a consumer advocate. They explore all aspects of an issue that has only recently drawn the attention of policymakers and the public. The book opens with a report on the results of a public opinion poll on genetics and life insurance. Succeeding chapters present the insurer perspective, a discussion of the economics of risk selection in life insurance, background information on the process of underwriting, a scientific analysis of genetic risks and mortality rates, a philosophical discussion of fairness and genetic underwriting, the viewpoints of consumers and genetics counselors, a comparison of different international policy approaches to the issue, and a legal analysis of antitrust implications when insurers collaborate in setting standards for medical underwriting. In the final chapter the editor addresses various policy options, examining the pros and cons of each one and assessing their political feasibility.

Underwriting Services and the New Issues Market integrates practice, theory and evidence from the global underwriting industry to present a comprehensive description and analysis of underwriting practices. After covering the regulation and mechanics of the underwriting process, it considers economic topics such as underwriting costs and compensation, the pricing of new issues, the stock price and operating performance of issuing firms, the evaluation of new issue decisions, and an analysis of the many choices issuers face in structuring new issues. Unlike other books, it systematically develops a critical perspective about underwriting practices, both in the U.S. and international markets, and with a level of detail unavailable elsewhere and an approach that reveals how financial institutions deliver underwriting services. Underwriting Services and the New Issues Market delivers an innovative and long overdue look at security issuance. Foreword by Frank Fabozzi - Covers underwriting contracts and arrangements on pricing and costs - Focuses on the financial consequences of the issuance decision for the firm - Describes and evaluates decisions regarding the features and structure of new security offerings.