Changes required to ensure long term profitability.

Change is needed in both the retail and group insurance markets in Australia if insurers are to return to sustainable long-term profitability.

Alain Néemeh, Executive Vice President, Australia and Canada, Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (NYSE: RGA) spoke earlier this week on the topic of sustainability at the 2013 Financial Services Council (FSC) Beyond 2013 Conference at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia.

Speaking to leaders in the life insurance industry, Mr Néemeh provided an international perspective to the challenges faced by the local industry as profitability appears to be deteriorating significantly in the first half of 2013. Highlighting some of the key risk areas observed in both the retail and group insurance markets, Mr Néemeh drew parallels to a similar situation faced in North America three decades ago. He underscored the importance of risk selection and emphasised how an alignment of interests between insurers, policyholders and third parties, particularly on product design and end-to-end claims management, are crucial to ensure the market returns to stability.

Following his presentation, Mr Néemeh said, “It’s not always easy to comment on a challenging question such as what makes a sustainable life insurance market. Fortunately we can draw on extensive experiences across the globe and over periods of time to look for trends and, where possible, appropriate solutions. Ultimately, what we do know is that change is required in Australia and there is no better agent for change than industry losses.” Mr Néemeh’s presentation comes days after RGA reported financial results for the second quarter of 2013. The company reported second-quarter net losses of $49.6 million. Losses this quarter were primarily attributable to an after-tax charge of approximately $184 million to increase claims liabilities in Australia, predominantly tied to the group total and permanent disability (TPD) line of business and, to a lesser extent, group disability income.

“The Australia market is the only one in which RGA has significant exposure to group TPD business. Not only have claim incidences for group disability benefits been increasing, but the claim lags throughout the TPD claim reporting process have also risen at a significant rate”, Mr Néemeh said.

According to Mark Stewart, Managing Director of RGA’s Australian subsidiary company, RGA Reinsurance Company of Australia Limited, the Australian life insurance market has experienced decade high lapse rates in the retail market over the last two years. “For some time now we have been working closely with our clients to better understand some of the drivers of worsening claims experience in the retail space. We believe that a similar effort is required to understand how our group experience can provide a platform for developing more sustainable solutions for all Australians”, Mr Stewart said.

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