Underwriting in the 21st Century
Underwriting will experience a substantial change in the forthcoming century. Extended life expectancy accommpanied by medical progress in treatment and prognosis will demand new risk evaluation guidelines. These developments have to be reflected as accurately as possible.
Evidence-based underwriting is a response to those groups who jeopardise the very foundation of underwriting. They consider underwriting as discrimination unless there is clear statistical evidence. Modern underwriting has to meet this requirement.
Alongside the work of classical underwriters, more and more decisions will be generated by electronic systems or expert systems. Even new risk evaluation systems based on other than purely medical indicators will support the underwriting process in future. They will handle traditional insurance products as well as newly developed products. In the near future we should not be surprised to see an applicant answering lifestyle questions in the Internet for the purposes of self-underwriting.
|
