News from Milliman

• Milliman analysis: Pension funding deficit grows in November

  07 December 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation’s largest defined benefit pension plans. In November, these plans experienced a $7 billion decline in market value and a $1 billion increase in pension liabilities. While declining assets drove the deficit growth, the 4.53% discount rate—the lowest in the 11-year history of this study—continues to be the big story.

• Milliman MedInsight anticipates health reform requirements, makes significant strides in 2011

  09 November 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., one of the premier global consulting and actuarial firms, today announced that its MedInsight solution has been adopted by more than 30 new clients in 2011. MedInsight is now used by more than 75 healthcare payers, employers, government entities, third-party administrators and community health coalitions.

• Milliman analysis: Investment gains fuel pension funded status improvement

  04 November 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation’s largest defined benefit pension plans. In October, these plans experienced a $44 billion investment gain and a $2 billion increase in pension liabilities. The $42 billion improvement in funded status comes in the wake of a $254 billion increase in the pension funding deficit in the third quarter of calendar year 2011, which was the second worst financial quarter on record. Only once in the history of this study has pension performance been worse; during the historic fourth quarter of calendar year 2008.

• Milliman announces hiring of senior actuary Elliot Varnell

  02 November 2011

  London—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced the hiring of Elliot Varnell, FIA, to its London office. Mr. Varnell will focus on further developing Milliman’s leadership in economic capital and asset/liability modelling. He joins Milliman following 15 years in the industry. He was most recently a principal advisor at KPMG. Mr. Varnell worked previously at Barrie & Hibbert, Deloitte, and Bacon & Woodrow.

• Milliman analysis: Declining interest rates fuel record growth in pension funding deficit

  06 October 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation’s largest defined benefit pension plans. In September, these plans experienced a $31 billion investment loss and a $93 billion increase in pension liabilities. The massive increase in the pension funding deficit closes out a rough quarter for these pensions. Since June 30, the funded status deficit has grown by $252 billion, making the third quarter of calendar year 2011 the second worst in the history of this study. The only previous quarter in which pensions have performed so poorly was the fourth quarter of calendar year 2008, which spanned the financial crisis.

• New study finds pensions are preferred retirement plan

  29 September 2011

  Washington, D.C.—A new study of the retirement plan choice in the public sector finds that defined benefit (DB) pensions are strongly preferred over 401(k)‐type defined contribution (DC) individual accounts. The study analyzes seven state retirement systems that offer a choice between DB and DC plans to find that the DB uptake rate ranges from 98 to 75 percent. The percentage of new employees choosing DC plans ranges from 2 to 25 percent for the plans studied.

• Milliman and EagleEye Analytics Fortify Strategic Alliance with Growth and Profitability Solution for Insurers

  19 September 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced the next phase in its strategic alliance with EagleEye Analytics, an insurance solutions company that provides predictive analytics to the insurance industry. The firms’ new solution focuses on providing property & casualty and life insurers with information that can fuel increased profitability.

• Milliman analysis: Corporate pension funded status drops for second consecutive month

  13 September 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation’s largest defined benefit pension plans. In August, these plans experienced a $29 billion investment loss and a $33 billion increase in pension liabilities. The August increase in the pension funded deficit comes on the heels of an even larger increase in July. The combined $128 billion growth in the deficit between June 30 and August 31 is the largest two-month increase since a $134 billion increase in May and June of 2010.

• Milliman launches dynamic asset-liability management solution

  12 September 2011

  Paris—Milliman, Inc., one of the premier global consulting and actuarial firms, today announced that it has launched its Dynamic ALM solution built on its leading financial modelling solution, MG-ALFA®. The solution is based on research and client projects which have shown that a company’s Solvency II model can be used as an active asset liability management tool to support the optimisation of the asset allocation strategy, thereby linking solvency calculations with actual risk management.

• GPC Solutions to embed Milliman Advanced Risk Adjusters technology in its NHS product portfolio

  08 September 2011

  London—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced that its risk adjustment product, Milliman Advanced Risk Adjusters (MARA), will be embedded in the analytic product offered by GPC Solutions Limited (GPC), which serves Clinical Commissioning Groups.

• Milliman analysis: Corporate pensions experience largest funded status decline of the year

  09 August 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation's largest defined benefit pension plans. In July, these plans experienced a $6 billion investment loss and a $62 billion increase in pension liabilities. The resulting $68 billion increase in the pension funded status deficit is the largest decline so far in 2011.

• Milliman annual individual disability income survey indicates slack sales due to economic conditions but strong underlying profitability

  09 August 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released results from its 2011 survey of the U.S. individual disability income (IDI) market. Fifteen insurance companies, representing 90%-95% of the traditional IDI new business issued today, were asked about the business issued between 2002 and 2010, the distribution of sales among key marketing segments, current underwriting requirements, product offerings, favorable and unfavorable trends, and opportunities and obstacles in the current IDI market. Milliman has published this annual survey since 2007.

• Milliman launches first Global Family Takaful Report

  20 July 2011

  Seattle—Milliman is proud to present the first ever Global Family Takaful Report, launched at the International Takaful Summit in London in July 2011. This is the first report of its kind, providing a unique in-depth analysis of family Takaful. The report focuses on the characteristics inherent within the family Takaful market.

• Milliman identifies key questions that will drive the creation of state healthcare insurance exchanges

  14 July 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today identified a series of considerations for states, health plans, and employers as they look toward the 2014 state exchange implementation deadline set forward in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and reiterated in regulations issued by Health & Human Services on July 11.

• Milliman releases comprehensive study of life insurance industry mortality and lapse experience results

  13 July 2011

  Seattle—Milliman has completed one of the largest and most comprehensive life insurance mortality and lapse studies ever undertaken. The study is called MIMSA (Milliman Industry Mortality Study and Analysis) and covers the United States individual life insurance business of 29 companies. MIMSA contains $27.8 trillion of exposure for mortality and 1.6 million deaths over study years 2000-2009. It also contains $26.8 trillion of exposure for lapse and 8.1 million lapses.

• Milliman recognized as 2011 Microsoft technical and high-performance computing partner of the year

  12 July 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, has been named recipient of the 2011 Microsoft Technical and High Performance Computing Innovation Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions using Milliman's MG-ALFA® actuarial projection system and the Microsoft platform.

• Milliman analysis: Rising interest rates improve corporate pension funded status by $25 billion in June

  07 July 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation's largest defined benefit pension plans. In June, these plans experienced a $10 billion investment loss but still saw an overall improvement in funded status due to a $35 billion liability reduction. This resulted in a $25 billion improvement in the funded status deficit, bringing it to $186 billion.

• Milliman analysis: Corporate pension funded status declines on falling interest rates for the second straight month

  07 June 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation's largest defined benefit pension plans. In May, these plans experienced flat asset performance and a $26 billion liability increase due to a drop in interest rates. This resulted in a $26 billion increase to the funded status deficit, bringing it to $210 billion.

• Milliman Medical Index indicates healthcare costs for typical American family of four have doubled in fewer than nine years

  11 May 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of the 2011 Milliman Medical Index, which measures the total cost of healthcare for a typical family of four covered by a preferred provider organization (PPO). The 2011 MMI cost is $19,393, an increase of 7.3% over 2010, which is the lowest annual rate of increase in more than a decade. Yet even though the rate of increase is the lowest in recent memory, the increase in total dollars—$1,319 in 2011—is the highest in the history of this study.

• Milliman analysis: Corporate pension funded status falls as interest rates drop in April

  10 May 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation's largest defined benefit pension plans. In April, these plans saw pension liabilities increase by $31 billion due to a drop in interest rates, overshadowing a $19 billion increase in assets. This resulted in a $12 billion increase to the funded status deficit, bringing it to $184 billion.

• Milliman offers sophisticated risk adjustment software to state insurance exchanges free of charge

  12 April 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced that it will provide its risk adjustment software, Milliman Advanced Risk Adjusters (MARA), to states implementing a health insurance exchange.

• Milliman analysis: Rising interest rates improve pension funding

  11 April 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its latest Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation's largest defined benefit pension plans. In March, these plans experienced no asset growth but did see liabilities decrease by $16 billion based on an increase in the discount rate.

• Milliman analysis: Modest increase in 2010 funded status as a result of record employer contributions

  29 March 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the results of its annual Pension Funding Study, which consists of 100 of the nation’s largest defined benefit pension plans. In 2011, these plans experienced asset returns of 12.8% (a $115 billion improvement) that were offset by a liability increase of 7.7% (a $103 billion increase) based on a decrease in the discount rate. The decline in discount rates fueled record levels of pension expense for these plan sponsors. Collectively, these pensions went into the year expecting a $30 billion charge to earnings, with the final number almost doubling that estimate, at $59.4 billion.

• Milliman field tests financial implications of emerging international accounting standard for Allstate

  22 March 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today announced completion of a project with the Allstate Corporation (Allstate). Allstate participated in the International Accounting Standards Board's ("IASB") field testing project related to the exposure draft entitled "Insurance Contracts." The field testing exercise required a number of complex and statistical calculations. Allstate engaged Milliman to perform calculations outlined in the accounting standard exposure draft using Milliman's Reserve Variability Model. Milliman helped Allstate prepare data for input into the system, analyze output from the various field test model runs, and understand how the potential changes might affect Allstate's financials.

• Milliman analysis: Corporate pension funded status drops in February despite market gains

  09 March 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the latest update to the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation's largest defined benefit pension plans. In February, these plans experienced asset increases of $15 billion and liability increases of $21 billion, resulting in a $6 billion decrease in pension funded status for the month. The decline follows two consecutive months of improvement and is the exception to a recent upward trend in pension funding that has shrunk the pension funded deficit to $255 billion since the funded status deficit hit an all-time high of $460 billion in August. For the last 12 months, despite a 13% return on assets, these pensions experienced a $1 billion decline in funded status.

• Milliman analysis: Corporate pensions begin 2011 with improvement in funded status

  09 February 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the latest update to the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation’s largest defined benefit pension plans. In January, these plans experienced asset increases of $6 billion and liability decreases of $35 billion, resulting in a $41 billion increase in pension funded status for the month and the second consecutive month of positive performance. For the last 12 months, these pensions experienced a $15 billion improvement in funded status, which compares favorably to the performance over the course of calendar year 2010, when these pensions saw the funded status deficit increase by $49 billion.

• Milliman analysis: Corporate pensions end 2010 on strong note but funded status still down for the year

  11 January 2011

  Seattle—Milliman, Inc., a premier global consulting and actuarial firm, today released the latest update to the Milliman 100 Pension Funding Index, which consists of 100 of the nation’s largest defined benefit pension plans. In December, these plans experienced asset increases of $24 billion and liability decreases of $20 billion, resulting in a $44 billion increase in pension funded status for the month. For the year, these pensions experienced asset increases of $50 billion but a liability increase of $99 billion, increasing the pension funded status deficit by $49 billion.