The challenges for life insurance underwriting caused by changes in demography and digitalisation

Underwriting is a vital stage in the life insurance process and involves accepting individuals into an insurance fund on particular terms. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the underwriting development and its associated processes since the nineteenth century to the present and analyse contemporary challenges facing underwriting in life insurance. The focus will be on the two critical trends: demographic changes and the associated longevity risk, where a new generation of buyers need to be assessed; digitalisation and new technologies have created extraordinary possibilities for obtaining and analysing data. Based on questionnaire research, the discussion is illustrated by an analysis of attitudes towards sharing information with the insurance company through the use of new technologies that monitor health and lifestyles, which among others indicate that the level of acceptance regarding sharing data with the insurance company is low.