With the UK life insurance market facing fast-paced political, economic and market pressures, insurers are facing calls for revolution not evolution. And in today’s highly fluid business environment, it’s the businesses demonstrating technical agility and adaptability, which will thrive tomorrow.

To paint a clearer picture of the landscape, KPMG’s Life Actuarial team have been conducting the Technical Practices Survey for more than 10 years. Our latest survey highlights fundamental technical issues facing the industry while exploring a range of methodologies and approaches that have been adopted by peers. The survey has been completed by 24 firms, representing a wide spectrum of the UK life insurance market. And out of the 24 firms, 11 are either Internal Model or Partial Internal Model firms.

Each year, in response to market developments and participant feedback, we select thematic areas to explore in more detail in our report. This year those areas include:

• Methodologies underpinning calibration of fundamental spread under stress;
• Firm’s preparedness for climate change reporting and stress testing; and
• Operational risk modelling.

Read our survey results in a PDF - Technical Practices Survey 2020, alternatively if you would like someone to take you through your firm’s results in detail, please contact us. 

Current version - Published on 25 January 2021
Minor changes to executive summary – longevity risk parameters
Previous version - Published on 8 December 2020