Technical Practices Survey 2026

The UK Life Insurance market continues to evolve, shaped by regulatory reform, technological advancements and changing customer expectations. Insurers must therefore be ready to react and adapt to the changing circumstances in order to maintain a competitive edge and capitalise on opportunities which arise wherever there is change.

Success in this changing landscape requires insight from across the market. Therefore, to shed some light on the practices and dynamics shaping the industry, KPMG’s Life Actuarial team have been conducting the annual Technical Practices Survey for almost two decades. As ever, the focus of this survey is to enable UK life insurance firms to identify the key technical issues within the industry, and the range of methodologies and approaches that have been adopted by their peers. The 2025 survey has been completed by 18 firms, representing a wide spectrum of the UK life insurance market, including 9 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. In this year’s report, we have highlighted a number of key topics throughout the report, including the new requirements around the SCR analysis of change, modelling the matching adjustment under stress, expectations around solvent exit planning, and proposed changes to liquidity reporting. In order to further support firms in the assessment of their capital management policies, the report also includes additional calibration points for selected risks (such as interest rate, credit stress, mortality, and longevity risks) at 1-in-20 levels.

The survey results are accessible via the link below. If you would like someone to take you through the survey results in detail, or for any further queries, please contact us.

The UK Life Insurance market is continually evolving in response to large scale disruptions such as regulatory pressures, technological advancements and changing consumer expectations. Participants in this market must therefore look to react and adapt to the changing circumstances in order to maintain a competitive edge and capitalise on opportunities which arise wherever there is change.

Staying ahead requires insight from across the market, so to shed some light on the inner workings of the industry, KPMG’s Life Actuarial team have been conducting the annual Technical Practices Survey for over a decade. As ever, the focus of this survey is to enable UK life insurance firms to identify the key technical issues within the industry, and the range of methodologies and approaches that have been adopted by their peers. The 2024 survey has been completed by 19 firms, representing a wide spectrum of the UK life insurance market, including 8 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. In this year’s report we have highlighted the move to Solvency UK and the impact on the calculation of the Matching Adjustment as a hot topic. In order to further support firms in the assessment of their capital management policies, the report also includes additional calibration points for selected risks (such as interest rate, credit stress, mortality, and longevity risks) at 1-in-20 levels.

The survey results are accessible via the link below. If you would like someone to take you through the survey results in detail, or for any further queries, please contact us.

The UK Life insurance market has continued to face challenges posed by regulatory, political and economic drivers over the past year. Insurers remain continually required to demonstrate adaptability in their practices to ensure their businesses continue to thrive.

To paint a clearer picture of the landscape, KPMG’s Life Actuarial team have been conducting the annual Technical Practices Survey for over a decade. As ever, the focus of this survey is to enable UK life insurance firms to identify the key technical issues within the industry, and the range of methodologies and approaches that have been adopted by their peers. The 2023 survey has been completed by 19 firms, representing a wide spectrum of the UK life insurance market, including 9 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. In this year’s report we have focused on the interest rate and inflation risk calibration in respect of the 2022 experience as well as the forward looking impact of COVID-19 experience on firm’s risk calibration.

In order to further support firms in the assessment of their capital management policies, the 2023 report also includes additional calibration points for selected risks (such as interest rate, credit stress, mortality, and longevity risks) at 1-in-20 levels.

The UK Life insurance market has continued to face challenges posed by regulatory, political and economic drivers over the past year. Insurers remain continually required to demonstrate adaptability in their practices to ensure their businesses continue to thrive.

To paint a clearer picture of the landscape, KPMG’s Life Actuarial team have been conducting the annual Technical Practices Survey for over a decade. As ever, the focus of this survey is to enable UK life insurance firms to identify the key technical issues within the industry, and the range of methodologies and approaches that have been adopted by their peers. The 2022 survey has been completed by 21 firms, representing a wide spectrum of the UK life insurance market, including 10 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. In line with the 2021 survey, this year we have continued to look at the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, covering both the historic impacts of the pandemic on assumption setting at YE21, as well as forward-looking impacts on firms’ risk calibrations and correlations.

In order to further support firms in the assessment of their capital management policies, the 2022 report also includes additional calibration points for selected risks (such as interest rate, credit stress, mortality, and longevity risks) at 1-in-10 and 1-in-20 levels.