Momentum Conference 2012: Review of session B1: Life debate

This was an interactive session where there were a number of pre-submitted questions as well as additional topics raised in the session.

Many interesting and relevant topics were discussed, these included but were not limited to:

• Regulation
• Future of traditional insurance products
• Services provided by the insurance industry

The cost versus benefit of Solvency II was hotly debated. Questions raised included:

• Could the same objectives have been achieved in a more cost effective way?
• Especially in the UK, where there is already ICA, was the cost to the industry justified?
• Its impact on other European countries, especially for products with guarantees largely present in Continental Europe.

Many felt that perhaps what was done could have been accomplished in a more cost effective way; but the benefit to the industry, besides improvements in risk management, such as overhauling of legacy systems, and the improved transparency and documentation of data and models is valuable.

Also the suitability of the products in the market to the current environment. In particular if there is a future for with-profits products:

•  The principle of risk sharing is characteristic of with-profit policies and it does have a place in the market.
• However, it probably would not be marketable in the current format.
• The unit-linked version is more marketable and perhaps for the future a new generation of with-profit products would be designed to suit the market.   

Overall, some very good discussions and a great platform to share industry insight, however, the format of the debate was somewhat unexpected. I was under the impression that it would be a panel discussion/debate, however, there was a facilitator on stage, and the speakers listed in the programme were probably in the audience. Perhaps this was to encourage audience participation.