The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries E-Cigarettes working party was established in 2016 with the objective of investigating the impact of e-cigarettes on the life insurance industry. The group is a multi-disciplined team of insurance professionals including actuaries, underwriters and claims personnel who have a broad range of experience across a number of sectors. By looking at a variety of products (Life / CI / annuities) from different perspectives (pricing, product design, underwriting, claims) we hope to better inform our industry colleagues on how to deal with e-cigarette users from an insurance perspective.

In 2016 there were approximately 2.8m e-cigarette users. Whilst there has been some suggestion (most notably by Public Health England) that e-cigarettes are “95% safer”, their true long term impact on health is currently uncertain. Add to this the unknown impact on the behaviours of both smokers and non-smokers as well as the confused public perception over e-cigarette risk - and it becomes clear that work is needed to better understand their overall impact!

The working party aim to share findings as the work progresses through presentations at conferences and through papers and articles.

For more information contact please contact the Working Party Chair Niel Daniels.