George R. Dinney

  • WHO CONCEIVED THIS INSTRUMENT? - Universal Life Insurance
    • Subject to responsibility being accepted (and documented) by somebody else, we hold that the father is George R. Dinney, and the place of conception Winnipeg, Canada.

1981 - SOA - Who Conceived this Instrument?, by EJM, Ernest J. Moorhead (Jack), The Actuary, Society of Actuaries - 2p

  • Universal Life is not well understood and part of the mystery about it may well be due to a failure in my communication......
    •    .......Universal Life was developed in 1962 as a generic plan, which means that it subsumes all other life insurance products.

1987 - Book Chapter - The Search for New Forms of Life, by G. R. Dinney, The Search for New Forms of Life. In: MacNeill, I.B., Umphrey, G.J., Chan, B.S.C., Provost, S.B. (eds) Actuarial Science. The University of Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science, vol 39. Springer - link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-009-4796-2_19

  • Disintermediation of traditional life insurance is most severe for policies sold as savings instruments.

--  George R. Dinney

1982 - SOA - Programs to Conserve Traditional Life Insurance Policies, Society of Actuaries - 18p

  • 1980 1110 - Business Week - <WishList>
  • Canadian Journal of Life Insurance (1982), “Who invented Universal Life?”.
  • Dinney, G. R. (1971), “A descent into the maelstrom of the insurance future”. Canadian Institute of Actuaries.
  • Dinney, G. R. (1978), “A day in the life of your future”. Life Underwriter Associates of Canada.
  • Dinney, G. R. (1982a), “Life insurance as a game”. ARCH, 1982.1, 251–279.
  • Dinney, G. R. (1982b), “Product innovation in individual life insurance”. Society of Actuaries Seminars.
  • Dinney, G. R. (1986), “Universal Life unde vadis, Quo Vadis”. Broker World.
  • <WishList> - The Actuary (1981), “Universal Life—who carries this instrument?”.
  • The Pacific Insurance Conference (1975), “The Universal Life Insurance Policy”. James C. H. Anderson—footnote acknowledgment to G. R. Dinney.
  • 1971 - SOA - A Descent Into The Maelstrom Of The Insurance Future, by G.R. Dinney, The Actuary - 4p
    • Editor's Note: At the recent (June) meeting o/the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, George R. Dinney presided over a workshop on The Future of Life Insurance.
    • Mr. Dinney has kindly supplied us with a copy of his text for the workshop.
  • 1982 - 16th ACTUARIAL RESEARCH CONfERENCE - COMPUTERS: THE STATE OF THE ART AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ACTUARIAL PROFESSION - 5p
    • August 27 - 29, The University of Manitoba,
    • FRIDAY MORnING SESSION. 8:45 A.M. - 12:05 P.M., Chairman: Charles Fuhrer
      • 8: 45 - "LIFE INSURANCE AS A GAME", George Dinney, Vice President, The Great-West Life Assurance Company, Winnipeg
  • 1982 - SOA - Life Insurance as a Game, by G.R. Dinney, The Great-West Life Assurance Co, Society of Actuaries - 30p
  • 1982 - SOA - Programs to Conserve Traditional Life Insurance Policies, Society of Actuaries - 18p
  • 1982 - Dinney, Who Invented Universal Life? I Did, CANADIAN JOURNAL OF LIFE INSURANCE 9 (March 1982). - <WishList>
    • 1985 - JIR / NAIC - Universal Life: Taxation and the Actuarial Concept of Life Insurance - 10p
  • 1987 - Article - The Search for New Forms of Life - by G. R. Dinney
    • Book - Actuarial Science: Advances in the Statistical Sciences Festschrift in Honor of Professor V.M. Josh's 70th Birthday Volume VI
  • 1999 - SOA - A Brief History of Universal Life, by Douglas C. Doll, Society of Actuaries - 4p
  • D. Is It Life Insurance?
    • George R. Dinney, who coined the term "universal life" in the mid 1960s, pointed out that every life insurance policy could be split into four "modules":
      • 1. Death protection exceeding the initial cash value (term insurance).
      • 2. Savings fund (cash and maturity values).
      • 3. Guaranteed life insurance (or extended term) purchase rates.
      • 4. Guaranteed settlement option (or annuity) purchase rates.
    • It is the first, third, and fourth modules that distinguish "life insurance" products from "term plus side fund" products.

1983 - SOA - Universal Life and Indeterminate Premium Products and Policyholder Dividends, Society of Actuaries, by Thomas G. Kabele - 96p

  • 1982 - SOA - Programs to Conserve Traditional Life Insurance Policies, Society of Actuaries - 18p
    • George R Dinney ....the Flexible Premium nonpar policy has already been challenged by regulatory authorities on the grounds that the difference between the guaranteed premium and the current experience premium is a policy dividend.
    • Let us agree on our terms.
    • What I mean by traditional life policies is the life insurance product stereotypes.
      • A stereotype policy is one which is indivisible and wholly defined, by its terms, at issue.
      • Under this heading I would include the American version of "Universal Life" - what I call Univoisal Life.
        • [Bonk: Does Dinney Mean...?
          1. Adjustable Life, Walter Chapin, Minnesota Mutual?], or
          2. Using Non-Guaranteed Elements to reduce the premium (P1) paid?
            • Guaranteed vs Current]
    • Univoisal Life has a rigid design structure for ease of compliance with regulatory and tax standards.
    • On the other hand, "true Universal", based on my original formulation, is modular and completely flexible.
    • The replacement threat presented by Univoisal Life and, contrarily the value of Univoisal Life in defensive terms, can be measured by comparing the premiums for $100,000 of traditional whole life insurance, age 40, with premiums for the analogous Univoisal Life.
      • Traditional (average) - $16.50 M
      • Traditional (best) -15.50 M
      • Univoisal - 9.50 M
    • The Law of Requisite Variety appeals to conventional actuaries who devise complicated problems for which they develop equally complicated solutions.
    • The thesis is diametrically opposed to the concept of "universality", which aims at simplicity of both problem and solution.
  • GEORGE R. DINNEY: A long time ago when the late Robert Benchley was a university student, he sat for an examination in American history.
    • One of the questions asked him to review the recent U.S./Canada Fisheries Treaty first from the standpoint of the U.S., and then from the standpoint of Canada.
      • Benchley's reply was,
        • "I know nothing about the Canadian position and not much more about the American position.
        • Consequently, I propose to answer this question from the point of view of the fish."
    • This favorite anecdote is by way of saying that whereas most issues are presented from the perspective of the "begged question", the more discerning and interesting responses are frequently based upon a contrary perspective.
    • There is something of a begged question in our theme "Programs to Conserve Traditional Life Insurance Policies" since the perspective is "how" when perhaps it should be "whether" or "why".
    • My comments will address the question but with some parenthetical observations that speak to the broader questions that are implicit in our theme.
    • Efforts to combat replacement raise some rather basic questions of actuarial practice and actuarial ethics.

1982 - SOA - Programs to Conserve Traditional Life Insurance Policies, Society of Actuaries - 18p

  • George Dinney has called a process of selecting the most profitable risk ventures first a "decision-tree process.25
    • RSA, II, 227. Staley [12] suggests a similar maximization without the surplus constraint.

1981 - SOA - Insurance Company Growth, Society of Actuaries - 50p