Salvatore Curiale

Salvatore R. Curiale

• Chapter 1, Life Insurance and the Question of Solvency Salvatore R. Curiale, Superintendent of Insurance, New York State Insurance Department
• I am not sure there are any serious issues confronting the life insurance industry these days, unless of course you consider solvency, liquidity, junk bonds, deteriorating mortgage and real estate portfolios, risk-based capital requirements, asset mix, separate accounts, credit risk, Congressional inquiries, shrinking surplus, demutualization and more.
• ⇒  What happened?
• ⇒  How did a boring, straight-forward business become so interesting and so difficult to regulate?
• During the past decade the life insurance industry has undergone dramatic changes.
  • A business that was  previously characterized by stable risks and generous profits has been transformed into one marked by instability of risk and evaporating profit margins.
• The change was precipitated by the dramatic rise in interest rates in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
  • The relatively high rates offered by money market funds, Certificates of Deposit and other similar products prompted insurers to develop insurance alternatives that shifted the marketing emphasis from security to, at least partially, rate of return.

1993 – Book – Financial Management of Life Insurance Companies, edited by J. David Cummins