Investing in longevity of research

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Longevity risk is an essential concept for life insurance companies and reinsurance companies. A deep understanding of the risk is crucial, as an underestimation of longevity can seriously affect the financial healthiness of pension plans and annuity funds.

Professor Johnny Li developed models to capture mortality rates of different populations and socio-economic groups. He also researched mortality-linked securities, with which longevity risk can be transferred from one party to another. This type of research can help insurance and reinsurance companies to better price their products and manage their longevity risk.

Munich Reinsurance Company is a reinsurance company committed to research in this area. More than 20 years ago, the company significantly invested in the Munich Re Chair in Insurance to expand the University’s ability to do cutting-edge research in areas related to insurance. Gord Willmot has held the Chair since 2001. As of July 1, 2020, Li became the second chairholder.

Learn more about the investment of Munich RE and Li's research.