Swiss Re Underwriter Hopes Death Rates Will Improve

Descombes suggested that global conditions for sales of life insurers’ retirement products should be strong for the next 20 years, and especially in China and other emerging markets.

Thanks to the increasing the number of older, middle-income people in places like China, more than half of the world’s retirement product sales will be coming from emerging markets, up from 45% five years ago, Descombes said.

Mortality: Death rates are still noticeably higher than they were in 2019 in places like the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, Descombes said.

“COVID is still present,” he said. “Health care systems in many countries have not yet fully recovered.”

But “we remain optimistic about long-term future mortality improvement,” he added.

Descombes cited falling COVID rates, health care system recovery and wellness efforts as factors that should cause death rates to fall and push up life expectancy.

COVID-driven improvements in vaccine technology should also help, by providing new ways for doctors to prevent and treat COVID, Descombes said.

Julien Descombes. Credit: Swiss Re