[Cause of death in life insurance]

In this study, mortality cases of a leading insurance company were collected over a period of several years and evaluated for the causes of death. In case of incorrect information given concerning the status of health, German rules and regulations allow an insurance company to resign from a contract only within the first three years. Because of this restriction, the cause of death is usually investigated during this period of time only. In Germany, unlike in many other countries, the official death certificate does not contain the cause of death, therefore the attending physicians have to be contacted for medical information. This rather costly and time-consuming procedure has to be limited to the three-year period. What seems to be at first glance an unfortunate restriction, turns out to be an enormous advantage at second glance. This three-year period can give excellent feedback about specific risks and trends of antiselection. Data of 1,549 persons dying within the first three years were evaluated. It turns out that cancer is the most common cause of death and cardiovascular diseases follow in second place. The underwriter and the consulting physician should keep in mind this surprising fact that tumors and not cardiovascular diseases play the most important role in life assurance. Unfortunately there are no such screening measures for tumors as we have at hand for cardiovascular diseases. Females have a lower mortality than males. Cross-sections show risks typical for certain age groups. In people under age 30, unnatural causes of death such as accidents and suicide cause more than two thirds of deaths. In the higher age groups, natural causes such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases become more and more important. In females cancer is even more important than in males, since they are less prone to die from cardiovascular diseases during the age period that is of interest to life assurance. The most common type of cancer in men was lung cancer and in females breast cancer. Trends of antiselection could be found in contracts with low sums assured, especially in older applicants. Our current practice of risk assessment can easily explain this phenomenon. For economical reasons, less time, money and effort can be spend on minor contracts than on those with high sums assured. On the other hand, it is unquestionable that a mandatory examination before offering life assurance coverage guarantees excellent risk assessment.