Browsing by Author "Kelly, Mary"

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    Age as a Variable in Insurance Pricing and Risk Classification
    (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) Nielson, Norma; Kelly, Mary
    This paper examines the use of age in the delivery of personal insurance to Canadians. We find that age is a reliable classification variable and one that can be practically implemented. Primary concerns about age as a classification variable centre around the issue of socially acceptability. In particular, we focus on age and auto insurance where, unlike life and health insurance, there exists no strong intuitive causal relationship. In North America, the frequency and severity of auto accidents are highly correlated with age, in a nonlinear relationship. The data produce a distinctive U-shape curve when accident history is graphed against age. However, heterogeneity in driving abilities for both younger and older ages emphasizes that this relationship is one of correlation. To assess whether there exists a “better” classification variable, this paper explores possible alternatives to age. In the end, none of the variables examined captures a driver’s risk with the same degree of accuracy as can be achieved using age.
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    The Distribution of Property/Liability Insurance in Canada: Costs and Market Structure
    (Western Risk and Insurance Association, 2006) Kleffner, Anne; Kelly, Mary
    Studies in the U.S. show that insurers that operate as exclusive writers have lower expense ratios than agency writers. In addition, exclusive and commodity writers dominate personal lines of insurance and agency writers dominate commercial lines. In contrast, Canadian agency writers dominate both personal and commercial lines. Furthermore, in Canada, a firm's distribution method does not affect its relative expenses. We conjecture that the higher fixed costs faced by exclusive and commodity writers in Canada counterbalance the lower variable costs faced by these firms. The lack of dominance in personal lines by Canadian exclusive writers is a rational response to the smaller market size in Canada and the higher level of government intervention.
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    The impact of adjuster moral hazard on driving records
    (Society of Actuaries, 2009) Kleffner, Anne; Kelly, Mary; Isotuba, Sapna
    In a first-party recovery scheme for automobile property damage, the first-party insurer compensates not-at-fault vehicular damage. In this scheme, adjusters may not have the incentive to assign liability when the driver is, in fact, at fault for the accident. This is due to adjusters not having to coordinate with a third-party adjuster, and, for insureds that carry collision coverage, the assignment of fault does not appreciably affect the compensation paid out. This in turn reduces the effectiveness of the experience-rating component of the insurance premium. Empirical evidence that supports the presence of incorrect fault assignment is provided. A stochastic model of experience rating analyzing the impact of incorrect fault assignment on driving record classes confirms that low-risk insureds pay more for insurance than if fault was correctly assigned.
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    Why Age Matters for Young and Old Drivers
    (Business Information Group, 2006-05) Nielson, Norma; Kelly, Mary
    The inclusion of age in the design and distribution of auto insurance captures real differences among prospective insureds. The best solutions to reducing the importance of age in auto insurance remain outside the realm of insurance. The reliance on age as an underwriting variable can be decreased through better assessments of fitness to drive and through the implementation of changes that increase road safety for all road users. In Canada, both the frequency and severity of auto accidents are highly correlated with age. It appears that using insurance scores in automobile insurance might allow insurers to rely less heavily on age as a proxy for driver risk. However, insurance scores face two large hurdles before they can supplant age in the rating and underwriting processes of insurance in Canada.