ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hannover Life Reassurance Company of America (Hannover Re US), member of the Hannover Re Group, announces the election of Doug Ingle, Vice President, Underwriting Research to the AHOU (Association of Home Office Underwriters) Hall of Fame.
AHOU is the world’s largest association of life underwriters, and each year it elects a limited number of professionals to its Hall of Fame. Inductees are considered pioneers in life risk underwriting, selected for their fervent and active industry contribution via research, published articles, speaking engagements and education.
Doug began his underwriting career, which spans over four decades and includes experience with both direct life insurance carriers and reinsurers, after graduating cum laude from Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota in 1974. He joined Hannover Re US in 2010 with a breadth of underwriting experience and a penchant for underwriting and mortality research.
One of his key industry contributions occurred in the wake of the introduction of preferred risk underwriting in the 1990s. Doug’s research focused on unmasking the inner workings of the Framingham Risk Score when he realized the potential value in applying those techniques to preferred underwriting and pricing. The Framingham Risk Score was first developed based on data obtained from the Framingham Heart Study to estimate individuals’ 10-year risk of developing coronary heart disease. The Framingham Risk Score was similar to the debits and credits system used in life underwriting, but, more importantly, it isolated the value of each risk factor using multivariate regression analysis, in so doing, debits and credits were not double counted.
He applied the techniques used for predicting heart disease in his research to predict mortality. As a result of his efforts, Doug co-founded a preferred risk pricing program, authored the ALU (Academy of Life Underwriting) chapter on preferred risk underwriting and wrote an article in On the Risk in 2002 that described the mathematical techniques employed. Recently, the life industry has launched similar data analytic efforts. His published work describing how to apply multivariate mathematical techniques to life underwriting predated the industry’s predictive analytics movement by almost two decades.
Other noteworthy industry contributions include a treatise for underwriters describing how to translate medical literature into underwriting guidelines and a course teaching underwriters how to read EKGs. Once he mastered converting mortality findings into actuarial present value dollars, he co-authored the ALU chapter on cost-benefit studies and published a protective value study in On the Risk.
After learning how to create a traditional actuarial mortality study, Doug unearthed the extraordinary similarity between Cox multivariate regression results and traditional actuarial studies, thus closing the gap between medical literature, underwriting and actuarial sciences. He published his findings in 2013.
In addition to his FALU (Fellow of the Academy of Life Underwriting) and FLMI with Distinction (Fellow Life Management Institute), Doug has been extremely active within industry associations. He is past chair of the Morbidity Mortality Liaison Committee and Underwriting Experience Studies Committee. He also served on the SOA’s Individual Life Experience Committee and Underwriting Criteria Team. Doug has spoken at many regional and national SOA (Society of Actuaries), AAIM (American Academy of Insurance Medicine), AHOU, HOLUA (Home Office Life Underwriters Association) and IHOU (Institute of Home Office Underwriters) meetings.
Doug’s work has been published extensively in On the Risk, Journal of Insurance Medicine, Contingencies, and Best’s Review.
“We are proud of Doug’s lifetime achievement award from the AHOU. Doug has been an industry leader with his research using alternative sources such as NHANES and other mortality data. He has unique talents that bring together the underwriting profession and analytics,” said Kevin Oldani, Senior Vice President and Chief Underwriter.
About Hannover Re US
Hannover Life Reassurance Company of America (Hannover Re US), which is licensed and/or accredited in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam, is the North American life and health reinsurance subsidiary of the Hannover Re Group. Hannover Re, with gross premium of EUR 17.8 billion, is the fourth-largest reinsurer in the world. It transacts all lines of property & casualty and life & health reinsurance and is present on all continents with around 3,300 staff and a network of more than 140 subsidiaries, branches and representative offices. The rating agencies most relevant to the insurance industry have awarded Hannover Re very strong insurer financial strength ratings (Standard & Poor's AA- "Very Strong" and A.M. Best A+ "Superior"). For more information, visit www.hannover-re.com.
