Munich Re creates video library to improve risk assessment

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Munich Re is leveraging in-house video technology to train underwriters on new forms of risk.

The reinsurance company unveiled a library of more than 70 medical impairment videos earlier this month, intended to teach life underwriters all the favorable and not-so-favorable factors associated with applicants’ health conditions.

Short three-to-five minute videos describe the different stages of known diseases, including breast cancer and diabetes. The illustrated information is then used by underwriters to price risk more accurately, the company says. All videos are available to customers in Munich Re’s EDGE Underwriting Manual online.

“This was a production efficiency play,” said Bill Moore, vice president of underwriting and medical at Munich Re, adding the new tools will improve the consistency of underwriting decisions and help insurance customers train incoming talent quickly as veterans continue to retire.

Munich Re gave underwriters their first taste of its video library at the Association of Home Office Underwriters Annual Conference in San Diego after roughly 10 months of production, Moore says. Each video was researched, scripted, and recorded by the carrier’s medical directors and underwriters for a personal feel.

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The headquarters of Munich Re stand in Munich, Germany, on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009. Munich Re, the worldÕs biggest reinsurer, said second-quarter profit rose 14 percent on higher investment income and the sale of a stake in a U.K. insurer. Photographer: Guenter Schiffmann/Bloomberg

Its inventory includes non-medical content as well. Reference materials are available to Munich Re underwriters pricing risk associated with motor-vehicle racing, mountain climbing, and foreign travel, Moore says.

There’s also an emerging trends category, with the sole purpose of helping underwriters understand how new trends in technology and medicine affect their business.

“This is a continuous project for us,” Moore said. “We will be launching more videos each month and updating the library.”

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Underwriting Risk analysis Life insurance
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