Swiss Re AG issued guidance for underwriters on how to assess life insurance applications of people who show signs of using medications for longevity purposes.
Metformin, traditionally used to manage type 2 diabetes, and rapamycin, an immunosuppressant developed for organ
transplant recipients, are part of a growing list of substances being explored for anti-aging purposes, Swiss Re said. In
some cases, the medications are being self-prescribed, the reinsurer said.
To help underwriters assess how to evaluate the disclosure of such drugs, Swiss Re has updated its Life Guide, which
is used by over 800 insurance companies and supports more than 23 million underwriting queries annually. Some of th
e drugs carry an uncertain risk, the company said.
“With repurposed medications, the clinical picture is still evolving,” Swiss Re’s head of global underwriting, Natali
e Kelly, said in a statement on Monday. “This update gives underwriters practical decision-making support — especially in cases where use of these drugs may be experimental or self-prescribed.”
He’s calling for one hurricane to hit Florida this season but he can’t
reveal exactly which area because his service is subscription-based, with zoned predictions that cost $400 a year.
“It wouldn’t be fair to customers who have purchased subscriptions” to say publicly where the storms will hit, he told Insurance Journal recently.
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Dilley and his GWO website claim as much as 90% accuracy, s
ometimes calculated years in advance. And many of his 200 or so subscribers appear to be true believers, with 80% of them return customers.
“I’ve been buying the GWO forecasts for several years now and it’s really good to know what to expect each hurricane season in advance of the other forecasting agencies,” said Darius Grimes, CEO of Disaster-Smart, a Florida-based consulting and inspection firm that verifies that structures are built to wind-resistant standards.
As an example of his models’ accuracy, Dilley told the story of Hurricane Irma, which raked part of Florida in 2017 and left more than 1 million property insurance claims in its wake, some of which are still being litigated. Dilley said that other hurricane forecasting services had predicted Irma would hit Florida’s east coast. GWO’s models had it going instead to Florida’s southwestern tip and up the state’s western flank. Dilley was proven right.