Accounting rules played a major role in determining which carriers dropped interest-sensitive life and health insurance products when the Federal Reserve Board started pushing rates lower in an effort to prop up the banking system.
Donald Chu and Michael Gross at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services make that observation in a commentary published in a collection of mid-year assessments of the insurance ratings outlook.
In a review of frequently asked questions about U.S. life insurers, the analysts referred directly to long-term care insurance (LTCI) in a list of products susceptible to low rates.
Long-term disability (LTD) insurance writers have noted that their products are also suspectible to lower rates.