Global insurance and reinsurance broker WTW has announced the launch of a new version of its Geospatial Mortality Model (GMM) designed to provide enhanced forecasting capabilities to the U.S. pension risk transfer market.
While U.S. pension plan sponsors already use GMM to set longevity assumptions, insurance companies can now use this new version.
By integrating this model into their operations, insurers can improve PRT pricing, enhance asset liability management and increase visibility into longevity risks.
GMM combines pension-specific information with geographical data to generate highly flexible and predictable mortality assumptions.
The model leverages insights gleaned from where participants live, combining socioeconomic and health-related factors with participant-specific pension data, which have been shown to be strong predictors of life expectancy.
The model was trained on mortality data from nearly 4 million life-years, including post-COVID experiences through 2024, and evaluated more than 200 socioeconomic factors to specifically identify the health, wealth and lifestyle factors that best predict longevity.
By leveraging this updated data, WTW aims to provide insurers with the precision needed to ensure they gain a strategic advantage in the competitive PRT market, optimize their asset liability management, and mitigate the financial impact of accidental mortality trends.
Beth Ashmore, Senior Managing Director, Retirement at WTW, commented: “We are pleased to work with colleagues in the insurance consulting and technology fields to expand the reach of WTW’s Geospatial Mortality Model (GMM).
“GMM already provides pension plan sponsors with better insights into the unique longevity of their plans, and we’re excited to bring this enhanced functionality to the insurance market.”
“For insurance companies, accurate mortality assumptions are fundamental to pricing and risk management,” said Karen Grote, managing director of insurance consulting and technology and head of North America Life at WTW.
“By making this proven model available to the insurance community, we are giving PRT authors a powerful new way to improve pricing, enhance longevity risk management and compete with more confidence.”
