Steven Wevodau - Life Insurance

In the third installment of our Life Insurance CFO Survey in 2008, the Tillinghast insurance consulting business of Towers Perrin focused on key industry challenges companies expect to face in 2009. Specifically, the survey explored the primary challenges to companies’ growth, profit and risk objectives in the coming year, and how they are responding to those challenges.

It is important to note that the response period for this survey ended just as the current financial crisis started. Therefore, respondents would not have taken these events into account.

The survey found that companies are most concerned about the economic environment and their ability to achieve an attractive growth rate in sales. Adding to their worries, few companies feel well prepared to respond to these challenges. Scale is a major obstacle standing in the way of their preparedness. Given that increased scale is a goal for many companies, it is not surprising that respondents expect market consolidation to continue and to see an increase in the market share of the Top 10 fleets. In terms of the economic environment, the major concerns are bond defaults or write-downs, changing interest rates and credit conditions. In response to these concerns, companies are improving