Morning Briefing: John Hancock pulls back from long-term care insurance

John Hancock pulls back from long-term care insurance… MetLife to buy back $3 billion stock… Cyber market could be worth $7.5 billion…

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John Hancock pulls back from long-term care insurance
John Hancock Financial will stop selling long-term care insurance policies from December.

The insurer stopped selling new group policies in the sector in 2010 and now believes the time is right to withdraw from the market. Existing policies will not be affected though.

“Today there are far fewer outlets through which individual LTC insurance is sold, impacting the growth potential for the product,” Melissa Berczuk, a spokeswoman for the company told the Boston Globe. “Also, consumer demand for individual LTC insurance has fallen and remains stagnant.”

MetLife to buy back $3 billion stock
Investors in MetLife Inc. will have cash returned to them following strong results for the insurer.

The board has approved a $3 billion buyback of stock with chairman, president and CEO Steven A. Kandarian making the following statement:

"Excess capital belongs to our shareholders, and we are pleased to announce our largest ever buyback authorization now that we have defined a capitalization and execution plan for the separation of Brighthouse Financial. Together with our dividend, which has grown by 116 percent over the past three years, this buyback authorization shows that our strategy of generating higher free cash flow is gaining momentum.”
 
Cyber market could be worth $7.5 billion
US insurers are getting better at underwriting and pricing standalone cyber insurance policies and the market is growing amid businesses’ concern about increased attacks.

Special consultant to the Insurance Information Institute Dr Robert Hartwig and author of the III’s blog Terms + Conditions say that more than 60 carriers now offer standalone cyber policies and that there are some estimates that suggest the market could be double where it is now, to around $7.5 billion in gross written premiums.

In their white paper, Cyber Risk, Threat and Opportunity; the authors acknowledge the challenges that insurers face in underwriting cyber, including the constantly changing range of perpetrators, targets and exposure values; a lack of historical actuarial data; and the interconnected nature of cyberspace, which makes it difficult for insurers to assess the likely severity of cyberattacks.

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