Joseph Belth

  • josephmbelth.com/
  • theinsuranceforum.com/
  • Belth v. New York State Department of Insurance
    • FOIA / FOIL
    • 2004 0616 - Schiff's Insurance Observer - Insurance Regulator Sucks up to Big Insurers: Makes Public Data Secret, Volume 16, Number 8 - 4p
  • 1994 0313 - The Washington Post - Do Life Insurers Foul the Sales Pitch?, By Albert B. Crenshaw - [link]
    • Belth, Hunt, MetLife (LIRP), Regulators
    • Whether this inaction is "because they don't want to do anything or don't understand or don't have the resources I am not prepared to say," Belth said, but he added, "I think it's a combination" of those things.
  • In the January 1987 issue of Insurance Forum Joseph Belth makes the statement :
    • In my opinion, life insurance sales illustrations are out of control.
    • Furthermore, I am not aware of any significant attempts by any insurance organization or by the actuarial profession to deal with the problem.

1987 01 - SOA - Non-Guaranteed Promises: A New Standard of Practice, by William T. Tozer, The Actuarial Update, Society of Actuaries -  8p

⇒  William T. Tozer chairs the Subcommittee on Dividends and Other Non-Guaranteed Elements of the Life Committee of the IASB - [International Accounting Standards Board]

  • [Joseph Belth - IUL - Indexed Universal Life Insurance]
  • 2019 0529 - Joseph Belth - No. 314 - Indexed Universal Life Policies—The Views of Two Prominent Professionals About the Risks for Buyers - [Lawrence Rybka and Richard Weber] - [link]
    • 2019 10 - NAEPC JOURNAL - How to Retire in the Magical Retirement Income in the Clouds, Issue 32, by Lawrence J. Rybka, J.D., CFP® - 11p
    • 2019 0514 - Leimberg - Are You in Good Hands?, by Richard Weber - 25p
    • During the years of The Insurance Forum, and more recently on my blog, I have never written an article about indexed universal life (IUL) policies.
    • I have been asked by many readers to write on the subject, but have not done so.
    • The reason is simple. I have obtained and looked closely at samples of IUL policies. However, I have not understood them well enough to feel comfortable writing about them, and I have always avoided writing on topics I do not understand.
    • Promoters of IUL policies have occasionally said I am too stupid to recognize a good thing when I see it.
    • My response to such promoters is that they are welcome to their opinions.
  • 2020 0408 - Joseph Belth - No. 363 - Scott Witt's Views on Indexed Universal Life - [link]
    • General Observations
    • I am impressed by Witt's views on IUL.
    • One point I found especially interesting, discussed in the third paragraph of the fourth section of his review, is how the current illustration rules favor IUL policies over whole life policies.
    • In my opinion, IUL is a product that is sold by agents who do not fully understand it to clients who do not fully understand it.
      • It will be interesting to see what IUL promoters—insurance companies, marketing organizations, and agents—have to say about Witt's views. 

1960s

  • 1962 - SOA - Digest of Discussion of Subjects of Special Interest Individual Life Insurance: Individual Life Insurance, Society of Actuaries - [Joseph Belth Mentioned] - 4p
  • 1964 - AP - Dynamic Life Insurance Programing, by Joseph M. Belth
    • The Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 31, No. 4 (Dec., 1964), pp. 539-556 (18 pages), Published By: American Risk and Insurance Association - JSTOR
  • 1966 - Book - The Retail Price Structure in American Life Insurance, by Joseph Belth
    • 1967 05 - SOA - Book Review - The Retail Price Structure in American Life Insurance, by Joseph Belth, by Neil W. Macintyre, Society of Actuaries - 2p
  • 1967 - AP - A Report on Life Insurance, by Joseph M. Belth - <WishList>
    • Bureau of Business Research, Indiana Univ., Bloomington, Ind. 47401. 192 p. - The study is written from the viewpoint of the buyer and contains considerable information of value to the careful buyer. One chapter discusses life insurance prices and includes specific recommendations regarding companies that showed up well in the author's price analyses.
      • files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED037560.pdf
  • 1967 - AP - Observations on Solvency in the Context of Life Insurance Regulation, by Joseph M. Belth, The Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Dec., 1967), pp. 539-560 (22 pages)
    Published By: American Risk and Insurance Association - JSTOR - jstor.org/stable/251420 
  • 1967 - Consumer Union Series - Belth Study
    • Mentioned in: 1975 - Book - The Curious Consumerist Crusade: A Response To The Latest Attacks By Anti-Life Insurance Critics, by Halsey Josephson
  • 1968 - AP - Price disclosure in life insurance: : One method for dispelling ignorance in the life insurance market, Business Horizons, J.M. Belth - [link]
  • 1968 - SOA - New York Actuaries Club Discusses  "Belth" Theory - The Actuary, Society of Actuaries - 2p
  • 1969 - AP - Life Insurance Price Measurement, by Joseph Belth - 28p
  • 1969 - LR - Life Insurance Prices, by Joseph Belth - 15p
  • 1969 - AP -The Relationship between Benefits and Premiums in Life Insurance, by Joseph Belth - 21p (jstor)\
    • 1973 / 1974 - GOV (Senate) - The Life Insurance Industry, Senator Philip Hart (D-MI) - Part 2 of 4 - [PDF-733p-GooglePlay]

1970s

  • 1971 - AP - Savings Bank Life Insurance Prices and Market Shares, by Joseph Belth - (p896-908) - 1973 - GOV (Senate) - Hart
  • 1972 - AP - Price Disclosure in Life Insurance, by Joseph Belth - [link-16p]
  • 1973 - AP - Credit Life Insurance Prices, by Joseph M. Belth, The Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Mar., 1973), pp. 115-127 (13 pages), Published By: American Risk and Insurance Association
  • 1974 - AP - Deceptive Sales Practices in the Life Insurance Business, by Joseph Belth - 22p
    • 1974 -
      • (p292) - 
    • 1973 / 1974 - GOV (Senate) - The Life Insurance Industry, Senator Hart (D-MI) - 4 Parts --- [BonkNote] ---  1973 0223
      • Part 3 of 4 - [PDF- 641p-GooglePlay]
        • (p2074) - "Deceptive Sales Practices in the Life Insurance Business, " by Joseph Belth (draft) 
  • 1975 - AP - Information Disclosure to the Life Insurance Consumer, by Joseph Belth - 24p
  • 1975 1203/1204 - GOV (Senate) - Veterans Insurance Information Disclosure - Senator Stone
    • [PDF-989p/1065p-GooglePlay]
    • p255 - Statement of Joseph Belth
      • p269 - AP - Deceptive Sales Practices in the Life Insurance Business, by Joseph M. Belth, The Journal of Risk and Insurance, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Jun., 1974), pp. 305-326 (22p), Published By: American - Risk and Insurance Association
  • 1978 - AP - Distribution of Surplus, by Joseph Belth - JSTOR

1980s

  • 1981 - AP - 140 Million Forgotten Consumers—The Life Insurance Policyholders of America, by Joseph M. Belth, The Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Summer 1981), pp. 1-12 - 12p - JSTOR
  • 1981 - SOA - The Life Insurance Business---The View of Consumerists, rsa81v7n17, Daphne Bartlett, Moderator, Society of Actuaries - 16p
  • 1985 - Book - Life Insurance: A Consumer's Handbook, by Joseph Belth
  • 1987 01 - SOA - Non-Guaranteed Promises: A New Standard of Practice, William T. Tozer, Actuarial Update, Society of Actuaries -  8p

1990s

  • 1991 - LC - Belth v. Garamendi -
    •  [link-CaseText-Opinion]
      • On April  13, 1990, under the California Public Records Act (Gov. Code, § 6250 et seq.), Belth requested from the Department of Insurance (Department) copies of seven sets of documents regarding Executive Life Insurance Company. On April 19, the Department denied his request
    • JOSEPH M. BELTH, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. JOHN GARAMENDI, as Insurance
    • Court of Appeal of California, First District, Division Five
    • 232 Cal.App.3d 896 (Cal. Ct. App. 1991), 283 Cal. Rptr. 829

2000s

  • 2009 0924 - GOV (House) - Recent Innovations in Securitization, Paul Kanjorski (D-PA)
    • [PDF-123p, VIDEO-archive.org]
    • Joseph Belth - Statement of Joseph M. Belth on Life Settlements - p103-117
    • House - Committee on Financial Services - Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises

2010s

  • 2013 0911 - Corporate Crime Reporter - Insurance Industry Mystery Payments - [link]
  • 2015 - Book - The Insurance Forum: A Memoir, by Joseph Belth
  • 2016 1207 - Forum 400 - Battle for the Soul of the US Life Industry - [Joseph Belth]  ---  [BonkNote]  ---  [VIDEO-YouTube-48:28]
  • 2017 - NAIFA - Joseph Belth To Receive The 2017 John Newton Russell Memorial Award - [link]
  • 2018 1118 - No. 294: Universal Life Policies—a Disaster for Life Insurance Companies and Their Policyholders, by Joseph Belth - [link]

2020s

  • 2021 0202 - Joseph Belth - No. 408: A Recent Change in the Federal Income Tax Law Designed to Benefit Wealthy Life Insurance Policyholders - [link]
  • On state vs. federal regulation in the U.S., I have no position.
    • I am an insurance professor, not a political scientist.
    • State regulation has serious shortcomings, but I do not know if federal regulation would be any better.

--  Joseph Belth

1981 - SOA - The Life Insurance Business--The View of Consumerists (rsa81v7n38), Daniel F. Case - Moderator, Society of Actuaries - 18p

  • The life insurance disclosure movement has focused almost entirely on point-of-sale disclosure, to the virtual exclusion of post-sale disclosure.
  • Life insurance companies are therefore under pressure to provide attractive point-of-sale information.
  • Some of the methods used to achieve this objective adversely affect long-time policyholders.
  • Emphasis should be placed on the need for post-sale disclosure. and policyholders should be educated on how to perform their own evaluations.
  • Publicity should be given to companies whose actions improve the position of long-time  policyholders. and to companies whose actions adversely affect long-time policyholders.

1981 - AP - 140 Million Forgotten Consumers—The Life Insurance Policyholders of America, by Joseph M. Belth, The Journal of Consumer Affairs, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Summer 1981), pp. 1-12 - 12p - JSTOR

  • Joseph BELTH: Before you sit down, John, let me ask you a question.
    • Rumor has it that there were some extensive discussions between highly placed life insurance officials and officials of the Federal Reserve in April, 1980.
    • Would you care to discuss exactly what the nature of those conversations was?
  • John BOOTH, ACLI: I was not present.
    • There were some discussions; as you know, in the Spring there was a policy loan crunch.
    • There have been discussions held periodically as far back as 15 to 20 years.
  • Joseph BELTH: I raise the question whether the disintermediatlon problem could conceivably become so serious as to threaten the viability of the life insurance industry and force some kind of unilateral governmental action in order to save, or literally bail out, the industry.
    • One incident that I recall which somehow has been blacked out of most textbooks was when the NAIC (it was then the NCIC) allowed life insurance companies to change their valuation rules for just one year.
    • Was it 1932?

1981 - SOA - The Life Insurance Business--The View of Consumerists (rsa81v7n38), Daniel F. Case - Moderator, Society of Actuaries - 18p

  • [Bonk:  Referencing ->???]
  • Further Resolved, That inasmuch as a number of worthy industrial and commercial corporations are in emergency receivership and a number of corporate bonds are in default as to interest and/or principal by reason of lack of liquidity rather than by reason of lack of underlying value, stocks of corporations in receivership and bonds in default should be valued on the 1931 Convention basis less 30 per cent of the difference between such Convention value and the exchange quotation as of December 1, 1932, unless the value underlying such securities has been heavily depleted or has disappeared to such an extent that a lower value is required by reason of such special circumstances. (p8)
  • The Committee on Valuation of Securities

1933-1 volume only, NAIC/ NCIC

  • Commentary - Joseph Belth - No. 322: Pamela Yellen—Her Unbelievable "Bank-on-Yourself" Wealth-Building Strategy
    • The Lafayette Life Connection
      Allan S. Roth is a certified financial planner and a certified public accountant. He has worked as a public accountant with KPMG, and has been with McKinsey & Company, Kaiser Permanente, and Wellpoint. Recently I saw an article by Roth entitled "Bestselling book's financial promises don't add up." On December 11, 2012, CBS News posted Roth's article, which was about Yellen's first book. Roth said in his article that he had met with a Yellen authorized advisor, who had made a presentation. Roth further said in his article that he had tried hard but had not been able to make sense of the numbers in the presentation. Roth said in his article that the authorized advisor's presentation had been based on a policy offered by The Lafayette Life Insurance Company, and that he (Roth) had been in touch with Lafayette Life about the presentation.
    • My Correspondence with Lafayette Life
       
      • On June 21, 2019, I sent a letter by regular mail to Bryan Chalmer Dunn, the president and chief executive officer of Lafayette Life. I asked several questions about the relationship between Yellen and Lafayette Life. I asked for a response by the close of business on June 28.
    • Text of July 2 Email from Planck to Belth
      • Lafayette Life's products are sold through independent agents and independent marketing organizations.
        • Our role is limited to providing life insurance policies and annuity contracts.
        • We do not endorse or sponsor any selling system nor do we develop, advertise or promote the marketing content or materials for any selling system.
        • We do not inquire about, attempt to determine, or identify in our systems whether any independent agents appointed to sell our products are users of any specific selling system.
      •  
        Please be assured that Lafayette Life makes it clear through our contracts with those selling our products and disclosures to our customers that our life insurance policies and annuity contracts are insurance products.
    • General Observations
       
      • Lafayette Life appears to take no interest in or responsibility for the methods used by the independent agents who sell its policies.
      • Further, I think the same can be said about many if not all other companies that sell their policies through independent agents.
      • In my opinion, this is a matter of serious concern, for two reasons.
        • First, sales methods may be deceptive, misleading, or otherwise unfair to consumers.
        • Second, companies and state insurance regulators may find it difficult to police the sales methods used in the field by independent agents.
  • ....a panel of Charles T. P. Galloway, Prof. Joseph M. Belth and Gerald A. Fryer addressed these questions:
    • Can a policyholder reasonably expect to be advised by his company or his agent when to “select” against his company either by surrender and reissue or by replacement with another company?
    • Do the policyholders of a mutual company have more “rights” in this respect?
    • Are nonguaranteed cash value products capable of being sold?
    • Can we explain to our agents or policyholders why asset values fluctuate when we compete against Canada Savings Bonds?

1983 09 - SOA - The Actuary - Replacements Discussed at Canadian Institute, by Michael B. McGuinness, Society of Actuaries - 2p

  • Dr. Joseph M. Belth, assistant director of the American College of Life Underwriters, has suggested an accurate formula.
    • He points out that each year the policyholder can choose between surrendering the policy to invest in other forms of savings and paying the net premium to receive an increase in the cash value at the end of the year plus one year's insurance protection.
    • His insurance cost for the year is represented by this net outlay plus loss of interest on the net premium and cash value divided by the amount at risk.
  • I believe the choice between insurance companies and plans of insurance and regarding replacement of existing policies should be based on a method adjusted for the interest element rather than on the traditional net cost formula.

1962 - SOA - Digest of Discussion of Subjects of Special Interest Individual Life Insurance: Individual Life Insurance, Society of Actuaries - 4p

  • But one industry egghead is egging plaintiffs’ lawyers on:
    • Joseph Belth, author Life Insurance: A Consumer's Handbook, writes on his Insurance Forum blog:
      • “I think the only way to force the industry and other interested parties to address the age 100 problem is to mount a class action.”
    • Problems w/ class case:
      •  As Belth acknowledges, named plaintiff(s) would be unlikely to live long enough to see case to conclusion
      • Numerosity issue – individual carrier may not have many policyholders in this category
      • High dollar policyholders may prefer to pursue individual claims
      • Potential issues of ripeness (if policyholder hasn’t reached maturity date, damages are speculative) and mootness (such policyholders could die before that date and receive death benefit) (p14)

2018 - ACLI - Hot Topics in Litigation, American Council of Life Insurers - 32p