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General interest | VitaMins

VitaMins Health: GLP-1 obesity medications - will they be as big as statins for life expectancy?

The World Health Organization has referred to obesity as “one of today’s most blatantly visible – yet most neglected – public health problems”. But excitement is now rising around new appetite-suppressing medications with public health organizations hopeful that these treatments may help tackle this growing epidemic.

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All News and insights

All the latest information, news and research from the Club Vita team.

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General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 24-03 – Have we seen an end to COVID waves in the US?

US population level death data is now available through the end of 2023, giving us a good overview of excess deaths progressed through the year. In this addition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett examines how weekly deaths have progressed since the beginning of the pandemic, and asks whether we’ve now seen the end of extreme COVID waves of deaths in the US.

25 March 2024

General interest | Pandemic updates

How different states have experienced COVID-19 through December 31, 2023

This is an update of our analysis of state-level excess mortality data up to December 31, 2023 (data available as at February 27, 2024). COVID-19 deaths persist, but total deaths have dropped to levels broadly in line with pre-pandemic trends. Has society now adjusted to living with the virus as part of everyday life?

20 March 2024

Explainers | External publications

New CIA Statement Explores the Vital Link Between Education and Longevity

Many studies have found there is a positive correlation between education and longevity. Robert Brown, FCIA, conducted a literature review for the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA) that examined several of these studies and the results were consistent – the more education people have, the longer they live. And the higher their educational attainment, the longer they live in good health. Insights included from our expert, Shantel Aris, Head of Longevity Experience Studies.

18 March 2024

General interest | Personal blogs

The Longevity of Robert Burns

"Tonight, Scots around the world will be celebrating the immortal memory of Robert Burns, our national poet. Burns made a remarkable contribution to the richness of humankind in his short time on Earth. Tributes to his legacy will touch on many aspects of his life. It made me wonder about his contribution to longevity." - Douglas Anderson

24 January 2024

Explainers | External publications

Club Vita responds to the IRS’s Request for Comment on Plan Specific Substitute Mortality Tables for Determining Present Value

On October 20th, 2023, the IRS issued a proposed update to its rule regarding plan-specific substitute mortality tables for determining present value and an accompanying Request for Comment.

23 January 2024

General interest | Personal blogs

Ten reasons to be cheerful: 2024 New Year edition

As has become his annual tradition, Douglas kicks off 2024 with a note of positivity. To help you keep the January blues at bay, he has collected together his top ten positive health stories from 2023.

8 January 2024

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-13: Tontine days of retirement

In this holiday-special edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett and Carmen Gatta explore which group from song the 12 days of Christmas with whom it would be best to enter a tontine contract.

3 January 2024

General interest | VitaMins

VitaMins Health: GLP-1 obesity medications - will they be as big as statins for life expectancy?

17 November 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-10: US cause of death by socio-economic status over time

Fresh on our return from this year’s Society of Actuaries’ ImpACT conference, we were struck by how much discussion there was around causes of death and their differing impacts by socio-economic status. In response, in this Top Chart, Natalie and Erik look at how some common causes of death differ by socio-economic status in the US and how this has changed over time.

10 November 2023

Explainers | External publications

Club Vita responds to PBGC Request for Comment on Valuation Assumptions and Methods

On August 18th 2023, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) issued a proposed update to its rule regarding valuation assumptions and methods and an accompanying Request for Comment.

9 November 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-07: US excess deaths in 2023

In this edition of Top Charts, Carmen Gatta and Erik Pickett discusses the drop in excess deaths since the beginning of 2023.

8 August 2023

Explainers | External publications

You Are Underestimating Longevity… and How Uncertain It Is

“Centenarians” are becoming more and more common. There are approximately 90,000 people in the U.S. who are over the age of 100, double the number in 2008. In stark contrast, headline life expectancy has fallen to 76 due to COVID-19 and other factors (technically, this is period life expectancy at birth). How should advisors make sense of these seemingly contradictory trends? How long should they plan for the clients to live?

1 August 2023

Business updates | Press releases

Club Vita hires Natalie Gleed to support growing US Pension Risk Transfer activity

Club Vita, an international leader in longevity data analytics, today announced the hiring of Natalie Gleed as Head of Business Development, US

12 July 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-06: Are the top causes of death reflected in our search history?

There can often be a disconnect between perception and reality with regard to things that have the largest impact on our lives. But how much is this the case with causes of death? In this edition of Top Charts Mia Marcellus compares the top causes of death in our different geographies with their relative Internet search frequency.

5 July 2023

General interest | VitaMins

VitaMins Health: Antimicrobial resistance – AI to the rescue?

Antimicrobial resistance remains in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) top 10 global public health threats facing humanity – could AI help us in dealing with this existential risk?

15 June 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-04: What happened in the US in 2022?

By the start of 2022, day-to-day life in the US had largely returned to ‘normal’ with most public health precautions introduced to combat COVID-19 being dropped. With this environment, how did excess mortality in the US play out and will 2022 mortality data be representative of the future? Erik Pickett explores this issue in our latest edition of Top Charts. (For a more in depth dive into this subject, check out our recent webinar.)

24 April 2023

Research & technical | Research & technical notes

CV22 US VitaCurves technical papers

Technical papers on modeling techniques and underlying data to accompany the release of our CV22 US VitaCurves model. This new release introduces adjustments for COVID-19 into the US VitaCurves model.

13 April 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-03: Universal state retirement ages

There has recently been widespread debate across the globe (e.g. in Canada, the UK, the US and France) about potential increases in state retirement ages. Much of the debate has focused on the increases in life expectancy since the introduction of state retirement provisions – but life expectancy is not the same for everyone in society. In this edition of Top Charts, Alexandra Sonnenwirth explores this issue and asks whether it’s fair to have a one-size fits all retirement age.

30 March 2023

General interest | Personal blogs

Longevity solved? Erik Pickett meets ChatGPT

With all the recent buzz around the Artificial Intelligence language model, ChatGPT, the Club Vita team were keen to understand how it might help us understand the world of longevity and what limitations may exist when using such a tool. Erik Pickett sets out to “interview” ChatGPT to find out.

28 March 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 23-02: Healthcare spending and longevity

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has recently introduced a series of provisions aimed at reducing the price of prescription drugs in the US. In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett and Carmen Gatta explore what this could mean for longevity and health expenditure in the US and beyond.

28 February 2023

Opinion & experiences | Behavioral economics blogs

Mental accounting – is money still fungible at Christmas?

This Christmas, I bought my partner a gift card. At first glance this seems like an irrational thing to do. The cash equivalent could have been spent on anything, including the items covered by the card; this interchangeable use of money is a central principle in classical economics known as the fungibility of money. Did I willingly reduce the value of my gift, or does this economic principle fail in the gift giving environment?

10 January 2023

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-11: Total number of human lives and deaths ever

In this edition of Top Charts, Erik Pickett and Carmen Gatta look at the total number of people who have ever lived and died. Are more people alive today than have lived and died in the past?

5 December 2022

General interest | VitaMins

VitaMins Health: Wearable technology - all dressed up but where will it go?

Availability of, and interest in, wearable technology is on the rise. However, is it having as positive an impact on our physical activity, our mental health, and our life expectancy as we hope?

17 November 2022

General interest | Pandemic updates

How different states have experienced COVID-19 so far (data up to Sep 10, 2022)

This is an update of our analysis of state-level excess mortality data up to September 10, 2022 (data available as at October 13, 2022). COVID-19 continued to contribute to excess mortality through 2022, with the number of COVID-19 deaths in the US now over 1.1M.

17 November 2022

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-08: Insulation of US DB pension plans from COVID-19

In this edition of Top Charts, Carmen Gatta takes a look at relative mortality in a large geographically concentrated pension plan in the US and compares it to the state-wide picture for excess mortality.

15 August 2022

Opinion & experiences | Behavioral economics blogs

Reactance – I won’t do what you tell me!

“Why don’t you just do as you’re told?” is a phrase I heard many times as a child. Perhaps I often had a strong aversion to the specific instructions I was given, or perhaps I really didn’t like being told what to do.

19 July 2022

General interest | VitaMins

VitaMins Health: Representative Concentration Pathways

As carbon emissions continue to grow, scientists are trying to understand the potential impacts of future climate change scenarios on health.

18 July 2022

Explainers | External publications

If Longevity Risk is an Asset Class, How Do We Make It More Tradeable?

Over the years, we have witnessed the successful commoditisation of several risks, including credit risk, interest rate risk and property catastrophe risk, opening up their trade to capital markets investors.

14 July 2022

Business updates | Press releases

Club Vita bolsters international pension team with three key appointments

Club Vita, an international leader in longevity data analytics, today announced several appointments to bolster their pension team across the globe.

13 July 2022

General interest | Top charts

Top Charts 22-06: How have life expectancy and health adjusted life expectancy changed over time?

In this edition of Top Charts, Shantel Aris discusses life expectancy and health adjusted life expectancy (HALE) in Canada, the UK, and the US and how these have changed over time.

14 June 2022