In an editorial in ASTIN Bulletin, Hans Bühlmann (2002) suggests it is time to change the teaching of life insurance theory towards the real life challenges of that industry. The following note is a response to this editorial

Algorithms for the calculation of the distribution of the aggregate claimsfrom a life insurance portfolio have been derived by Kornya (1983), Hipp(1986) and De Pril (1986 and 1989)...

Premiums and benefits associated with traditional life insurance contracts are usually specified as fixed amounts in policy conditions. However, reserve-dependent surrender values and reserve-dependent expenses are common in insurance practice. The famous Cantelli theorem in life insurance...