NEW PAPER ON HOW TO CLEAN AND VALIDATE YOUR DATA The SOA's Committee on Life Insurance Research and LIMRA have just completed its study on data quality and released a new paper providing an overview of the data cleansing and validation role specific to the life insurance experience study process. Authored by Cathy Ho and Danielle Brancard of LIMRA, discussions in this paper include common data errors, likely causes of these errors, methods for detecting these errors and possible solutions. While the examples and techniques are focused on life insurance, most can be easily translated for use with other insurance products.
THE FINANCIAL RECOVERY FOR RETIREES CONTINUES To measure the effects of the dramatic financial downturn on retirees' finances, the Society of Actuaries (SOA), LIMRA, and the International Foundation for Retirement Education (InFRE) have followed up with the respondents to the 2008 study, Will Retirement Assets Last a Lifetime? In 2009 and again in 2011, the three organizations investigated how these same respondents have been reacting to the long-term effects of the 2008 market downturn and the continuing financial situation. The 2011 study, The Financial Recovery for Retirees Continues, was fielded in June 2011 and explores the attitudes of 461 retirees who were in the original 2008 and 2009 studies. The results are contrasted with those of the two prior studies.
SYED MEHMUD WINS COMPLEXITY CALL FOR MODELS CONTEST Syed Mehmud of Wakely Consulting Group has been chosen the winner of the Health Section's recent contest that invited submissions of a model that applied complexity science to an aspect of the health care system. Mehmud's model explored how complexity science can be applied to health care exchanges, an important aspect of recent health care reform legislation. In reviewing the model, members of the review team noted the work's both educational and experimental nature. The model and supporting documentation are available for download.
2011 UL WITH SECONDARY GUARANTEES SURVEY REPORT NOW AVAILABLE The Joint Risk Management Section, for many years, has been involved in efforts to develop better estimates of policyholder behavior in the tail (PBITT). The mission of the PBITT working group is to examine and ultimately give guidance to actuaries on how to set policyholder assumptions in extreme scenarios. As part of its work, the PBITT working group has issued several surveys gathering a range of assumptions actuaries use in pricing, reserving, and risk management of UL with Secondary Guarantees. The results of the 2011 survey, which were drafted by Stephen Hodges, Brian Grinnell and Mark Bergstrom, are now available.
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