Research Projects
Research Projects in Pension
Factors Affecting Retirement Mortality
Mortality rates affect many facets of an actuary’s work. The ability to collect more
detailed data and the possibilities presented by more advanced analytical tools influenced the Society of Actuaries
to embark on this multi-phased project examining the factors affecting retirement mortality.
The Committee on Social Security – Retirement and Disability Income, the Committee on
Retirement Systems Research and the Committee on Life Insurance Research funded this research. The first phase of
the project includes a comprehensive literature search and summary identifying 10 factors, in addition to age and
gender, linked to mortality experience at or after age 65.
In the second phase of the project, existing Society of Actuaries experience studies are
reviewed to see which factors could be added to the studies. This phase also considers methods for reflecting the
additional factors in the mortality tables.