Description: Read about the A Model of the Impact of Social Distancing on the Transmission Rate of a Communicable Virus.

Description: The current 50% reversion tax on the recovery of excess assets from a terminated defined benefit pension plan results in an asymmetric risk borne by pension plan sponsors. They are responsible for funding shortfalls but any surplus remaining at the termination of the plan is subject to punitive taxes. Pension reform will increase minimum funding levels to reduce the number of underfunded plans, which will increase the likelihood of surpluses that would be subject to punitive taxes. The Society of Actuaries’ Pension Section Research Team commissioned this study to quantify the impact of reversion taxes on pension plan funding.

Description: The association between disclosed financial accounting data and firm value is examined, while incorporating the effect of managerial discretion in reporting those data. Assumptions used to compute a firm's pension liability are addressed. These findings suggest that analysts recognize managers' use of unjustified assumptions and the disclosed accounting numbers are appropriately discounted.

Description: The Society of Actuaries’ Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program is pleased to make available a summary report that highlights key findings from the latest biennial survey, Risks and Process of Retirement.

Description: Excel file model of the Impact of Social Distancing on the Spread of a Communicable Virus.

Description: This report summarizes thoughts and questions raised during the conversation focused on the possible impact of COVID-19 on senior housing and related decisions that retirees and their families may need to make.

Description: The earth’s ecosystem appears to be leaving the 10,000-year Holocene epoch that featured a stable environment. For homo sapiens, this stability encouraged a move from hunter/gatherer to farming and urban lifestyles. The new period showcases climate risk, resulting in higher temperatures and more extreme weather. These conditions lead to greater exposures to properties and economies when events like hurricanes and wildfires occur.

Description: The Society of Actuaries has developed and released a health care forecast model to illustrate the potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on insurance plan health care costs in the United States. Users of the model may include insurance company actuaries seeking an additional reference point for 2021 cost development, regulatory actuaries seeking additional insights and validation of costs as part of rating submissions for 2021, and insurance purchasers seeking a deeper understanding of the forces driving 2021 health care costs and premiums. The model is not intended as a replacement for existing modeling tools developed by insurers or regulators. Rather, the model’s primary purpose is to illustrate the key outbreak-related forces that are affecting the trajectory of health care costs. In addition the model can provide a common reference point to facilitate dialogue with respect to the regulatory review of 2021 health insurance rate filings.

Description: The Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program Steering Committee (MLPSC) released this report, which examined the latest trends in obesity and developed an estimate of the impact of obesity on mortality and morbidity costs in the U.S. and Canada.

Description: The Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program is pleased to release three essays addressing the actuarial impact of mental health issues in retirement.