Description: An analysis of population mortality at the older ages in the United States. The analysis is based principally on data obtained for calendar years 1968-69 in the operations of the Medicare program. In addition, the author develops mortality rates by single ages at the very high ages 85 and over, using the extinct cohort method based on deaths recorded through the vital statistics system in calendar years 1951-68.

Description: In recent years, insurers have focused attention on the implementation of economic capital frameworks as part of risk management. Due to the diversity of products in an organization’s portfolio, its overall risk profile is comprised of different risk categories. The general framework used by an organization for economic capital purposes is to determine its exposure to each risk independently, then aggregate them to produce an overall risk profile. This is a study of aggregation techniques in use.

Description: This paper presents an in-depth analysis of life insurance protection which rises with increases in the consumer price index, with special attention to the nonforfeiture values. Two methods of calculating policy values are presented: change of state method and index accumulation method. Finally, there is some discussion of pricing and policy drafting.

Description: Section 818c of the Life Insurance Company Income Tax Act of 1959 provides, for companies holding other than net level premium reserves, a choice of two methods: exact revaluation or approximate revaluation to this basis. This paper discusses the impact of the choice on the level of a company's tax reserves. A discussion paper follows.

Description: Software vendors participating in the A Comparative Analysis of Claims–Based Tools for Health Risk Assessment study were invited to submit comments on the study. In this document, MEDai comments on their contribution to the study's source data, and their results.

Description: The excess spread approach introduced in this paper addresses the true economic profitability of investment oriented products by looking at the spread between the earnings rate on the assets and the rate required to be earned on the assets to satisfy the liabilities. For many products, an important part of the liability cost is the value of interest rate options embedded in the policies. The excess spread approach incorporates an option-pricing technique that is sufficiently flexible to handle different interest rate environments.

Description: Without relying on formulas, this paper presents the important concepts underlying the theory of arbitrage-free pricing of interest-rate-contingent cash flows: absence of opportunities for riskless arbitrage, completeness of markets, relative prices that do not depend on individual investors' subjective views or risk preferences, and expected-value pricing in the risk-neutral world. Using these concepts, the paper then describes the steps required to build continuous stochastic models of interest rates, including models that are either partially or fully arbitrage free.

Description: In this paper a new method of adjusting probabilities of death for short age interval, based on the assumption of a modification in one of the forces of decrement, is developed.

Description: This section presents book reviews and summaries of recent publications. Reviews: '1975 Annual Reports of the Board of Trustees of the Federal OASDI Trust Funds...' by the US Congress, 'Providing Adequate Retirement Income' by Schulz, Carrin, Krupp, Peschke, Sclar and Steenberge, 'Ernst & Ernst GAAP - Stock Life Companies' by Posnak, 'Reports of the Quadrennial Advisory Council on Social Security' by US Government, 'Fundamentals of Private Pensions' by McGill. Digests also included.

Description: This paper describes a typical consumer credit transaction, shows how the rule of 78 works, identifies its degree of accuracy, and discusses issues raised by its use, including federal truth-in-lending implications. Followed by several discussion papers submitted