Description: This paper shows how net costs of virtually all life insurance contracts may be compared, using, for each contract, the ratio of two interest-adjusted cost indexes denoted as Interest Adjusted Cost indexes. The paper includes a discussion of how the relative cost of early termination of the contract may best be shown to the buyer. Followed by discussion papers submitted by various authors

Description: This is a discussion regarding actuarial considerations for mutual companies and covers such topics as: how is the overall level of retained surplus determined, do companies have surplus management programs, what are the rights of participating policyholders, are Generally Accepted Accounting Principles GAAP being used for mutuals, how do companies reconcile growth and surplus and whether or not limits should be placed on growth and finally, what actuarial considerations are involved in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and wind ups.

Description: This paper discusses Cecil Nesbitt's paper on elementary models of the reserve fund for OASDI in the United States. From the Actuarial Research Clearing House 1991, Vol.1.

Description: The authors comment on James C. Hickman's paper about the Social Security decoupling issue. Decoupling generally refers to the separation of the procedures used to determine benefits for future recipients from those that adjust benefits for current recipients.

Description: This paper presents a procedure for analyzing the factors that affect federal Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance costs in the U.S. This procedure shows that the tripling of the program costs during the last 30 years resulted from increases in the number of beneficiaries as opposed to increases in the number of covered workers. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1986, Vol. 38.

Description: This paper discusses decoupling of social security - meaning that the coupling of actual benefits for those already beneficiaries and potential benefits for future beneficiaries be broken. The purposes are to describe the environment, the problem which decoupling addresses and the importance of a rational solution. The paper discusses the wage-indexing approach and the price-indexing approach. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1977, Vol. 29.

Description: This paper examines tandem levels of salary and interest rates and finds that the absolute level of each assumption as well as the differential are significant cost determinants for defined benefit pension plans. In forming best-estimate salary and interest rate assumptions, the actuary must reconcile the difference, if any, between the currently observed rates and the valuation assumptions. Common practice is to choose expected long-term rather than observed rates for valuation purposes. The error in this procedure is analyzed and found to be tolerable for strictly temporary discrepancies between observed rates and valuation assumptions. For situations where these discrepancies are expected to persist for some time, a need is shown for nonuniform, calendar-year assumptions or their equivalent in order to develop best-estimate assumptions. Followed by several discussion papers submitted

Description: This is a presidential address to the Society of Actuaries by Charles L. Trowbridge. From Transactions of the Society of Actuaries 1975, Vol. 27.

Description: This session from the 1984 SOA Salt Lake City Meeting focuses on the FASB Discussion Memorandum regarding the accounting of pension and other post-employment benefits. It includes an update on any FASB action and then considers the responsibilities of accountants, plan sponsors and actuaries.

Description: The interest-adjusted method has come to be the most widely accepted method for comparing costs of individual life insurance policies. This paper presents a relatively simple modification of the interest-adjusted cost method that serves more general purposes satisfactorily. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1980, Vol. 32.