Description: COVID19 highlights the need for greater complexity expertise in risk management. Crisis like the current COVID19 pandemic and 2008 Financial meltdown and others help us to turn into focus inwards for introspection on how we can better manage our resources and provide a deeper understanding of what our objectives should be and how we can achieve them through applying complexity science.

Description: This article provides a description of three factor updates for the NAIC Risk-Based Capital that will take effect in 2012.

Description: Businesses across the board have been drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19 over the course of 2020, and insurance was not immune. Perhaps most relevant to this industry’s current capital and liquidity concern is the prevailing low interest rate environment. This has been a global trend in the last decade, and treasury rates in much of the developed world are at or near zero. Reduced investment returns limit an insurer’s ability to achieve their desired return on equity, eliminating previously profitable strategies that depended on the leverage of life and annuity balance sheets. Focus and activity have instead shifted to other methods to counteract the low interest rate markets and accompanying capital strain. Examples include increased mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity within the insurance industry and an increasing focus by private equity firms in the insurance market for asset-intensive products, both of which reflect the goal of increasing yield rates on capital.

Description: This is report summarizes the results of a Joint Risk Management Section sponsored study on negative interest rates and the insurance industry.

Description: This article provides a general introduction to JRI, including details about the types of research areas it highlights, an explanation of its prior review policy, current calls for papers, and its social media efforts.

Description: Download the most current issue, as well as back issues, of the Retirement Section News.

Description: Beyond long-COVID, there are concerns about the impact of the pandemic on future mortality and morbidity trends, including the consequences of delayed care (for chronic or acute diseases) during the crisis as well as the indirect impact of the pandemic (e.g. through increased economic uncertainty, the current inflation which results in part from the stimulus package deployed during the lock-downs, and the mental health crisis associated to the social isolation of 2020/2021).

Description: The SOA develops and sponsors research papers and essays. We seek actuaries and other professionals to submit research papers on a variety of topics.

Description: The SOA Research Institute Catastrophe and Climate Strategic Research Program released a report that explores the shifting geography of Lyme Disease in the U.S. and beyond and some of the potential determinants of its spread. Lyme Disease is a well-known disease particularly in the eastern U.S., and it is also prevalent in other geographies. This report researches the complex relationship between climate variables and the spread of Lyme Disease in the United States.

Description: As the population and workforce age, it is important to rethink how and when we retire. This article provides a big picture overview of issues related to opening up more options for exit from the labor force and gradual retirement. It reviews developments in the last few years that are important including the growth of gig employment, more remote work, more technology, workforce shortages, and changes in employee benefits that previously were a barrier to gradual retirement. It calls for more focus on adaption to the aging society. Several publications are cited and it includes a reference list.