Description: The decline of importance of private defined benefit plans in relation to defined contribution plans in the United States is a major issue of interest to pension actuaries. This decline is undeniable, and has been attributed to numerous factors: costs of government regulation, societal and cultural changes, changed attitudes of employers, and employees' lack of understanding of defined benefit plans. It has also caused some to proclaim the end of a private defined benefit plan. This work analyzes possible macroeconomic factors contributing to the crisis of defined benefit plans, and proposes an alternative hypothesis for the cause of the crisis: the decline of relative attractiveness of defined benefit plans in relation to defined contribution plans due to the shift in the way relative returns to macroeconomic factors of production, i.e., capital and labor, are allocated in the national economy. Possibilities of improvement of the position of defined benefit plans are also discussed. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1998 Vol. 2.

Description: Recognizing an opportunity to help serve its members in this age of increased financial oversight, the Health Section of the Society of Actuaries commissioned a series of guides on the use of statistical techniques specifically geared for the work of health actuaries. In this first guide in the series, the topic is an estimate well-known to health actuaries- the calculation of incurred but not reported [IBNR] health claims reserves. In particular, this guide focuses on the development of confidence intervals around IBNR estimates.

Description: The abstract for the paper An Investigation of Select Birth Cohorts.

Description: Discussion of the insurance purchase decision for corporations, using an ALM perspective of utilizing insurance to maximize the net present value of cash inflows minus out flows. Also discusses how ALM concepts can be used to value a corporation, using discounted values of cash inflows minus outflows and the risks the corporation faces with respect to the amounts or timing of those cash flows. From Asset-Liability Integration, M-FI02-1.

Description: Author’s response to discussant comments for the 2009 Housing Wealth monograph paper, “Modigliani, Miller and Mortgages.” The paper is essentially about the genesis of the credit crisis. The discussant found the paper makes some interesting points but leaves too much out of the story. The author reiterates his point that mortgage based derivatives often subtract value and that the Federal Government accommodated that at great expense to the nation's wealth and economic well-being.

Description: These essays encourage actuaries to share how they incorporate financial risks of environmental sustainability into their work for employers or clients.

Description: Management's goal is to continuously optimize the economic value of the firm, subject to regulatory constraints, with the use of financial valuation of the firm’s balance sheet. Both the assets and liabilities can be perceived as derivative securities. This chapter discusses a variety of financial economics issues with this common theme. From Asset-Liability Integration, M-FI02-1.

Description: Recognizing an opportunity to help serve its members in this age of increased financial oversight, the Health Section of the Society of Actuaries commissioned a series of guides on the use of statistical techniques specifically geared for the work of health actuaries. The first guide in the series titled, 'Statistical Methods for Health Actuaries - IBNR Estimates: An Introduction,' is about the calculation of incurred but not reported [IBNR] health claims reserves. In particular, the guide focuses on the development of confidence intervals around IBNR estimates. This is an Excel workbook created to demonstrate the techniques discussed in the guide.

Description: Comments by Ryan Labs Asset Management on paper by James J. Rizzo Krzysztof M. Ostaszewski Piotr Krekora.

Description: This session covers the economic principles of “buffet pricing” and whether such pricing can be used for health care. Presented is an argument in favor of “all you can eat” pricing of health care where consumers pay a fixed fee and have no constraints on consumption. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 27, No. 1, Session 118