Description: This abstract describes a paper that develops a method to estimate the two parameters of the discrete stable distribution.

Description: This abstract introduces the paper which uses credibility theory to analyze policyholder persistency. It is assumed that persistency depends on the difference between the premium charge and anticipated claims.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper that demonstrates how to apply a variety of property-liability insurance financial pricing techniques to a single hypothetical, but representative, company. Both company and economic parameters are varied in order to examine the sensitivity of indicated underwriting profit margins from these techniques to different company situations and economic environments, and to highlight the differences between the techniques at a practical level.

Description: The abstract for a paper that describes the history of traditional topics like actuarial cost methods and assumptions, the history of past inquiries into the dynamic and stochastic nature of pension costs, and the perceptions and concerns of pension actuaries of the past. Presented at The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure symposium held July 14-15, 2005 in Washington, DC.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper that presents a Bayesian model for analyzing time-dependent data. The model allows for the possibility of a shift in the level and/or a shift in the variance of the process at all time points. An example of simulated data will be shown as well as the results of four macroeconomic time series data: inflation, interest, unemployment, and wage. The fitted data of the model is compared against the actual through the use of prediction intervals and the creation of a new measure, called the 'modified Akaike Information Criterion'.

Description: This abstract describes a paper that improves upon current multivariate statistical models for predicting the pre-payment rate of reverse mortgages, which are heavily data-driven. The prosposed model extends a semi-Markovian joint-life mortality model to incorporate three main termination modes of reverse mortgages: death, long-term care LTC entry, and non-health related termination.

Description: Abstract for a paper that attempts to identify defined benefit plan design principles that provide valuable employee benefits at reasonable costs. From The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Monograph, M-RS05-1. Presented at The Future of Pension Plan Funding and Disclosure Symposium held July 14-15, 2005 in Washington, DC. This monograph is a case study.

Description: This abstract describes a presentation that describes the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Project for Actuarial Science Education, which aims to help budding actuaries solve actuarial examination questions and master classroom material.

Description: This is the abstract of a paper that deals with a recent modification of the Monte Carlo method known as quasi random Monte Carlo. Under this approach, one uses specially selected deterministic sequences rather than random sequences as in Monte Carlo. These special sequences are known as low discrepancy sequences and have the property that they tend to be evenly dispersed throughout the unit cube. For many applications in finance, the use of low discrepancy sequences seems to provide more accurate answer than random sequences.

Description: Abstract for the paper which gives a unified approach to modern credibility models by using the theory of estimating functions.