Description: This article's aim is to keep future historians from being thwarted by the unavailability of membership figures that would have appeared in the 1979 Year Book. That Year Book, it will be remembered, died aborning. We take this opportunity also to rectify a temporaryWe take this opportunity also to rectify a temporary miscount, perpetrated during that same hiatus period. Our 1980 Year Book reported, at p. 60, that we had 3,955 Fellows and 3,042 Associates on November 1, 1979 the correct numbers were 3,934 Fellows and 3,035 Associates.

Description: This paper, presented at the Eastern Spring Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held March 24-25, 1960 in Washington, D.C., provides the results of an experience study of first year lapse and “default” rates on ordinary insurance, where the author, Norman F. Buck, has defined “default” rate as a rate including the sum of first year lapses, not takens, and cancellations as of the issue date. The paper includes written discussion and the author’s review of the discussion. From the 1960 Transactions Vol. 12, No. 33.

Description: Presented at October 1985 Annual Meeting. This session discussion is to call to mind the furor caused by Elizur Wright's eviction of a British company from his state for failing to meet reserve standards, to look at the 19th Century consequences of Wright's actions, and to ponder the great impact upon the actuarial profession today.

Description: The term manipulation means designing policies in such a way that they have attractive net cost indexes but are, nevertheless, a very poor buy for the consumer. This panel discusses what is meant by manipulation problem, how serious it is how the NAIC Advisory Committee proposes to deal with it and what responsibilities actuaries have in connection with this problem. From Record of the Society of Actuaries 1981, Volume 7, No. 4.

Description: This article discusses a paper entitled, “Looking at Canada in 1980.” The author of this article, editor of The Actuary, notes that the paper’s author, A. Peter Hardy, F.I.A., who had called upon his own experiences in Canada in 1976-79 to write it, provided a copy, excerpts from which are included in the discussion. Three of the areas Mr. Hardy addressed for comparison between Canada and UK practice are discussed in this article: taxation, guaranteed cash surrender values, and life insurance commission and the field force.

Description: From the 1960 Transactions Vol. 12 No. 32, this ‘Discussion of Subjects of Special Interest’ addresses the ordinary insurance underwriting topics of “guaranteed issue” and potential antiselection of business insurance vs. personal insurance at time of retirement.

Description: This is a series of small bits of information about interesting facts about actuaries.

Description: This note describes a mortality investigation procedure in which the expected mortality applicable to each new policy for a period of about three years after issue is estimated by use of persistency factors. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: This paper, written at the request of the chairman of the Society's special committee, contains a description of the data, methods, and principles used to determine the proposed new expense formulas for minimum nonforfeiture values. A discussion of the paper follows. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1977, Vol. 29.

Description: This article shows excerpts, edited into Q&A format from FIASCO’s September 1983 front page interview with James C. H. Anderson, conducted in London last summer by this newsletter’s London Correspondent, Gary Chamberlin. The interview addresses Mr. Anderson's beliefs that drastic changes are necessary if the U.S. life insurance industry is to enjoy a fruitful survival into the next century.