Description: This paper takes the position that a retirement plan should not be evaluated differently than other financial arrangements, and, therefore, its value should be measured through a utility function. The paper then suggests a method of incorporating utility theory into the retirement plan design model. From Current Pension Actuarial Practice in Light of Financial Economics Symposium, M-RS04-1.

Description: This article is a discussion of a study released in June 1976 by the New York Insurance Department, entitled “Disability Income Insurance – Cost Differentials between Men and Women.” The author of this article notes that “due to charges by various groups of discrimination in the underwriting and establishing of premium rates for individual disability income insurance, the results of this study have been eagerly awaited by many segments of the insurance industry. Fears of substantiating uni-sex rates were unfounded as the results of the study generally conformed to those of the Society of Actuaries which the industry has relied on to a great extent in the past.”

Description: New Zealand is about to launch its first variable annuity with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits. The product design is mindful of the lessons from the financial crisis in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Description: The article is devoted to risk management in the business process of materials supply for industrial enterprises. The goals of the business process are considered, and the risks of the failure to achieve goals are identified. Probabilities and influence of negative events are estimated. The risk treatment is considered on critical risks, including forming of insurance supplies of materials. The calculations of insurance supplies of materials, taking into account risks, are conducted on the basis of statistical information.

Description: The investment risk generated by a stochastic interest rate is recognized as often the greatest risk associated with a whole life or retirement policy. Recent research has investigated the mathematics of this risk when the interest rate follows a stochastic process and the time to death is considered to be random. In this paper we focus on the use of the zero coupon bond as an investment instrument to fund a whole life policy. It is unlikely that a company will entirely fund a particular single policy with a zero coupon bond.

Description: E-book contains 16 topical essays that express the opinions and thoughts of a number of authors on the subject of Investment Fallacies.

Description: Property and casualty insurers face risks in many key areas, such as operations, natural catastrophes and underwriting. Among the underwriting risks is the potential financial impact of adverse loss reserves development.This paper illustrates a model of loss reserve risk that will incorporate how risk evolves over time at annual time horizons.

Description: Investment Fallacies: On the Validity of Common Portfolio Return Assumptions

Description: Enterprise risk management ERM is for the measurement and the management of all significant risks of the business holistically irrespective of types and sources. The study offers significant advances in the current debate on the performance of enterprise risk management, in particular, minimizing the existing gap between the academic understanding and practitioners’ experience on the topic.

Description: Actuaries are accustomed to considering how much conservatism is appropriate in their estimates, whether made for pricing or for mea- surement of liabilities. In the proposals for a new standard on accounting for insurance contracts, this conservatism is referred to by the International Accounting Standards Board IASB and the Financial Accounting Standard Board FASB of the United States as the risk adjustment.