Description: This article is about the 2008 Living to 100 Symposium which highlighted changes in longevity, biological perspectives, mortality trends and more .

Description: This article is a book review of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism written by Anne Case and Angus Deaton. The book highlights factors that have attributed to the decline in life expectancy in the U.S. over the past two decades. Overall, there has been a significant increase in deaths of despair from drug overdoses, suicides, and alcoholic liver disease that has impacted life expectancy. The review of this book highlights key points and factors in this increase in deaths of despair based on the research of the authors. From an actuarial perspective, this book identifies areas within the U.S. society and economy that would continue this trend and impact future mortality rates and improvement scales.

Description: Medical and underwriting experts discuss medical developments and underwriting practices that could improve mortality rates and risk classification, respectively, in the future. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 3.

Description: This is an article from a free-lance writer and is his debut performance in The Actuary. The article presents a humorous look at the information contained in the obituaries of the New York Times.

Description: Heart disease, critical illness insurance and the path to change – a personal essay by Jing Lang, FSA, FCIA, FLMI.

Description: This article presents recent perspectives on the understanding and measurement of pandemic risk.

Description: This is a reprint of a 'tongue-in-cheek' letter that appeared in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association about correlation between life expectancy and the length of life lines.

Description: The Human Mortality Database is a unique open‐access collection of detailed mortality and population data for 38 countries.

Description: a review of a paper by R. H. Daw, F.I.A. entitled “Smallpox and the Double Decrement Table: a piece of actuarial prehistory.”

Description: We ask whether we can find support for the previously reported upper limit of the force of mortality of 0.7, i.e. about the probability of tossing a fair coin.