Description: All things considered, caution needs to be applied to the use of so-called “standard” mortality tables. Sharpening up these blunt estimates by using individual assumptions reveals material differences in the structure of longevity, both between plans and within plans.

Description: GDP growth has slowed as numerous headwinds have emerged. This article summarizes a research paper by Mark Alberts and Max Rudolph that addresses reasons why this is so and how risk managers can address using scenarios.

Description: This article highlights the Annual Meeting Session 39 on the Equity Risk Premium (ERP), mentions related sources. Further, it asks whether in the future we will no longer regard the ERP as a single monolithic entity but as a mosaic of premia, and also whether individual investors presently are too optimistic.

Description: This paper concludes that there are two index rates that could best replace the 30-year Treasury in the calculation of the Current Liability of a pension plan - either the 30 year swap rate or the benchmark 30-year FNMA bond.

Description: Measuring Fair Value for Participation Units of Stable Value Pooled Funds

Description: Recent passage of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act increased the access that insurers have to low-cost loans advances offered by the individual banks of the Federal Home Loan Bank FHLB system. This article describes the general features of how advance programs work, their potential benefits to insurers and key issues to consider.

Description: In it’s insurance capital model, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services has established criteria to adopt the NAIC’s stochastic approach to variable annuity risk. This approach, which replaces existing static charges, better reflects the products’ risk.

Description: This article is an overview of the Financial Risk Managment of Insurance Enterprises course. The course incorporates financial risk management, asset pricing models and all risks facing an insurance company. The basics are then applied to asset-liability management and valuation.

Description: After a very challenging year, actuaries need to look back and consider the lessons learned. Have we returned to where we were, or have we moved on to a new norm? What does the COVID-19 pandemic market data tell us that will help us to prepare for future global crises?

Description: U.S. bond markets have undergone dramatic changes due to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. In taking a retrospective view, we can see that bond markets, viewed through the lens of major bond indices, have been evolving for quite some time. Within this paper, TD Asset Management Inc. (TDAM) will explore underlying changes that have occurred within the U.S. Corporate Bond Index, a sub-component of the larger U.S. investment grade bond market, over the past decade. We will highlight key structural changes that have occurred within bond markets and why they are noteworthy