Description: The presenters will share information about: -Insights into causes of death through the use of predictive models, based on a reinsured U.S. life portfolio, using logistic regression models to understand three main causes of death: cancer, heart and external causes; -Opioid abuse is a widespread phenomenon with drug-related mortality rates rising steeply in the U.S. over the past two decades. But what does the most recent data tell U.S. about the outlook for Opioid-related mortality?; -'Deaths of despair' have been publicized as a cause for the poor performance of U.S. mortality in recent years. The presenters will be looking at the different causes under this label, their evolution and explore the drivers behind them.

Description: Breakout Sessions 1A: The Fundamentals of Pricing for Underwriters

Description: The author explores the issue of longevity risk with its implications for life insurers and society at large, and concludes that the actuarial profession is in a unique position to understand longevity risk and offer solutions.

Description: The SOA recently launched the Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program with the release of a new study on the economic impact of opioid abuse. In this session, results of this study will be presented along with insights and plans for the future of the Program.

Description: Over the past few years, the SOA Research Institute’s Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program has initiated studies to provide insights into the overall historical U.S. population mortality trends. During this webcast, presenters will discuss how causes of death are influencing the trends. Various perspectives will be considered including, age, period, cohort effects and cause of death mortality by socioeconomic decile/quintile. Additionally, obesity and the impact on mortality and morbidity costs in the U.S. and Canada will be examined.

Description: In this session, panelists discuss the rationale behind aging research. They will explore recent demographic and biological insights. They will then explore when those breakthroughs could happen, what would their impact be on our understanding of mortality and mortality rates and the effect on different groups. Finally, it will be a chance to have your questions answered by that eminent set of panelists.

Description: Two recent SOA research projects will be discussed. The first covers analysis of the drivers of mortality that shaped trends in US mortality. The second will look at using causes of death to predict future mortality improvements

Description: Benefits of attending the Symposium in building a knowledge framework on issues affecting longevity and older ages.

Description: Because data quality is critical in the measurement of an event as rare as the death of a supercentenarian, special care must be used. We will discuss practical methods of validation used by researchers in the field, alternate methodologies and data cleaning procedures to ensure validity of mortality data as extreme old age. We will also explore some of the consequences of inadequate data preparations on the curve of mortality at the end of life.

Description: Panel members provide an overview of current practices and breaking trends in the critical illness market. Topics for discussion include benefit design, pricing considerations, recent experience and long-term outlook for the product. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 28, No. 2, Session 47