Description: The economic crisis and the opportunities it presents.

Description: Highlights of the Actuary of the Future Section and the Product Development Section

Description: Letter from the Chair of the Product Development Council. Challenging times bring opportunities. Today's low interest environment is a rallying cry for our industry to transform our products and the way we do business

Description: This article is about coming up with the next big idea the author encourages challenging the status quo and believes actuaries are uniquely equipped to view today's risks as opportunities.

Description: The author uses a reprint of an article from the very first edition of the “News from the Individual Life Insurance and Annuity Product Development Section” and assistance from the Taxation Section Council and Friends of that Council to decipher the changes between the life insurance tax environment back in the 1980s compared to today.

Description: Then and Now

Description: Our ability to think and act quickly serves us well on a day-to-day basis. When we're faced with long-term, impactful decisions, we need to think differently. The very behaviors that enable us to react quickly to our daily work can make us jump to the wrong conclusion when exploring new topics. Cognitive biases--systematic tendencies to derivate from rational calculations--can hinder our abilities to conduct open dialogue and process new and different opinions. A 'de-bias' strategic decision-making process can help take bias out of meetings and lead to better outcomes. The presenters will provide behavioral tools and insights to attendees who need to participate or lead discussions that are part of a big-bet decision.

Description: This article reviews some of the highlights of th 2010 SOA Annual meeting including the impact on pricing resulting from Solvency II, Market Consistent Valuation of New Business - MCVNB, the latest on mortality, Standards of Practice in product development, managing risk in product design and a regulation update.

Description: The author shares her thoughts on what she has learned from the ‘school of hard knocks', the best teacher of management skills.

Description: The Delphi method was applied to several questions regarding trends in product development. The audience participated in the Delphi survey to predict how economic and demographic factors will impact pricing over the next 7 years.