Description: An analysis of how to compute the variance of the present value of future annuity payments as a component of assessing the mortality component of the provision for adverse deviation in the computation of GAAP reserves.

Description: This presentation from Session 17 of the SOA 2004 San Antonio Spring Meeting focuses on new product concepts that are emerging to capture the huge emerging retirement market. Panelists discuss concepts such as incorporating defined benefit concepts into defined contribution plans, insuring the longevity tail, innovations in 'traditional' annuities, 412i insured pension plans for small businesses, and highly impaired care annuities for people already incurring long-term-care costs.. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Volume 30, No. 2.

Description: China’s pension system has transformed from traditional retirement system based on command economy to modern pension system based on market economy .

Description: In the June 2014 issue of Product Matters, Doug Robbins of Pacific Life authored a fascinating article entitled “Velocity of Diversification.” Therein, he proposed a pricing measure that describes the “…speed at which confidence in profitability is attained”. How can stochastic modeling of mortality be applied to analyze the velocity of diversification, and how would that measure be affected by volatility in the underlying assumptions?

Description: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the effects of projected mortality on the pricing and valuation of individual immediate annuities. Also discusses considerations in underwriting substandard annuities. Finally, a discussion of this paper is included.

Description: The question of sex discrimination in employee pension plans in life insurance programs is only part of the more general issue of risk classification. Challenges to the old ways of classifying risks are not limited to pensions or to life insurance. It also impacts auto insurance, health insurance, and all other areas. However, for this discussion we will concentrate on sex discrimination in pension and retirement plans. From Record of the Society of Actuaries 1979, Volume 5, No. 1.

Description: This paper applies the research in Prospect Theory of Kahneman and Tversky to explain why sales of annuities lag sales of life insurance products. The author theorizes that life insurance is easier to sell because customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of losses, while potential annuity customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of gains. Kahneman and Tversky showed us that people are mostly risk averse in the domain of gains and risk seeking in the domain of losses. Purchase of an annuity or life product is a risky investment. Customers will find it easier to take the risk in the life insurance domain of losses than the annuity domain of gains. The author then proposes a hybrid life annuity product that might address both mortality and longevity risk in one product that would allow both products to be more competitive than stand-alone products.

Description: China’s pension system has transformed from traditional retirement system based on command economy to modern pension system based on market economy.

Description: Retirement income security under defined contribution plans depends upon sufficient savings and decumulating that savings so it provides an adequate income throughout retirement. Investment risk and longevity risk inherently complicate the latter task. The economic rationale for annuitization is clear in this context. However, annuitization rates have historically been very low, a phenomenon that is still not well understood. If retirees are making “rational” decisions based on full information, if their choices are consistent with the pursuit of their financial priorities, then low annuitization rates are not an issue for concern. In this case, retirees who annuitize and retirees who do not must have different financial priorities. However, research by the TIAA Institute shows that the decision to not annuitize is inconsistent with the stated financial priorities of most non-annuitants. It appears that non-annuitants do not und erstand that annuitization would address their financial priorities for retirement.

Description: This issue of The Retirement Forum presents the four prize-winning papers from the Retirement 20/20 Call for Models for Public Pension Plans Contest, which was conducted in 2018, and includes commentary from reviewers of these papers and replies from the authors.