Description: Presented at June 2000 Spring Meeting. Discusses adjustments mutual company actuaries have to make after demutualization: financial reporting, product design and pricing, profit measures, and roles and opportunities.

Description: This presentation proposes a solution to the student actuarial paradox “I mastered the syllabus but failed the exam,” by utilizing the two-dimensional syllabus vehicle which pedagogically focuses on the two dimensions of content and problem difficulty. This presentation advocates the PMR characterization of three levels of problems difficulty: Plug-ins (easy), Monkey-wrench (intermediate), and Research-type(hard) questions. PMR was developed by examining difficulty levels in SOA exams, and problems of various software vendors. The author's students routinely score high on the SOA FM exam; it is hoped that these methods will assist other instructors in their quest for good pedagogy. Very briefly: “Plug-ins,” refer to multi-part problems, for example, calculating the price of an annuity that is first increasing and then level; “Monkey-wrench” problems specifically refer to plug-in multi-part problems where one component is a monkey-wrench, an issue the candidate has not previously encountered. It might be a non-typical modeling or it might be a non-typical algebraic simplification or it might be an unexpected integration of distinct modules in a manner that the candidate has not yet seen. “Research-type questions” refer to problems requiring some type of experimentation for example, looking at initial cases, seeing a pattern and then applying methods

Description: This paper presents discrete interpolation formulas, specifically a new method of deriving some existing formulas. The paper uses graduation theory in the interpolation method. Also include is a discussion of the paper. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1949, Vol. 1, No. 1.

Description: A summary of potential future software-induced changes to the insurance industry, with a particular emphasis on machine vision technologies.

Description: This article summarizes the treatment of changes in the basis for determining life insurance tax reserves under prior law and describes the changes enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. It further explains the procedures for changing the basis of computing reserves under the new rules as outlined in Revenue Procedure 2019-10, the IRS’s December 2018 guidance on the subject, and discusses the uncertainties that remain.

Description: Describes Six Sigma and how actuaries can use it.

Description: An article on risk and the perception of actuaries vs. reality.

Description: Profiles the Actuarial Science Program at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, Minn. From Conversations, Winter 2000.