Description: New Zealand is about to launch its first variable annuity with guaranteed lifetime withdrawal benefits. The product design is mindful of the lessons from the financial crisis in the United States, Europe and Japan.

Description: The purpose of the article is to summarize the results and conclusions of the C-1 Risk Task Force Report prepared for the Committee on Valuation and Related Areas. A key question: Is the risk to insurance companies of defaults on junk bonds sufficient to justify increasing required surplus levels?

Description: The paper demonstrates that the most popular rationalization for evolving glide paths is flawed and should be discarded. The paper also demonstrates that glide paths should generally evolve for investors that endeavor to optimize outcomes and reevaluate their portfolios regularly.

Description: Argues renewable energy will displace fossil fuels, leading to investment opportunities and risks

Description: This article offers insights about the United Technologies Corporation lifetime income approach and information on the design, administration and acceptance.

Description: In this paper, chapter V of the 1987 Valuation Actuary Handbook, the authors start with a discussion of how the recent economic environment with volatile interest rates has changed the valuation and surplus management process to one more dependent on actuarial judgment. In a discussion of surplus policy, the authors identify four “layers” of surplus which have been identified by scenario testing. These surplus layers, along with policy reserves, are based on specific invested assets. The paper discusses implications for the future and notes the actuary’s ability to advise management on surplus adequacy is a basic tool of risk management.

Description: In recent years there has been an increasing interest in the practical application of immunization theory to North American Funds. There is a lack of literature on this subject and this article is written to give a clear and concise description of the theory, and of its role in the framing of investment policy.

Description: The article compares the return characteristics, return, volatility, and correlation, to that of other possible selections as a DC safe option. It concludes that stable value is pareto superior to all other safe option candidates, and is therefore the optimal safe option.

Description: Read the February 2017 issue of Risks and Rewards published by the Investment Section.

Description: Discussion of Asset Adequacy Analysis for one company's Long Term Care Product. Includes a discussion of the need for better asset/liability risk management for this company and how asset adequacy analysis can lead to the development of new investment strategies for the Company.