Description: This document is a Request for Proposal (RFP) issued by the SOA Research Institute, seeking researchers to assess the impact of artificial intelligence on the insurance and healthcare industries in Asia, with specific research objectives, proposal requirements, selection process, submission guidelines, and appendix providing cost estimates.

Description: There will be inflection points in the value of an instrument when interest rates change. These inflection points could materially impact the approximation of value change using ALM metrics. In this part of the seven-part series, I will highlight: • How to identify the inflection points; • the range of rate changes where ALM metrics may be relied upon i.e., the “validity” range, outside of which recalculation of the ALM metrics is required and the potential that one needs to rebalance the portfolio; • a technique to improve on the approximation of value change beyond the validity range; and • a technique to convert non-linear change on the yield curve to be used with duration and convexity.

Description: Until recently, the placement of healthcare coverage risk in captives was rare, and those captives that carried healthcare risk were generally in Bermuda, Cayman or other traditional offshore captive domiciles. In recent years, more and more entities taking risk on healthcare costs have been exploring the value of placing portions of that risk into a captive insurer or reinsurer, including employers, insurers, and healthcare providers. The increased utilization of healthcare insurance/reinsurance captives (“healthcare captives”) has also expanded the breadth of captive domiciles, with many of these captives being formed in U.S. onshore domiciles. The purpose of this research is to examine the evolution of the use of healthcare captives for managing risk, how the landscape for healthcare captives is changing, captive structures utilized, and methodology for evaluating and selecting a jurisdiction. In addition to providing a resource to help healthcare insurers and other entities manage risk, the research can be used by policymakers to assess the impact of healthcare captives to existing insurance industry regulation and requirements

Description: This article takes a look at how defined benefit (DB) pension plan financials ended the third quarter of 2023 on a solid footing, improving the capacity to take meaningful de-risking actions; as DB plans look to de-risk at reasonable costs, they may find it beneficial to consider a broad range of investment options; and completing a core bond allocation with private credit and income-oriented alternative strategies can help achieve important savings over other frequently pursued de-risking approaches, without materially increasing the funded status volatility or downside risk

Description: A paper demonstrating how to obviate the need for market timing strategies in variable annuity products by judicious use of product design. The paper presents the premise behind the product design, provides numerical examples, then explores possible extensions of the concept to produce more sophisticated variable annuity plans based on guarantees of investment outcomes.

Description: This report focuses on disparities in retirement savings based on race and ethnicity. It includes a thorough review of the literature on the extent of racial disparities in retirement savings and possible causes for and correlates of these disparities.

Description: A news release announcing the winners of the 2024 Student Research Case Study Challenge.

Description: Review the introductory study note for the Fall 2024 Retirement Plan Investment and Risk Management (RETRPIRM) Exam.

Description: Review the syllabus for the Fall 2024 Retirement Plan Investment and Risk Management (RETRPIRM) Exam.

Description: View an archive of the Spring 2024 FSA Syllabi, including updates that were made.