Description: The classical approach to life contingencies has treated actuarial functions as fixed quantities. In point of fact, these functions really represent the mean or expected values of random variables which are functions at the length of time to death of a life aged x. In this paper, we will present some examples of this approach. Talk given at the thirteenth annual Actuarial Research Conference held at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, September 1, 1978.

Description: Presentation of proposals that are designed to further improve actuarial education by anticipating educational needs based on future change in the nature of actuarial work. The paper is divided into three sections: I. Current and Past Education of Actuaries II. Actuaries as Customers for Education and III. The Future Educational Needs of Actuaries and How These Needs Might Be Implemented. Followed by several submitted discussion papers.

Description: The objectives of this paper are: 1. To show why scientific laws of mortality are preferable to the continued use of graduation techniques on mortality tables. 2. To develop a new theory leading to a new mathematical law of mortality that reduces to Gompertz's law as a first approximation. 3. To demonstrate an understanding of select mortality and produce a simple formula that is reasonably consistent with it. 4. To develop methods to test this and other similar formulas on various bodies of data to establish their validity and usefulness. 5. To discuss the meaning of the results and provide some examples of the use of the formula for purposes other than graduation. 6. To discuss extensions of the models. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1980, Vol. 32.

Description: In this paper, mortality trends of males and females are examined from the beginnings of the human species until the present. Future projections are also made, and the implications of the widening gap in survival rates of women vs. men is discussed.

Description: This article considers considers how the assumptions and statistical methods used to analyze investments are likely to change as a result of the events of Black Monday, October 19, 1987.

Description: 1994 SOA Spring Meeting, Orlando. This session discussed the SOA research structure and provided an update on projects and experience studies.

Description: This abstract describes a presentation that provides an opportunity for MLC teachers to discuss various issues arising from the new MLC examination syllabus.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the use of least squares for estimating parameters of mortality curves and discuss the advantages of this method.

Description: 1993 SOA Annual Meeting, New York. This session is about new developments in graduation methods.

Description: This paper summarizes default experience on bonds from 1900 through 1987. Although the information is more extensive for publicly traded bonds, the paper includes some information on private placements, some of which is not otherwise available.