Description: This section contains multiple book reviews and notices concerning the actuarial profession. Reviews: 'Medical Risks: Patterns of Mortality and Survival' by Singer and Levinson, 'The Theory and Practice of Pension Funding' by Trowbridge and Farr, 'Two Stochastic Processes' by Beekman, 'Disability Income Insurance - Cost Differentials between Men and Women' by New York Insurance Department, 'Social Security and Private Pension Plans: Competitive or Complementary' by McGill, 'A New Look at Accounting for Pension Costs' by Hall and Landsittel, '1977 Annual Reports of the Board of Trustees of the Federal OASDI Trust Funds...,' 'Investigation of Sickness Statistics - Individual Policies, 1971 and 1973' by the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries, 'The Graduation of Pensioners and of Annuitants Mortality Experience 1967-70' by the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries, 'Pensions and Survival - the Coming Crisis of Money and Retirement' by Calvert, 'Group Benefits in a Changing Society' by Spencer, 'Experience of Disabled Work Benefits under OASDI 1965-74' by Bayo and Wilkin. Digests also included.

Description: Without relying on formulas, this paper presents the important concepts underlying the theory of arbitrage-free pricing of interest-rate-contingent cash flows: absence of opportunities for riskless arbitrage, completeness of markets, relative prices that do not depend on individual investors' subjective views or risk preferences, and expected-value pricing in the risk-neutral world. Using these concepts, the paper then describes the steps required to build continuous stochastic models of interest rates, including models that are either partially or fully arbitrage free.

Description: In this paper, a mathematical model is constructed to study the deviations of claims, investment performance, operating expenses, and lapse expenses as random stochastic processes. Discussions of the paper submitted by 2 readers follows

Description: With this paper, a new theory of immunization is introduced in which the approach is multivariate, and the goal is stochastic in the sense of minimizing stochastic risk. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: This paper presents an introduction to collective risk theory. In collective risk theory one seeks to investigate directly the risk enterprise as a whole. Primary interest is focused not upon the gains, losses, or claims from individual policies but upon the amount of total claims or the total gain arising from all the policies in the portfolio considered. Followed by several discussion papers submitted.

Description: Discussion of how to obtain tight upper and lower bounds on E[hX] for a given function h, and a random variable X with three known moments.

Description: The purpose of this paper is to provide a method for calculating special contingency reserves for investment losses. The method is derived by first building a stochastic investment model and then utilizing its probabilistic structure. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1980, Vol. 32.

Description: This report describes a stochastic simulation approach used to estimate the amount of a level-payment annuity payable as long as the person is alive and living in his/her house. A discussion of the paper follows. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1991, Vol. 43.

Description: This paper proposes the use of stochastic compartment model methods for estimating both the current direct and current indirect costs of specific cancers and for forecasting future direct and indirect costs. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1982, Vol. 34.

Description: The subject of this paper is a mathematical model for insurance company risks formed by a linear combination of four stochastic processes recognizing claim patterns, investment performance assumptions, operating expenses and lapse expenses. A discussion of the paper follows. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1978, Vol. 30.