SOA Annual Meeting, Chicago, October, 2006

The Education and Research Section organized three sessions for the 2006 SOA Annual Meeting held Oct. 15–18 in Chicago at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. These sessions include the traditional E&R–hosted continental breakfast as well as panel discussions on financial economics and techniques for selecting representative scenarios.

The session, Financial Economics and Increasing the Value of Actuaries in the Corporate World, led by Stuart Klugman and Henry McMillan, drew 44 attendees. Questions during the session showed interest in making financial economics education accessible for actuaries who either may not have studied the material or may want a refresher on financial economics topics. Post–session discussions included a suggestion to advertise financial economic education opportunities to the entire North American actuarial community.

The panel discussion on Techniques for Selecting Scenarios from Stochastic Scenario Sets was moderated by Dr. Sarah L.M. Christiansen, who was joined by panelists Dr. Yvonne Chueh, Steve Craighead and Larry Gorski. This session attracted an unexpectedly high degree of interest, with 90 people in attendance. Discussion focused on techniques for selecting appropriate, representative scenarios from a set of stochastically generated economic scenarios. The panel also discussed methods for validating the selected scenarios and the American Academy of Actuaries' perspective on scenario selection techniques.

The ensuing discussion and questions demonstrated an interest in exploring the topic beyond the introductory level that the session had targeted.