Research Sponsorship Opportunities
The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute offers several opportunities to sponsor actuarial research. Position your organization as an industry partner and leader by sponsoring a research project.
At the Institute, we maintain a list of projects available for sponsorship. The important research being performed by the SOA Research Institute informs the actuarial profession and in turn addresses societal challenges. Current projects topics open for sponsorship include mortality, retirement planning, long-term care claims and credit risk loss.
We also encourage you to submit suggestions for projects you may want to sponsor. Contact the SOA Research Institute at research@soa.org to discuss potential research sponsorship.
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SOA Research Institute Sponsorship Opportunities
Research Projects Available for Sponsorship
Post Pandemic Mortality by Generation
The research will assess the direct and indirect impact of Covid-19 during the pandemic and on future mortality emphasizing generational differences.
Changes in Medical Trend Because of Provider Disruptions
This project will examine the impact of changes in provider operations on medical utilization and cost trends.
Bias Awareness in Model Governance
Insurance companies want to avoid both intentional and unintentional unfair bias in predictive analytics and other modeling exercises. The research would articulate in a report principles to consider when assessing a model for potential bias.
Impact of Diet on Obesity-Related Diseases
This research will identify several diets that claimed or appear to have positive impacts on the prevalence and severity of obesity-related diseases. We will survey literature and data and analyze data that measures the impact of these diets on obesity-related diseases. The result will be a report summarizing outcomes and conclusions.
Climate Change and Insect Borne Disease
This research will explore and identify the top 3 insect borne diseases. It will assess the historical shift in geographic coverage areas of these diseases over the past 20 years and determine the factors that correlate with the shift. It will then develop a model to project the potential for additional shift in geographic coverage area over the next 10 years and the impact on morbidity and mortality rates.
Parametric Insurance
This research would identify and address all the barriers that are holding back the development of parametric insurance in North American markets. Results will be outlined in a report that articulates product design considerations with supporting actuarial pricing and underwriting guidelines.
Insuring Decentralized Finance
This project will develop robust underwriting guidelines and actuarial pricing methodologies that will enable creating insurance products that adequately cover the risks associated with DeFi contracts and prevent anti-selection and moral hazard. Results will be outlined in a report that discusses product design and describes underwriting guidelines and actuarial pricing methodologies.
Modeling Medicare Long-Term Care Support Services Benefit Offerings
Medicare Advantage (MA) plans have been allowed new flexibilities related to the types of supplemental benefits that could be offered to enrollees. As a result, Medicare Advantage plans began to offer long-term services and support (LTSS) benefits as supplemental benefit offerings. The SOA Research Institute is currently conducting a research project that focuses on consumer financial impacts of social insurance LTSS proposals, and we would like to also consider the impact on consumers of incorporating LTSS benefits into MA plans.
Cardiovascular Disease Population Mortality Improvement Trends
The purpose of the multi-phase study is to create a resource for actuaries and others on cardiovascular disease mortality improvement trends to help project future insured and U.S. general populations.
Private Pension Plan Mortality Study and Tables
This research will provide detailed insights into the risk factors that drive private pension plan mortality experience. The private pension plan mortality experience collected for this research will be aggregated, de-identified, and made available for further analysis. In addition, mortality tables based on this private pension plan experience will be developed for use in the valuation and risk management of private pension plans.
Medicaid Underwriting Margin Update
Update the Medicaid underwriting model and report to reflect emerging factors that materially impact financial results and Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) risks.
Impact of Patient Care Innovation on Health Insurance
This study would assess the impact of recent patient care innovation(s) on health care and the health insurance industry.
Unnecessary Medical Services
Quantify the impact on health care costs of specialty drugs and evaluate scenarios for future emerging specialty drugs.
Risk Adjustment Equity
Examine risk adjustment methodologies for potential biases inherent within the algorithms used and identify and quantify how they can potentially distort predictions of claims costs to potentially result in worse outcomes for underprivileged and underserved populations.
Impact of COVID-19 on Behavioral Health
Examine utilization patterns to evaluate incidence of behavioral health pre- and post-COVID-19, as well as changes in services rendered over time and how they vary by subpopulations.
U.S. Public Pension Plan Mortality Study and Tables
Update U.S. public pension plan mortality tables using robust, statistically credible, mortality experience collected from approximately 40 large public pension systems.
Disparities in Social Security Replacement Ratios
Social Security benefits in the U.S. are facially race-neutral. Two people the same age and with the same earnings history and retirement age will receive the same Social Security benefits. However, employment patterns, including employment not included in Social Security, are known to differ across the population. How do those differences affect Social Security benefit replacement ratios by race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic factors other than income alone?
Disparities in Retirement Preparedness in the Gig Economy
Research shows disparities in levels of retirement preparedness across diverse populations in the U.S. How has the gig economy affected disparities in retirement preparedness across race, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic factors?
Inflation Impact on Insurance Companies and Retirement Plans
Investigate from many angles the variety of potential impacts of increasing inflation on actuarial products and services in the insurance and retirement industries.
Retirement Plan Cash Outs, Loans and In-service Withdrawals by Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Socioeconomic Factors
Quantify the frequency, magnitude and impact of retirement plan cash outs, in-service withdrawals, and loan defaults on different U.S. population segments defined by various dimensions of diversity.
Credit Risk Loss Experience Study for Alternative Investments
Collect and value expected and real cash flows to analyze credit risk loss experience for publicly- and privately-traded alternative investments, including private placement, commercial mortgages, commercial and private mortgage-backed securities, equity lines of credits, etc