Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Research
On this page you'll find links to reports on Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) topics that are important to the actuarial profession.
Questions or comments may be directed to research@soa.org.
2024
Mortality and Race and Ethnicity in the United States
May
This survey of existing literature can be used by actuaries as an aid in identifying, measuring, modeling, and analyzing possible mortality differentials when considering full U.S. population analysis.
Statistical Methods for Imputing Race and Ethnicity
April
This report describes a range of techniques for developing probabilistic estimates or predictions of individual race and/or ethnicity.
Retirement Wealth by Race and Ethnicity: Differences, Trends and Contributing Factors
April
This report 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.
Modeling and Forecasting Premature Cardiovascular Mortality
February
This project aims to model and forecast premature cardiovascular mortality, with a focus on two main risk factors - obesity status and education attainment level. A key contribution of this research is to investigate the role of obesity and education in determining age-sex-specific premature cardiovascular mortality.
The Impact of Covid-19 on the Socioeconomic Differential in Mortality in the United States
February
The overall goal of the project was to contribute to a better understanding of how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted different socioeconomic groups within the U.S. population and, ultimately, how the health crisis is likely to affect the work of actuaries in the insurance and reinsurance industry.
2023
Challenges and Opportunities with Rethinking Fairness Metrics for Life Insurance Processes: An Actuarial Perspective
November
Defining fairness for life insurance processes is complex and challenging as well as subjective. The Society of Actuaries Research Institute submits to the public discourse this summary of the challenges and complexities involved in trying to define fairness for life insurance processes in the United States.
Modeling the Impact of the Great Unwinding on State Medicaid Programs
October
This report provides actuaries and other finance professionals with an example of running the Medicaid Unwinding model with results at the national level on projected changes in both acuity and enrollment for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program.
U.S. Violent Manner of Death Mortality by Race and Ethnicity: A Mortality Study
September
A rigorous analysis of mortality rates due to three manners of violent deaths using CDC data from 27 states spanning 2016–2020.
Unhealthy Longevity in the United States
August
The purpose of this report is to quantify differences in mortality and disease prevalence by health status. This project was conducted in response to a request from the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Mortality and Longevity Steering Committee and is intended to assist both practicing actuaries and the public to better understand differences in mortality for people in good and poor health.
Pharmacy Partnership Forum - Reimagining Pharmacy Finance
June
This report shares the insights and learnings that emerged from this group of health economics outcomes researchers, clinical pharmacists, medical doctors, health actuaries, benefits consultants and brokers, and their collective thoughts on advancing this exploration for society’s benefit.
InsurTech Insights America Report
June
These contextualized insights were gathered during the InsurTech Insights USA Conference, held on June 7-8, 2023, in New York with numerous SOA members attending.
LGBTQ+ Insurance Issues Essay Collection
May
A collection of essays exploring how some LGBTQ+ individuals and their families experience insurance-related issues.
Health and Health Care Inequalities: Research Challenges and Considerations for Future Research
May
A discussion of the significant challenges involved in attempting to research with robust analysis the impact of disparities in health care access, cost and quality of care on financial wellness across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and other demographic groups in the U.S. for reasons other than or in addition to income, wealth or employment status.
Correlation of Insurance and Retirement Product Penetration with Wealth Inequality in the U.S.
May
An analysis seeking to develop a broader understanding of the relationship between ownership of insurance and retirement products and the income and wealth gap between races and ethnicities in the United States.
Social, Physical and Cultural Determinants of Health: Their Incorporation into Actuarial Data and Workstreams
April
This report provides actuaries and other professionals working with risk, data and analytics or program evaluation in the health care space with considerations and frameworks related to the use of determinants of health (DOH) in data and actuarial work streams. Such frameworks can leverage new data sources to enrich health care data analysis to move beyond traditional data elements, such as age, gender, zip code or health diagnosis.
March 2023 InsurTech New York
March
These contextualized insights were gathered during the InsurTech Insights USA Conference, held on June 7-8, 2023, in New York with numerous SOA members attending.
Long-Term Care Coverage: Stakeholder Opinions on State-Based Catastrophic Insurance
February
The Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program is pleased to make available a report that explores stakeholder views in Minnesota on the efficacy of a public catastrophic long-term care insurance program at the state level.
InsurTech New York Conference Correspondent Report
February
The Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program is pleased to make available a report that explores stakeholder views in Minnesota on the efficacy of a public catastrophic long-term care insurance program at the state level.
Evaluating Risk Adjustment and Medicare Advantage: Ideas for Improving an Important Tool
February
The Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program is pleased to make available a report that explores stakeholder views in Minnesota on the efficacy of a public catastrophic long-term care insurance program at the state level.
Long-Term Services and Supports: Usage and Payment by Race, Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Factors
January
An exploration of how the need for, utilization of and payment for long-term services and supports differ in the U.S. by population cohorts defined by race, ethnicity and other socioeconomic factors.
Data Challenges in Building a Facial Recognition Model and How to Mitigate Them
January
This paper is an introduction to AI technology designed for actuaries to understand how the technology works, the potential risks it could introduce, and how to mitigate risks. The author focuses on data bias as it is one of the main concerns of facial recognition technology.
2021 Risks and Process of Retirement Survey
January
The 2021 iteration of the Retirement Risk Survey included a brief report, The Impact of COVID-19 on Financial Stress, which explores how COVID-19 impacted respondents’ concerns about retirement-related financial issues.
2022
Mental Illness and Its Impact on U.S. Mortality and Longevity
November
An examination of the impact of mental illness on U.S. population mortality and longevity, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental illness.
Aging and Retirement Issues for LGBTQ+ People Essay Collection
November
The Society of Actuaries Research Institute’s Aging and Retirement Strategic Research Program in collaboration with the Sexuality and Gender Alliance of Actuaries (SAGAA) is pleased to release a collection of essays in response to a call for essays aimed at a broader exploration of issues related to aging and retirement for LGBTQ+ people.
Social and Other Determinants of Life Insurance Demand
August
Which social and other factors were most closely tied to life insurance demand in the U.S. during 2020?
Avoiding Unfair Bias in Insurance Applications of AI Models
August
Here’s a framework for avoiding or mitigating risks of unfair bias when developing insurance industry AI models, developed from interviews with industry leaders on the topic.
Interactions of Health Care Rating Factors with Race, Ethnicity and Socioeconomic Factors
July
A study of whether tobacco, area and industry rating in one state may be reflecting unintended factors such as race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. This study does not consider whether the rating factors accurately reflect underlying claims costs.
Cause-of-Death Contributions to Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mortality in the United States
June
This study of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality builds on a previous report in which we identified a large and growing gradient in life expectancy between 1982 and 2019 across U.S. counties classified into 10 socioeconomically homogeneous categories. In this report, we seek to identify the particular causes of death contributing to the growing disadvantage in mortality between populations in the least and most affluent deciles as previously defined.
Race, Wealth and Bankruptcy Code Exemptions in Washington DC
June
What role do retirement accounts and insurance products play in wealth inequality pre- and post-bankruptcy in Washington, DC, in 2011?
Disparities in the Pursuit of Financial Security in Retirement by Race and Ethnicity: A Review of the Disparities and Key Metrics to Monitor Them in the Future
April
How does retirement preparedness in the U.S. vary across racial/ethnic groups? This report compiles and analyzes a wide variety of works that look at this question through various limited, specific viewpoints. The result provides a broader perspective through comparison of seven metrics tracked from 2012 to 2021.
How Does Where You Live Impact Your Health?
March
How does where you live impact your health? The following research considers this question through the lens of social determinants of health (SDOH), which are factors relating to where you live or work that may impact your health. In the United States, there are geographical differences in SDOH which contribute to wide disparities in health status and outcomes. In particular, individuals who are negatively affected by SDOH may have an increased burden of disease, leading to a relatively high total cost of care and worse quality of life
Mortality by Socioeconomic Category in the United States
March
Mortality analysis and rate estimates for the U.S. separately by socioeconomic quintile and decile by year from 1982 through 2019.
Financial Perspectives on Aging and Retirement Across the Generations
February
Second in a biennial series of studies of financial perspectives on aging and retirement of Americans across five generations: Millenials, Gen X, Early Boomers, Late Boomers and the Silent Generation.
2021 Risks and Process of Retirement Survey
February
The latest report of findings in a biennial survey of Americans ages 45‒80 about their awareness and approach to their financial risks with respect to retirement.
Health and Hurricanes, Studying Disparate Health Impact of Extreme Climate Events, 2017-2020
January
In this Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute report, authored by consultants from Milliman, Inc. (Milliman) we aim to study the effects of hurricanes on human health: whether there is a relationship between hurricanes and the observed prevalence of healthcare utilization or certain health conditions among the affected population, whether this relationship can be observed through a healthcare utilization dataset, and whether there is an interaction between this observation and metrics of socioeconomic vulnerability.
2021
Obesity Trends and the Impact on Morbidity and Mortality Costs
December
The Mortality and Longevity Strategic Research Program Steering Committee (MLPSC) is pleased to present new research on obesity trends in the U.S. and Canada. This report examines the latest trends in obesity prevalence. Using this information along with cost information gathered from a review of literature, an estimate of the economic burden of obesity in the U.S. and Canada is determined.
Oral Health in U.S. Children
November 2021
In this report, we explore the impact of clustering using the Medical Expenditure Panel Study (MEPS) data for children (aged 5 to 17) to build a bridge between oral health and overall health using dental and medical expenditures. We include social determinants of health as cluster input variables using the Partitioning around Medoids (PAM) method to identify children and their families who could potentially benefit from population health management related to oral health.
Analysis of Historical U.S. Population Mortality Improvement Drivers, 1956–2016
September
This study identifies significant trends in U.S. mortality improvement and deterioration since 1959.
Financial Perspectives on Aging and Retirement Across the Generations - Report on Race and Ethnicity
August
Report on the oversample of Black/African American, Asian American and Hispanic/Latino respondents to the survey on Financial Perspectives on Aging and Retirement Across Generations, the full results of which were released in May 2021.
Aging and Retirement Issues for People of Different Races and Ethnicities
August
A collection of essays exploring how differences in wealth and retirement are experienced by people of different races and ethnicities. Produce in collaboration with the International Association of Black Actuaries (IABA) and the Organization of Latino Actuaries (OLA) to promote a better understanding of the underlying issues surrounding the differences.
Impact of COVID-19 on Actuarial Careers
July
These reports provide results of a Society of Actuaries (SOA) member and candidate survey on the impact of COVID-19 on their careers. A full report is posted along with a previous report that highlights the results.
Financial Perspectives on Aging and Retirement Across the Generations
May
A study of differing financial perspectives on aging and retirement across five generations of Americans: Millenials, Gen X, Early Boomers, Late Boomers and the Silent Generation.
Mortality by Socioeconomic Category in the United States: Data Summary
March
Highlights of tends observed across 36 years of U.S. mortality data by socioeconomic category.
Mortality by Socioeconomic Category in the United States
January
Learn more about mortality disparities in the U.S.
U.S. Population Mortality Observations—Updated with 2019 Experience
January
Learn about the latest emerging trends in U.S. population mortality.
2020
Comparing Measures of Social Determinants of Health to Assess Population Risk
November
Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) include the social and physical conditions in which people are born, live and work on a daily basis. This project advances a growing body of literature to inform the ongoing optimization of population health and payment models.
U.S. Population Mortality Observations—Updated with 2019 Experience
December
Thinking Ahead: Informing the design of a Roadmap for Keeping Your Money Safe as You Age
October
A report summarizing the research phase of a multi-phase project leading to publication of a Conversation Guide to plan for changes in financial capacity and decision-making as people age.
Redefining the Goal of Retirement Planning
October
A collection of essays providing perspectives, options and data on how to advance the state of effective retirement planning.
U.S. Population Mortality by Race
July
A look at historical mortality by race for all deaths as well as six causes of death, plus COVID-19 deaths by race.
Validating Algorithmic Underwriting Models—COVID-19 Addendum
May
An addendum to the March 2020 report discussing the implications of COVID-19 on algorithmic underwriting.
Validating Algorithmic Underwriting Models
March
An expert panel report discussing key considerations and challenges of algorithmic underwriting model (AUM) validation.
2019
Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence
September
A report highlighting the ethical risks arising from the application of AI in actuarial practice and to have tools to use to identify and manage it.