Risk Management Research Reports

If you’re looking for research projects and reports on risk management topics, you’ve come to the right place. The SOA offers research, authored by an individual or a team of authors, for download in just a few clicks. Most reports are in PDF format.

2024

The Risks of Change in the Insurance Industry: Adapting to the “New” New Normal
March
In a constantly changing world, the concept of a ‘new’ new normal refers to that which is different from what was experienced in the past and is now becoming the norm.
Navigating Global Insurance Demand Trends
March
This report explores the behavioral factors influencing insurance purchase among Gen Z and Millennials for forward-looking purposes, leveraging a rich dataset spanning 22 markets across six continents.
17th Annual Survey of Emerging Risks – Key Findings
January
The Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries Research Institute are pleased to make available the key findings from the 17th emerging risk survey.

2023

Calibrating Stochastic Interest Rate Models
November
This paper introduces practitioners to the selection and calibration of stochastic interest rate models. Six continuous time interest rate models and their calibration are presented. Actual code and data examples are added to help the practitioner implement them. The emphasis is on hands-on calibration with RStudio. The reader is assumed to have a working knowledge of RStudio, including writing R scripts.
Rating Agency Perspectives on Insurance Company Capital
August
The SOA Research Institute along with the Corporate Finance & Enterprise Risk Management Curriculum Committee, Financial Reporting Section, and Individual Life & Annuity Curriculum Committee are pleased to make available a research report that aids students and practitioners with their understanding of the rating agencies as they affect the insurance industry.
Regulatory Capital Adequacy for Life Insurance Companies: A Comparison of Four Jurisdictions
July
The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of capital and key related terms, as well as to compare and contrast four key regulatory capital regimes.
16th Survey of Emerging Risks
June
The Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries Research Institute are pleased to make available the 16th emerging risk survey.
What Can Insurers and Pension Funds Learn from Bank Failures – Expert Panel Discussion
April
Over a short span of two weeks, the financial system has observed the collapse of two mid-sized U.S. commercial banks, California-based Silicon Valley Bank (“SVB”) and New York-based Signature Bank, and a takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by a rival in Europe. The current turmoil in the financial system is a stark reminder of the importance of effective risk management and regulation.
16th Survey of Emerging Risks - Key Findings
January
The Casualty Actuarial Society and the Society of Actuaries Research Institute are pleased to make available the key findings from the 16th emerging risk survey.

2022

Inspiring Actuarial Education through Learning Communities and Research Experiences
October
This project pertained to the development of a new Actuarial Science Learning Community model, involving four types of students' engagement: academic coursework, residential life, research, and professional development. The model provided students an immersive exposure to Data Science from the Actuarial perspective, which will result in Actuarial students greatly expanding their skill set and future job opportunities, at the intersection of Actuarial Science and Data Science.
US and Canada: An Era of Value-added Enterprise Risk Management
September
Enterprise risk management (ERM) is an orderly or guided conduct of an enterprise to deal with risks. For insurers, ERM requires full support and commitment of the senior management. ERM in the U.S. and Canada has evolved over the years into a complex ecosystem.
Understanding the Connection between Real-World and Risk-Neutral Scenario Generators
September
Scenario generators used in financial models to quantify risk are sometimes described as being as either “real-world” or “risk-neutral." The difference is in the treatment of the market price of risk. This report explores the relationship between real-world and risk-neutral scenarios and when it is appropriate to use each type.
India: Growth Opportunities on the Rise
September
The Indian market holds tremendous potential for insurance products, especially in segments that remain untapped. The market is evolving in terms of market penetration, product innovation, regulatory changes, government initiatives, capital adequacy and customer experience. In this report, we have highlighted insurance trends in India based on insights gathered from practitioners' interviews, available research and literature, with a particular focus on the enterprise risk management (ERM) function of insurance companies.
U.S. Insurance Company Earnings Review, Second Quarter 2022
August
In the second quarter of 2022, publicly traded life insurers reported some of their best financial results since the pandemic began. COVID-19-related claims fell sharply in many product categories. Sales, which had taken a big hit, showed significant improvement as well, though not always to pre-pandemic levels. Sales activity was enough, however, for industry executives to report confidently in their quarterly conference calls that in this regard the worst consequences of the pandemic are over.
15th Survey of Emerging Risks
August
The Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries Research Institute are pleased to make available the full report from the 15th Survey of Emerging Risks.
China: An Era of Insurance Innovation
July
The Chinese insurance market is grappling with product innovation, business growth and regulatory oversight as it tries to keep pace with a sharp growth in demand across product segments. In this context, the authors have highlighted insurance trends in China, based on available research and literature, with a particular focus on topics that will drive the enterprise risk management (ERM) function of insurance companies.
Survey of Emerging Risks in China and Greater Asia
June
In March 2022, the Society of Actuaries (SOA) Research Institute surveyed actuarial and risk management professionals in China and Greater Asia for their opinions on emerging risks in the local market. The results are presented in this inaugural China and Greater Asia survey report which provides a comparison with findings from the North American emerging risks survey, now in its 15th year.
Pension Risk Transfer in Canada and the U.S.
April
This report was prepared to provide an overview of pension risk transfer for use in the educational curriculum of the Society of Actuaries. It presents general principles and highlights major differences between Canada and the U.S. from a life insurer’s perspective. The focus is on group annuities, which are the most common solution for pension risk transfer.
15th Emerging Risks Key Finding
January
This report summarizes the key findings from the 15th Annual Survey of Emerging Risks.

2021

Modeling the Variety of Decision Making
August
The Joint Risk Management Research Committee is pleased to present new research that enhances existing actuarial modeling practice. This report discusses management decision making practices and the need for actuaries to build the appropriate level of variability for management actions in stochastic models to achieve a more realistic range of future experience among the stochastic scenarios.
14th Annual Survey of Emerging Risks
August
Read the findings from the 14th Annual Survey of Emerging Risks.
Resurrecting the White Swan Mindset
August
This monograph walks the reader through the hindsight, insight and foresight building process while discussing theoretical and practical issues supporting the building of valid forecasts with provenance for each of these schema examples.
Early Detection of Insurer Insolvency
July
This study aims to develop a market-based insolvency prediction model to detect financially distressed insurers at an early stage.
Managing Investment Risks of Insurance Contractual Designs
May
The Society of Actuaries’ Committee on Finance Research and Joint Risk Management Section Research Committee are pleased to make available a research report developing a framework for quantifying and analyzing various forms of contractual designs.

2020

Society of Actuaries Research Brief: Impact of COVID-19, June 12, 2020
June
This Society of Actuaries Research Brief has been constructed to highlight some of the key features of the COVID-19 epidemic and contemplate the risks for the actuarial profession to consider in their work.
Future Long-Term Care in Canada
May
The Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries' Joint Risk Management Section and the Joint Risk Management Research Committee are pleased to make available a new report demonstrating how ERM can be used for informing decision makers on the future of long-term care in Canada.
Macroeconomics-Based Economic Scenario Generation
April

The Society of Actuaries Financial Reporting Section and the Joint Risk Management Research Committee are pleased to make available new research introducing actuaries and others to dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) models, a type of macroeconomic model.
Negative Interest Rates
March
View the new study examining negative interest rates and the insurance industry.
Systemic Risk in China’s Insurance Industry
March
This report looks at identifying drivers of systemic risk in China’s insurance industry and develops a measurement method for systemic risk as well as systemic risk dependence between the insurance industry and other industries.
13th Annual Survey Of Emerging Risks
March
The Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries' Joint Risk Management Section is pleased to make available the full report from 13th annual emerging risk survey.
Policyholder Behavior in the Tail Joint Risk Management Section Working Group Variable Annuity Guaranteed Benefits 2019 Survey Results
March
As part of its work, the PBITT working group issued its annual survey to gather the range of assumptions actuaries use in pricing, reserving, and risk management of minimum guarantees on Variable Annuity products, such as death benefits, income benefits, withdrawal benefits and maturity benefits.

2019

A Reconciliation of the Top-Down and Bottom-Up Approaches to Risk Capital Allocations: Proportional Allocations Revisited
December
Sponsored by the Society of Actuaries Research Expanding Boundaries Pool, this report examines an encompassing method to allocating economic capital in insurance conglomerates.
2019 Universal Life with Secondary Guarantees Survey: Survey of Assumptions for Policyholder Behavior in the Tail
December
The PBITT Working Group presents a summary of the 2019 UL with Secondary Guarantees Survey.
12th Annual Survey Of Emerging Risks
October
The Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries' Joint Risk Management Section is pleased to make available the full report from the 2018 Emerging Risks Survey, the twelfth in the series.
2019 ERM Monograph
August
In a collaborative effort, the Joint Risk Management Section, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA), the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), the Society of Actuaries (SOA), and The Actuarial Foundation are pleased to present papers from the 2019 ERM Symposium Call for Papers.
Copula Models of Economic Capital for Life Insurance Companies
June
This report examines the use of a copula approach to build a predictive model to estimate the amount of economic capital a life insurance company needs to protect itself against an adverse movement in interest rates, mortality, and other risk drivers.
Policyholder Behavior in the Tail Risk Management Section Working Group Variable Annuity Guaranteed Benefits 2018 Survey Results
January
The Joint Risk Management Section is trying to develop better estimates of policyholder behavior in the tail (PBITT). The mission of the PBITT working group is to examine and ultimately give guidance to actuaries on how to set policyholder assumptions in extreme scenarios.
Machine-Learning Methods for Insurance Applications-A Survey
January
The Society of Actuaries is pleased to make available a research report that provides a literature survey of methodologies applying machine learning to insurance claim modeling.

2018

11th Annual Survey Of Emerging Risks
October
The Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries' Joint Risk Management Section is pleased to make available results from the 2017 Emerging Risks Survey, the eleventh in the series.
2018 Universal Life with Secondary Guarantees Survey: Survey of Assumptions for Policyholder in the Tail
September
The PBITT Working Group presents a summary of the 2018 UL with Secondary Guarantees Survey.
Applying Image Recognition to Insurance
June
This research report discusses the impact of image recognition on the insurance industry.
National Risk Management: A Practical ERM Approach for Federal Governments
April
The Canadian Institute of Actuaries, the Society of Actuaries and the Joint Risk Management Section of the Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries are pleased to make available a whitepaper on the application of enterprise risk management at a federal government level.
Effective ERM Stakeholder Engagement
March
The Joint Risk Management Research Committee announces the release of a new report on enterprise risk management (ERM) stakeholder engagement. Authored by Kailan Shang, this report examines current practices and identifies challenges to achieving ERM stakeholder buy-in. It also offers strategies to help overcome these challenges and improve ERM stakeholder engagement.

Actuarial Review of Insurer Insolvencies, Future Preventions
January
Sponsored by the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA), Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), and Society of Actuaries (SOA), this study looks at causes of insolvency and decisions made by management, regulators, and policyholders over the life cycle of the insolvency. This study is intended to educate insurance professionals on historical insurer impairments and insolvencies and possible future prevention indicators.

Policyholder Behavior in the Tail Joint Risk Management Section Working Group Variable Annuity Guaranteed Benefits 2017 Survey Results
January
As part of its work, the PBITT working group issued its annual survey to gather the range of assumptions actuaries use in pricing, reserving, and risk management of minimum guarantees on Variable Annuity products, such as death benefits, income benefits, withdrawal benefits and maturity benefits.

2017

10th Survey Of Emerging Risks
October
The Casualty Actuarial Society, Canadian Institute of Actuaries, and the Society of Actuaries' Joint Risk Management Section is pleased to make available a research report describing the results of the 2016 Emerging Risks Survey, the tenth in the series.
2017 Universal Life with Secondary Guarantees Survey Summary
July
As part of its work, the PBITT working group issued a survey that gathered the range of assumptions actuaries use in pricing, reserving, and risk management of UL with Secondary Guarantees. This report summarizes the findings of the survey.
2017 Enterprise Risk Management Symposium
April
Parameter Uncertainty
April
Sponsored by the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS), Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA), and the Society of Actuaries' (SOA) Joint Risk Management Section and the Joint Risk Management Research Committee, this study examines and describes parameter uncertainty.
Mitigating Extreme Risks through Securitization
March
Sponsored by the Society of Actuaries Research Expanding Boundaries Pool, this research report introduces readers to Insurance-linked securities (ILSs) emphasizing catastrophe bonds (CAT) and industry loss warranties (ILWs). The report also discusses the pricing of ILSs and issues in utilizing them as hedging tools.
Reviewing Systemic Risk in the Insurance Industry
February