Description: Real estate practitioners are increasingly using “economic location,” rather than “geographic location,” as their primary analytic tool. That trend has gained substantial support among academics and practitioners who believe “economic location” is a more effective basis on which to build the analysis of risk in real estate portfolios.

Description: This paper analyzes the U. S. Treasury monthly interest rates from 1953 to 1992, and the daily rates from 1981 to 1992 for various forms of chaotic behavior. The primary analysis was in determining the Burst Exponent by the use of Rescaled Range Analysis. This paper also discusses other possible uses of Fractional Brownian Motion in Finance Theory, Macroeconomics, and Actuarial Science. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1994 VOL. 1.

Description: Successful healthcare reform: First, it must help that must keep healthy people healthy. Second, it must help people mitigate or eliminate the health-risks associated with unhealthy lifestyle behavior choices, and Third, it must ensure the provision of evidence-based care to those who are ill.

Description: 1999 SOA Annual Meeting, San Francisco. The panel discussed recent developments in the equity-linked note market. Topics included: 1. New structures that allow active management. 2. Trade-offs affecting participation rates. 3. Accounting issues. 4. Tax issues. 5. Risk-based capital issues.

Description: This is a compilation or risk management terms garnered from a survey of risk professionals supplemented with analysis of firm-level information on significant risks as reported in 10-K financial statements. Results indicate the existence of significance differences in terminology. The dominating pattern observed is a dichotomy between internal and external perceptions. Also observed is a difference between terms used by actuarial professionals and traditional risk managers.

Description: 1996 Valuation Actuary Symposium. Questions asked and answered included: 1. What do regulators expect or want as far as asset adequacy analysis for shorter-term liabilities such as IBNR? 2. What responsibility does the appointed actuary have in verifying reserves for reinsured business? 3. If the assets for the market value adjusted annuity are held in a separate account and valued at market, what rates should be used to present value the projected guaranteed benefits? 4. May a company perform the cash-flow testing based on the low level of reserves held in the domiciliary state rather than the higher reserve actually held in the state with the special state in filing? 5. Have there been any situations where an opining valuation actuary has been held personally responsible?

Description: This paper examines the theory of surplus for a mutual life insurance organization. The paper tries to answer several important questions - What exactly is surplus, what is its purpose, of what magnitude might it be, from whence does it arise, and what are its implications with respect to equity between policyholders.

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. This session discusses financial, strategic, and regulatory issues that arise from the combination of life insurance businesses through merger, acquisition, or reinsurance, with a special focus on the needs of mutual companies.

Description: This report describes and demonstrates a method to understand reputational risk that an insurance company can apply to the unique circumstances of the insurance firm. This method applies a policy-capturing survey with scenario analysis to generate insight into reputational risk from the perspective of a variety of stakeholders. Also included is instruction for spreadsheet-based query and reporting to facilitate the use of the information in the risk management function.

Description: This paper defines a concept of equivalence for profit standards. The central principle advanced is that the company should set prices on all its products to produce marginal profits that are equal in proportion to the products' marginal use of surplus. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1981, Vol. 33.