Description: The article introduces a cashflow matching strategic asset allocation (SAA) framework for life insurers. Given the recent shift to higher interest rates after two decades of persistent low interest rates, insurers have an opportunity to enhance their asset liability management by rebalancing asset portfolios to narrow duration gaps and attain higher risk-adjusted yields. The framework aims to align investment objectives with economic, regulatory, and rating agency requirements. It prioritizes cashflow matching as the primary optimization goal and incorporates security-level asset information to assist portfolio managers in executing SAA seamlessly. The article highlights the benefits of the cashflow matching SAA framework, including greater attention to cashflow matching, unbiased results, readily executable strategies, and stable economic reserves. A case study is included to demonstrate the effectiveness of the framework in improving risk-adjusted return and cashflow matching for a representative liability block.

Description: This paper is concerned with the evaluation of the common portfolio management strategy which consists of delegating to different managers portions of the assets to be invested. This practice is shown to be close to optimal under the realistic assumption that the private signals of the financial experts are positively correlated. This is accomplished by comparing this multi-manager approach to an optimal investment policy derived under full information, within the context of a standard normal returns/exponential utility market timing model.

Description: This session from the 1984 SOA New York City Meeting discusses the organizational and practical implications of segregating the General Account including how to allocate existing assets by product line, organizational changes required, regulatory implications and accounting and systems consideratons. Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 10, No. 3

Description: The paper demonstrates that the most popular rationalization for evolving glide paths is flawed and should be discarded. The paper also demonstrates that glide paths should generally evolve for investors that endeavor to optimize outcomes and reevaluate their portfolios regularly.

Description: Interest rates steadily declining ever since the Volcker Fed tackled inflation in the early eighties. Ten years of stimulating monetary policy brought new lows. We should have braced ourselves for a return to neutrality, but that concept remains elusive. We will explore structural issues that have brought rates to these low levels and the potential impacts on the insurance business.

Description: This is the Introductory Study Note for the Society of Actuaries Advanced Portfolio Management examination for Spring 2012 that will be given on Friday, April 27th, from 8:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA New York Meeting addresses asset prepayments including emerging prepayment experience in the mortgage-backed - CMO security arena, special modeling considerations when addressing prepayments and the NAIC's FLUX model and the scenario and assumption specifications of that model. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 21, No. 2.

Description: The theme of this paper relates to solving portfolio selection problems using linear programming. The authors extend the linear optimization framework for Conditional Value-at-Risk-based portfolio selection problems to optimization over a more general class of risk measure known as the class of Coherent Distortion Risk Measure. From Actuarial Research Clearing House, 2012 Vol. 1.