Description: This session is about structuring an HMO, rating, financing & solvency and underwriting. From Record of Society of Actuaries 1979 Vol. 5, No. 4.

Description: This presentation, session number 83CS at the 1999 Spring Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held June 16-18 in Seattle, is a preview of an actual Course 7. The presenters, two experienced researchers, lead the discussion and a demonstration of a case study from the modeling Course 7. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 2.

Description: Presented at May 2005 Spring Meeting. Panelists discuss strategies for increased modeling speed as risk management, valuation and product development activities have been requiring increasingly complex financial models.

Description: In March this year a charter for the new corporation, the College Retirement Equities Fund, was granted by the State of New York and it is expected that within a few months the Fund will begin operations as a supplement to TIAA annuities. The purpose of this paper is to describe this rather novel type of corporation, which presents some unusual and interesting actuarial problems. Comparisons of the performance of fixed annuities vs. variable annuities are provided.

Description: This discussion examines the relationship of Operations Research to the actuarial profession, the extent traditional actuarial work can be regarded as Operations Research, types of life insurance company problems lending themselves to Operations Research study, and the relationship of electronic data processing field to Operations Research.

Description: This article discusses the powerful but yet infrequently used OFFSET function in Excel.

Description: David Januszewski looks at the the development of open source software in statistics. By comparing the virtues between SAS, the proprietary software and R, the open source software used by statisticians, he thinks that open source software "can and does coexist with the proprietary software" and "both have a purpose. "He further looks at the availability of the open source software in the actuarial profession and does not see "open source software sweeping across actuarial science like it has with other fields". Dave explains the possible uses and virtues of the open source software to actuaries and asserts that it may be beneficial that the open source is used together with the propriety software.

Description: Panelists discuss current pension issues and ways in which the modeling process can be used to assist plan sponsors in addressing those issues. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 1.

Description: The article is a case study of various actuarial concepts invovled in the design and implementtion of the AQC - a global budget provider payment arrangement implemented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA.

Description: When setting reserves, multiple methods are often used in the creation of the reserve estimate. Judgment is warranted to combine these different estimates into a final recommendation. This paper describes two techniques that can be used to combine these estimates that may result in better accuracy and lower variance.