Description: Discusses how surplus should be defined, how it should be invested, and how the rating agencies may respond to various approaches. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 3.

Description: This paper presents the theory of immunization of investments to changes in interest rates and provides an extensive series of examples and formulas used in its implementation. Also presents some implications for investment behavior, product development, interest assumptions, valuation and adjusted earnings. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: This presentation is a panel discussion from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. Citing the current environment of recent insurance company insolvencies, bad investments, and capital erosion, the panelists discuss issues of interest to the investment actuary, including Financial accounting Standards Board [FASB] activity in market-value [MV] accounting, ways to evaluate asset quality and default risk in an MV environment, the impact of MV accounting on investment strategy, the new benchmark of ‘Return on MV Surplus,’ MV behavior of assets and liabilities, use of derivative instruments to hedge MV surplus volatility, and investment aspects of risk-based capital. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4B.

Description: The article provides a summary of the Drake Risk & Opportunity Forum held on October 21, 2022. The forum was a hybrid conference that attracted more than 200 attendees from 17 states, two countries, 48 employers, and five universities. Following an introduction by the Zimpleman College of Business Dean, the forum held six sessions. First was an insurance company CRO panel followed by a panel of non-insurance company CROs. Gary Zhu shared his outlook for interest rates and capital markets. The fourth panel discussed insurance capital models. The fifth panel discussed environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria when building insurance company investment portfolios. The final session of the day was a discussion about the NAIC, how they operate, and their priorities for the coming year.

Description: Asset Adequacy Analysis for the Long-Term Care Product: A Case Study by Amy Pahl from Long-Term Care Newsletter, December 2004, Issue No. 13.

Description: This article presents the background around the Post Retirement Needs and Risk call for essays focused on: (1) defined contribution plan risk management strategies; (2) decumulation strategies for retirement and (3) long-term care financing. The important essays from that exercise are presented in this Pension Section News publication along with interviews of the winning authors.

Description: There have been many examples of interest rate swap deals which have not produced the desired results for the end-user, largely due to unanticipated interest rate movements. While the authors of this paper strongly believe that derivatives, such as IR swaps, are powerful tools, which when used properly can effectively transfer risk and enhance the efficiency of markets, they also believe it is critically important to analyze the potential exposure to interest-rate risk. In this article, they provide the necessary background to measure this potential exposure.

Description: This paper discusses both the theoretical and the application aspects of stress testing in managing enterprise risks. Effective stress testing maximizes the risk adjusted enterprise profit by controlling major risks financial, strategic, operational and hazard upon identifying risk metrics and modeling the correlations. A case study is included for demonstration purposes.