Description: Future mortality improvement has been a common assumption in life insurance and annuity pricing and forecasting for many years. However, experience over the last decade suggests this might be an assumption that merits reconsideration in the United States. This article will take a closer look at factors that impact mortality improvement trends and discuss why insurers may want to reevaluate product designs to better manage the associated mortality risk. We then introduce a product idea with this in mind, where premiums are based on a life expectancy index and insurers share the risk (and opportunity) or mortality improvement with policyholders.

Description: Summarizes a research paper considering insurer performance during the financial crisis, with actions and circumstances that improved results highlighted.

Description: Feature article that provides a summary of the SOA research report “Mortality Comparisons and Risk Exposures in the Older Age U.S. Financial Services Market.”

Description: The U.K. Actuarial Profession—the Faculty and the Institute of Actuaries—has recently been addressing what they should be doing for their international members.

Description: This is an example of male life expectancy at age 65 from the United States.

Description: Results of the 2021 SOA Life Reinsurance Survey

Description: The US healthcare system before and after Obamacare – better or worse and what's next?

Description: IRS published final regulations on updated life expectancy and distribution period tables used for determining RMDs. The article intends to provide an overview on the development of the final regulations and highlight the key updates in final regulations, the transition rules to apply final regulations and some of the relevant issues not addressed in final regulations (e.g. MITT, Rev. Rul. 2002-62 and Notice 2004-15). The article also briefly discusses what financial institutions and actuaries would like to do before the regulations become effective on Jan. 1, 2022.

Description: A discussion of an alternative valuation methodology which addresses many of the shortcomings of the current valuation system for U.S. life and health insurers one of which is the proliferation of undesirable variations in state requirements. Issue No. 37

Description: The article discusses the role played by the "Blue Books" issued by the Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation and the authority accorded them by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.