Description: Informal commentary on the importance to the actuarial community of embracing enterprise risk management and ORSA. Part of the essay collection "Risk Metrics for Decision Making and ORSA"

Description: The purpose of this paper is to explore a methodology for choosing among techniques for managing contribution volatility in defined- benefit pension plans. A frequently used – and as often criticized – method for managing contribution volatility is to base actuarial cost on smoothed assets. Our goal in this paper is to develop a methodology for measuring and evaluating the quantitative impact of competing asset smoothing policies. We proceed by investigating a series of basic pension metrics, evaluating the characteristics of each using a simulated pension plan. We then use normalized and weighted combinations of these metrics to determine an optimal smoothing policy.

Description: A real life situation is posed involving a management, leadership, or other business decision, and readers are invited to submit their responses to "What Would You Do?" This issue’s case study involved a performance appraisal gone wrong.

Description: Read the March 2017 issue of Product Matters published by the Product Development Section. Newsletters provide practical information for the working actuary, articles on trends that impact sections and news about section activities.

Description: A brief overview of the development of the Critical Illness product in Canada.

Description: This paper comments on the Successful Employee Retirement Income Outcomes in the United States (SERIOUS), a comprehensive model for the delivery of employment-based retirement income.

Description: NewsDirect September 2015 Issue

Description: Presented at Living to 100 and Beyond symposium 2002. Discussion of two papers, 'Approaches and Experiences in Projecting Mortality Patterns for the Oldest Old' by Buettner and 'Using Dynamic Reliability in Estimating Mortality at Advanced Ages' by Lin. The first paper discusses the UN methodology for projecting mortality above age 80 and presents another approach for addressing the problem of table closing. The second paper suggests a new statistical model for fitting and estimation of mortality rates at advanced ages.