Description: A paper demonstrating how to obviate the need for market timing strategies in variable annuity products by judicious use of product design. The paper presents the premise behind the product design, provides numerical examples, then explores possible extensions of the concept to produce more sophisticated variable annuity plans based on guarantees of investment outcomes.

Description: This is an extension of the 8th edition of the SOA Living to 100 Symposium in the U.S. It brings new perspectives with the combination of long-term care, mortality, ElderTech, pandemic longevity and climate change response to the needs of the elderly population.

Description: With mortality rates significantly higher in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, actuaries that rely on historical experience cannot properly craft assumptions about the future due to the recent excess deaths. This webcast focuses on the practicality of using pandemic mortality experience, as well as how to overcome the practical challenges of that data implementation. Explore an overview of different approaches used by institutions in the U.S., Canada and UK and an observation of industry survey responses. There will also be a comparison to recent SOA expert opinion surveys and short term impacts on the future of U.S. mortality.

Description: "Driving Longevity Through Educational Attainment – Robert L. Brown – Ph. D. Higher Age U.S. Mortality By Education and Cause of Death Trends, Inequality and Controllable Risk Factors – Andrew J. G. Cairns – MPA Ph.D., Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences, and Department of Actuarial Mathematics and Statistics, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK, Cristian Redondo Lour´es, Ph.D., Actuarial Solutions,"

Description: New Study Examines Fixed Indexed Annuity Contract Owner Behavior Society of Actuaries Research Institute and LIMRA Release Latest Experience Studies Pro Report

Description: This paper applies the research in Prospect Theory of Kahneman and Tversky to explain why sales of annuities lag sales of life insurance products. The author theorizes that life insurance is easier to sell because customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of losses, while potential annuity customers perceive themselves to be in the domain of gains. Kahneman and Tversky showed us that people are mostly risk averse in the domain of gains and risk seeking in the domain of losses. Purchase of an annuity or life product is a risky investment. Customers will find it easier to take the risk in the life insurance domain of losses than the annuity domain of gains. The author then proposes a hybrid life annuity product that might address both mortality and longevity risk in one product that would allow both products to be more competitive than stand-alone products.

Description: The author proposes an annuity clearinghouse to encourage employers to offer annuity accumulation products in their defined contribution plans. This addresses the lack of portability that is associated with, and discourages the use of, defined contribution plans.

Description: Discover the impact of COVID-19 on member costs post diagnosis and the future of mortality in this Emerging Long Term COVID-19 Trends webcast. This webcast will be split up into Health and Life portions. During the Health portion of this webcasts, you will learn more about the impact on risk scores due to recent findings. Enjoy this discussion and further dive into the emerging COVID-19 trends that may affect how you conduct business practices. At the Life portion, the SOA Research Institute assembled a panel of mortality experts who will express opinions on the effects of the U.S. mortality rate for general, insured and pension populations in the short-term.

Description: Discussion of the challenges actuaries face in selecting an interest rate for the purpose of calculating Withdrawal Liability for a Multiemployer pension fund in the US. Recent court cases are referenced.

Description: This article takes a look at how defined benefit (DB) pension plan financials ended the third quarter of 2023 on a solid footing, improving the capacity to take meaningful de-risking actions; as DB plans look to de-risk at reasonable costs, they may find it beneficial to consider a broad range of investment options; and completing a core bond allocation with private credit and income-oriented alternative strategies can help achieve important savings over other frequently pursued de-risking approaches, without materially increasing the funded status volatility or downside risk