Description: The goal of this paper is to dispel the prevailing belief that American-style options cannot be valued efficiently in a simulation model by presenting a general algorithm for such valuation, and thus remove what has been considered a major impediment to the use of simulation models for valuing financial instruments. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: Without relying on formulas, this paper presents the important concepts underlying the theory of arbitrage-free pricing of interest-rate-contingent cash flows: absence of opportunities for riskless arbitrage, completeness of markets, relative prices that do not depend on individual investors' subjective views or risk preferences, and expected-value pricing in the risk-neutral world. Using these concepts, the paper then describes the steps required to build continuous stochastic models of interest rates, including models that are either partially or fully arbitrage free.

Description: This paper, originally published in 1992 in the Transactions of Society of Actuaries Vol. 44, deals with a topic that is becoming increasingly important to actuaries in most fields of practice. “Without relying on formulas, this paper presents the important concepts underlying the theory of arbitrage-free pricing of interest-rate-contingent cash flows.” This paper, by James A. Tilley, won the 1992-93 Annual Prize, and the Halmstad Prize for 1992. The paper includes written discussion and the author’s review of the discussions.

Description: This Report presents the results of a three-year study on Demutualization by a Task Force of the Society of Actuaries. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1987, Vol. 39.

Description: This panel discussion looked at investment philosophy and strategy for insurance companies. Discussion focused on the matching of assets and liabilities, the effect of an inflationary environment, and performance measurement for investment results.

Description: This paper presents an algorithm for valuing American options in a path simulation model. It demonstrates the accuracy by an example involving a put option on a non-dividend-paying stock for which the exact premium could be determined. It shows how the use of simulation models can be useful in valuing a broker-dealer's derivative book and analyzing the asset-liability condition of financial intermediaries.

Description: This paper investigates how the concepts of asset-liability matching can be used to shape investment strategy. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1980, Vol. 32.

Description: This paper presents a new insight into the mathematical structure of asset share-type calculations. Asset shares are interpreted as accumulations of insurance cash flows, which along with their related investment income, are treated as Stieltjes integrals. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1978, Vol. 30.

Description: From the 1985 Valuation Actuary Symposium Demonstration of the usefulness of the concepts of duration, interest rate sensitivity and, in particular, market values in analyzing the ability of assets to meet future liability demands.