Description: Discusses cost-benefit decision-making for acquiring electronic data-processing equipment and installation issues, ability of small companies to compete in pension trust arena, effectiveness of various agency compensation programs in stimulating sales and improving persistency, success of sales to substandard risks and rating methods, and pricing, reinsurance and experience with individual hospital and medical policies.

Description: This session is about recent population experience, likely causes, probable future prospects, Industry mortality differentials and trends by product line,market and type of underwriting, What statistically credible evidence do we have for the efficacy of life insurance underwriting practices, What does the new Intercompany Standard Issues study show and Are there sound biological laws of mortality. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 5, No. 4.

Description: This session from the 1983 SOA Hollywood, Florida Meeting reviews progress reports by the Committee on Valuation and Related Problems. It discusses statutory surplus, the contingency surplus needed for C-1, C-2, C-3 Risks, C-4 Risk and vitality surplus. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 9, No. 4.

Description: This article highlights the research projects under review by the Research Policy Committee. It also invites submission of other projects with the caveat that ideas submitted without an offer of partial or complete funding will have a lower priority level.

Description: This panel at the 1982 Society of Actuaries Colorado Springs Spring Meeting focus on the balancing act between growth and sufficient surplus from both a stock and mutual company perspective.

Description: The objectives of this paper are: 1. To show why scientific laws of mortality are preferable to the continued use of graduation techniques on mortality tables. 2. To develop a new theory leading to a new mathematical law of mortality that reduces to Gompertz's law as a first approximation. 3. To demonstrate an understanding of select mortality and produce a simple formula that is reasonably consistent with it. 4. To develop methods to test this and other similar formulas on various bodies of data to establish their validity and usefulness. 5. To discuss the meaning of the results and provide some examples of the use of the formula for purposes other than graduation. 6. To discuss extensions of the models. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1980, Vol. 32.

Description: Panelists who have been a part of integrated actuarial and investment functions at their companies discuss initial concerns from each side, the need for initial and ongoing coordination, the effect of company philosophies on the resulting combination, and realized and potential results and pitfalls. This session was held only days after the October 1987 stock-market crash. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 4B.

Description: This article is about a seminar held on October 30, 1997 to discuss mortality improvement in the NAFTA countries and the impact of such improvements on the financing and benefit adequacy of the countries’ individual social security systems. The gathering of about 80 researchers from a variety of disciplines served as a type of summit meeting on the NAFTA countries’ mortality projections. The seminar was Phase 2 of a three-phase SOA research project, 'Impact of Mortality Improvement on Social Security: Canada, Mexico, and the United States.' The project is intended to provide some guidance for appropriate governmental bodies to use in determining future financing and benefit needs for social security. It is sponsored by the SOA, The Actuarial Foundation [formerly the SOA Foundation], the Retirement Research Foundation, the American Society of Pension Actuaries, the social security administration of each NAFTA country, and the Pension Research Council.

Description: This article notes that the SOA has been accepted as an affiliate member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science AAAS. The author believes this affiliation helps support the concept of an actuary being both a business person and a scientist.

Description: Discusses developing an investment strategy for new products, inconsistencies between pricing and financial-reporting models, and total return on the investment portfolio versus total return to the company. These topics are addressed from the perspectives of [1] a corporate actuarial department head, [2] a consultant to life companies in these areas, and [3] a preeminent risk-management actuary. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 3.