Description: The classical approach to life contingencies has treated actuarial functions as fixed quantities. In point of fact, these functions really represent the mean or expected values of random variables which are functions at the length of time to death of a life aged x. In this paper, we will present some examples of this approach. Talk given at the thirteenth annual Actuarial Research Conference held at Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, September 1, 1978.

Description: The method described in this paper is to allocate surplus to each category of business and reserves in proportion to its estimated effect on an insurer's surplus variation. Risk load for each category of business is then selected so that the return on allocated surplus for each category is equal to the overall return on surplus. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1993, VOL. 3.

Description: This is an abstract of the paper entitled 'Axioms for the Valuation of Payment Streams: A Topological Vector Space Approach' by Approach by S. David Promislow. From Actuarial Research Clearing House, 1994, Vol. 1

Description: This paper is to some extent a sequel to my previous paper A Bond Manager's Method for ALM published in Actuarial Research Clearing House Volume 1993.3. It borrows from that paper the concept of benchmark weights for measuring the sensitivity of the present value of a set of cash flows to changes in interest rates. However, a completely different approach to calculating benchmark weights is presented.

Description: In this expository paper several comments are made with respect to the statistical independence of the curtate future lifetime and the fractional part of the future lifetime, both of a general status. In particular, the conditions for independence need to be stated carefully. The last-survivor status is cited as an example. More general assumptions than the uniform distribution of deaths assumption are then considered, together with applications to insurances, annuities, and reserves. Similar results to those under the uniform distribution of deaths assumption are obtained. Brief comments are made with respect to contingent probabilities in multiple lives and multiple decrement theory.

Description: It is obvious that the introduction of a deductible has two major effects. The amount paid for every claim will drop, resulting in a lower claim burden for the insurance company. There will also be a drop in claim frequency, leading to a decrease in claim handling expenses. However, it is by no means obvious how the average claim size changes with the introduction of a deductible. In this paper, we will study this question. First, we derive some theoretical results then apply them to concrete distributions.

Description: This paper examines the pricing of catastrophe risk bonds. Catastrophe risk cannot be hedged by traditional securities. Therefore the pricing of catastrophe risk bonds requires an incomplete markets setting and this creates special difficulties in the pricing methodology. The paper briefly discusses the theory of equilibrium pricing and its relationship to the standard arbitrage-free valuation framework. Equilibrium pricing theory is used to develop a pricing method based on a model of the term structure of interest rates and a probability structure for the catastrophe risk. This pricing methodology can be used to assess the default spread on catastrophe risk bonds relative to traditional defaultable securities.

Description: In writing this note on the relationship between total return, duration and convexity, it was author's intent to produce a better understanding of Redington's theory of immunization. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1991, VOL. 2.

Description: This is a summary of the talk given at the 27th Actuarial Research Conference regarding ruin theory. From Actuarial Research Clearing House 1993, VOL. 1.

Description: This is a simplified approach to calculating the variance of the whole life random variable in certain, very common circumstances.