Description: This editorial explains the benefits of a recent seminar among NAFTA countries on mortality improvement and how social security systems can be affected.

Description: A sample is shown of age-adjusted death rates by cause in the United States population, compiled by H.E.W.‘s National Center for Health Statistics, which appear on pages 77-84 of the T.S.A. 1978 Reports distributed November 1979.

Description: This paper is the final report in a project commissioned by the Society of Actuaries Social Security Committee. The paper considers a variety of possible risk classification factors that could be used in estimating the value of any mortality based benefit for retirees. As many countries consider mandatory individual retirement accounts as their answer to a secure Social Security system, the question arises as to whether all workers can get true 'market value' annuities when they retire. It is clear today that private sector life annuities are priced assuming that the applicant is healthy-very healthy. Very little underwriting or risk classification now exists in the individual annuity marketplace. This paper reviews 45 recent research papers that look at factors that affect mortality after retirement. In particular, factors that seem to be important in predicting retirement mortality include: age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, income, occupation, marital status, religion, health behaviors, smoking, alcohol, and obesity. For each factor, this paper gives highlights relative to the named factor of the impact expected from that variable as described in the 45 reviewed research papers.

Description: This article provides a perspective on the SOA’s Aging and Retirement research reports, and on the types of research that are included. The SOA does a lot of research on different retirement topics, and many people are not aware of the scope of this work. This article offers an overview of the big picture as we think about the future. The article describes longer-term challenges to the US retirement system and recent developments that have affected the system and created uncertainty. It provides an overview of what individuals have said about retirement and their view of post-retirement risks and planning in a variety of consumer research studies. It then reviews some of the research and provides information on summary reports which provide insight on the findings from multiple related research reports. It also provides information about consumer education and what is currently available and in process. It then focuses on how the SOA is helping retirement professionals understand current and expected change and discusses areas of uncertainty as we help those we serve deal with change.

Description: Attempts to construct an abridged mortality table from the scant data available. The number of persons exposed is 291, among whom there have been 184 deaths.

Description: Study of the Effect of a Flu Pandemic on Insured Mortality Using the Delphi Method

Description: This article is about war mortality from an 1859 copy of The Spectator, by the Institute of Actuaries, J.I.A. 8 1859, 268-284.

Description: Heart disease, critical illness insurance and the path to change – a personal essay by Jing Lang, FSA, FCIA, FLMI.

Description: This session discusses two recent SOA research initiatives called FARM I and FARM II. From Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 30, No. 3.

Description: This graph indicates the overall historical trend in life expectancy by gender at birth.