Description: Discussion as to whether within an organization an actuary's regulatory role can conflict with his business-oriented role or be aligned with the strategic goals of the company.

Description: An over view of recent revisions to Social Security, and their implications to the private sector of the insurance industry.

Description: State and local pension plans provide their stakeholders with a great deal of information. However, that information is typically not presented in a user-friendly way. Summary documents often fail to give their readers a clear and comprehensive picture of a plan's finances. The premise of the SOA Project described in this article is that there is a need for concise summary reviews of a plan's operations. The Project's mandate included the preparation of two sample reviews of two different state systems that might serve as models, but not rigid templates for reviews prepared by plan management. This article describes and compares the two reviews and their accompanying dashboards, and also addresses the Project's broader goals. The article emphasizes that it is not the exact shape or format of a summary review that matters, but how effectively it conveys the current state and prospects of a plan's finances.

Description: Part One of a three part discussion of A Social Security System for the 21st Century, this part focuses the broader international, social, political, cultural and economic trends that will govern the viability and sustainability of a social security system in the 21st century.

Description: Discussion of the implications of the newly unveiled health care reform proposal by Senator Baucus. Key issues include abandonment of the CLASS Act, inclusion of LTC in cafeteria plans, funding and tax concerns, individual mandate, privacy concerns, play-or-pay employer mandate, impact on Medicare and Medicaid, and gridlock in the legislative finalization process.

Description: Article discusses how middle class Americans are doing in saving for retirement, sources of incomes and results of the Survey of Consumer Finances.

Description: How can we manage decumulation in an era of Defined Contribution plans? Marketing and incentives for annuity conversion, pooled-type retirement plans plus developing a "Social Security longevity annuity" can all be pieces of the solution.

Description: This article is focused on sustainability concerns in the ACA individual markets and what we can learn from core actuarial principles as discussed in ASOPs.

Description: A review of the 2009 Health Spring Meeting, which included speakers & sessions on the future of the SOA, U.S. health care reform, claims data issues & improvements, predictive modeling, underwriting principles, employer stoploss, cost trends, LTD & disability, and mental health parity regulations.

Description: This article provides an overview of the key provisions and impacts of the Affordable Care Act's Cadillac Plan Excise Tax.