Description: Discusses the market, demographic, and macroeconomic factors that affect actuaries' choices for the assumptions they use in the pricing and valuation of many insurance products.

Description: This session from the 1995 SOA Spring Meeting has a panel of investment experts that answer investment-related questions from the audience including investment policy for long term care insurance, asset allocation and derivatives. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 21, No. 1.

Description: 1999 SOA Annual Meeting, San Francisco. The panel discussed recent developments in the equity-linked note market. Topics included: 1. New structures that allow active management. 2. Trade-offs affecting participation rates. 3. Accounting issues. 4. Tax issues. 5. Risk-based capital issues.

Description: This is a compilation or risk management terms garnered from a survey of risk professionals supplemented with analysis of firm-level information on significant risks as reported in 10-K financial statements. Results indicate the existence of significance differences in terminology. The dominating pattern observed is a dichotomy between internal and external perceptions. Also observed is a difference between terms used by actuarial professionals and traditional risk managers.

Description: This article discusses some 'standard' methods of foreign expansions. Strategic decisions for expansion in foreign countries require more than qualitative discussions about foreign expansion. It requires hard numbers on the benefits of such strategic expansion plans and is illustrated here with the example of MetLife's 2002 purchase of Ahisa [Aseguradora Hidalgo]. With that purchase, more than 70% of the Mexican insurance market is in the hand of foreign companies.

Description: 1996 Valuation Actuary Symposium. Questions asked and answered included: 1. What do regulators expect or want as far as asset adequacy analysis for shorter-term liabilities such as IBNR? 2. What responsibility does the appointed actuary have in verifying reserves for reinsured business? 3. If the assets for the market value adjusted annuity are held in a separate account and valued at market, what rates should be used to present value the projected guaranteed benefits? 4. May a company perform the cash-flow testing based on the low level of reserves held in the domiciliary state rather than the higher reserve actually held in the state with the special state in filing? 5. Have there been any situations where an opining valuation actuary has been held personally responsible?

Description: Discusses the financial-guarantee insurance industry, including: [1] a brief history, [2] types of coverage offered, [3] pricing, reserving, and equity considerations, and [4] applicable regulation. From the 1988 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 14, No. 4B.

Description: Presented at October 1996 Annual Meeting. This session discusses financial, strategic, and regulatory issues that arise from the combination of life insurance businesses through merger, acquisition, or reinsurance, with a special focus on the needs of mutual companies.

Description: This paper examines the theory of surplus for a mutual life insurance organization. The paper tries to answer several important questions - What exactly is surplus, what is its purpose, of what magnitude might it be, from whence does it arise, and what are its implications with respect to equity between policyholders.

Description: This report describes and demonstrates a method to understand reputational risk that an insurance company can apply to the unique circumstances of the insurance firm. This method applies a policy-capturing survey with scenario analysis to generate insight into reputational risk from the perspective of a variety of stakeholders. Also included is instruction for spreadsheet-based query and reporting to facilitate the use of the information in the risk management function.