Description: Highlights of the International Experience Study (IES), a joint research venture of the SOA’s International Section and Research Department, the International Actuarial Association, local actuarial associations and corporate sponsors to provide actuaries around the world with practical experience information in emerging markets.

Description: This article uses a fairy tale to tell a story about life annuities and gender.

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 paper charts the economic status of women moving from marriage to widowhood, and examines the changes in income and income sources that actually occur as women are widowed. The paper focuses, in particular, in the actual and potential role of pensions in preserving the economic status of widow. From Retirement Needs Framework, M-RS00-1.

Description: The article discovers that mortality is higher for females than for males at higher ages, and suggests "stress" as the explanation. It then discusses mental illness research, including recovery therefrom.

Description: Seven appendices laying out the research data used in this paper in table form. From Why Men Die Younger: Causes of Mortality Differences by Sex, M-LI01-1.

Description: Planning for retirement in North America has become much more challenging as the defined benefit system has declined. We must take more responsibility for ourselves. As we plan, many societal forces affect us. Both men and women are disadvantaged because Americans in particular are not very good savers. While pension plans and Social Security, or CPP/QPP/OAS in Canada, generally use the same formulas for men and women, often the results are different. This article focuses on the challenges women face in retirement.

Description: The Society of Actuaries and two of its special interest sections, the Pension Section and the Health Section, set about creating a pension plan turnover table for use by actuaries to assist in calculating benefit costs for pension and retiree medical plans. This is the final report about that project.

Description: This presentation is a general session from the joint Society of Actuaries/Casualty Actuarial Society Meeting held April 10-11, 1978 in New York City. The panelists provide an update on the current environment for risk classification in both property/casualty and life insurance areas, including regulatory development and court cases. The speakers note there are at least eleven Federal Agencies administering bans against sex discrimination, although not all of these deal with retirement plans or insurance, and that various states have issued regulations which affect our ability to classify risks, and that the issues, social more than actuarial, will not go away. Discussion from Participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 4, No. 1.

Description: This 1978 discussion session focuses on the impact on pension plan design due to: 1. The 1977 Amendments to the Social Security Act, 2. The Administration's proposal in regard to integration of private pension plan benefits with Social Security benefits, 3. The requirement to eliminate compulsory retirement prior to age 70, and 4. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, et al. v. Manhart, et al. which held that an employer violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 when it requires women to contribute more than men to a pension fund in order to receive the same level of benefits.