Description: This article provides an overview of the evolution and rationale for Own Risk Solvency Assessment (ORSA), as well as practical implications for insurers as they begin to design an ORSA process.

Description: This is the strong message to encourage all actuaries in the world, who are struggling against low/zero/negative interest rate. Japanese actuaries have been struggling with low/zero/negative interest rate since 1995. There are experiences in asset management, product revision, pricing strategy, and capital management that can be applicable to other countries.

Description: Interest rate changes and volatile equity returns have contributed to significant funding and expense volatility for defined benefit plans in recent years. This paper will describe the design of an option contract with payouts that are tied to the combined impact of interest rates and investment returns on the funding level of a defined benefit pension plan. Current derivatives used by plan sponsors can limit exposure to one of these risks; however, a derivative that combines these risks may provide more targeted protection to a plan sponsor at lower cost. This paper discusses several considerations in designing such a derivative. It will also briefly discuss pricing of the option. Finally, the difference in potential outcomes between plan funding with and without option ownership will be demonstrated. As an outcome of the design work, a new way to visualize pension risk that may be useful in sponsor accounting disclosures will be shown.

Description: This session will demonstrate the advantages of approaches to duration matching and cash flow matching. Plan examples and sponsor’s objectives will be presented. An overview of when to choose one approach versus a blend of the two approaches will also be covered.

Description: Update on research activities.

Description: This article talks about the challenges facing the FDA, especially those arising from the globalization of the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Description: The 2008 global financial crisis highlighted the costs of supporting systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) as well as the linkages both between institutions as well as across countries. The G 20 tasked the Financial Stability Board (FSB) along with international regulatory associations such as the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) and the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) to evolve frameworks for supervision of such SIFIs.

Description: The author constructed the efficient frontier of new business sales by modeling the embedded value and economic capital against a universe of possible growth rates of the three lines of business in a typical three-year planning horizon. The ERM function can use the efficient frontier of new business to provide a more rigorous analysis of the impact of growth rates on the firm’s overall capital efficiency and value creation, hence forming a feedback loop with the businesses in the planning process to optimize the growth strategy.

Description: Presentation from the Actuarial Research Conference describing risk management at a leading Canadian Bank.

Description: This article discusses how catastrophe risk poses a unique challenge for smaller life insurers.