Description: Chapter 4 of Models for Retirement Policy Analysis. The PRISM Pension and Retirement Income Simulation Model is a dynamic microsimulation model designed to simulate the retirement income and long term care utilization and financing of the elderly population. The strengths and limitations of the approach are addressed as well as accessibility and ease of use.

Description: 1992 SOA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. This session on cash-flow testing for product actuaries covered the following topics: 1. Guidance notes designed to help in writing up reports on cash-flow testing. 2. Investment strategies in product design. 3. Surplus requirements.

Description: As the use of predictive models and novel datasets becomes more prevalent, a focus on consumer protection is being highlighted by regulators, ethicists, and industry insiders. Over time, increased rigor should and will be applied in model development and implementation. These issues are not new. Hundreds of individuals have worked on these issues in the laboratory, the board room, and the court room. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Uniform Guidelines of the US EEOC, the Principles for the Validation and Use of Personnel Selection and other sources are intended to protect the rights of citizens and consumers and provide guidance to professionals in the development and use of decision-making tools. Drawing heavily on examples and parallels from psychology and employment practices as well as other disciplines, concepts such as model bias, fairness, adverse impact, disparate treatment and the like will be presented. Suggestions to ensure model validity, demonstrate model and data relevancy and minimize the potential for adverse impact to protected classes will also be offered. Each of these considerations will be linked to recent dialogue and concerns in the Life Insurance sector.

Description: The Required Minimum Distribution [RMD] working group of the Taxation Section has completed research in determining the actuarial present value of additional benefits for computing RMD under deferred annuity contracts. This is Appendix H spreadsheet for persistency bonus calculations for this research project. Please see teh SOA website research section for the complete report and excel spreadsheets for other appendices.

Description: Actuary Dave Dillon describes his role volunteering his time as a teacher in higher education, including the rewards and challenges that teaching offers. He discusses the importance of being attentive to his audience’s pre-existing knowledge and adapting his presentations accordingly. His work as a teacher typically encompasses three distinct domains: 1) acquainting young students with the actuarial profession, 2) educating non-actuaries about public policy issues related to health insurance (including the Affordable Care Act), and 3) instructing current actuaries on advanced methodologies and principles within the field. Recently he taught a health insurance course for actuarial science graduate students at Georgia State University and lectured at Boise State University’s master's program in Population & Health Systems Management. In every teaching and mentoring opportunity, actuaries can contribute to the expansion and prosperity of the profession and are encouraged to pursue these endeavors.