Description: Discusses what triggered the Morris review, what it found, and what it might mean to the actuarial profession in the UK.

Description: This article is a follow-up article on the principles-based reserves PBR movement in the life and health insurance industry. It discusses more in depth the possibility of principles-based reserves determined stochastically and changes proposed in the SVL for preferred mortality.

Description: This article discusses adjusting IRC 415 limits for prior distributions. The proposed IRC 415 regulations issued last May contained guidance regarding how to adjust the benefit limits for prior distributions. This is commendable on the part of the IRS. How to adjust the IRC 415 limits for prior distributions has long been a source of confusion even for experienced pension actuaries. The best methodology is not immediately clear, and some methods have become common practice even if they can lead to inconsistent or unreasonable results. From Pension Section News, January 2006, No. 60.

Description: Conflict of Interest Notifications Aid Client’s Fiduciary Obligations by Theodore Konshak from Pension Section News, January 1998, Issue No. 35.

Description: This article provides a summary of the Actuarial Standards Board work and hearing evaluating whether a new ASOP is needed for public sector pension plans.

Description: After research involving auto insurance is retracted due to fraud, I revisit my own book review and unskeptical quoting of that now-debunked research. A lesson in ASOP 23, on Data Quality, ensues, as it seems data in the research was falsified. There is also a lesson in ASOP 56, Modeling, which includes aspects of relying on outside experts for model input. At the end of it all, the value of our actuarial professional standards, in light of other professions seemingly having no standards (or no serious repercussions for breaching said standards), shines through. Also, be skeptical of 'one simple trick' approaches to transform the insurance industry.

Description: This article discusses pension plans in North America as compared to pension plans in Japan from the perspective of the author, who has lived in both places, currently residing in Japan. From Pension Section News, January 2006, No. 60.

Description: The October/November 2012 edition of The Actuary magazine—the Society of Actuaries’ flagship publication.

Description: This article is a summary of the Morris Review, a public inquiry, of the actuarial profession in the United Kingdom. The report was published in 2004.