Description: The author, head of Alternatives Investment Specialists at Fortis Investments, recently presented a research paper on the potential benefits and possible pitfalls of investing in illiquid assets. This newsletter provides a brief summary of that paper. The full paper is available upon request.

Description: Feature article discussing the newly developed Build America Bonds BABs.

Description: Time Track: Analyzing Historical Asset Returns by Richard Q. Wendt from Risks and Rewards Newsletter, September 2000, Issue No. 35.

Description: Bond Prices, Yields, and Convexity by Macroeconomic Advisers from Risks and Rewards Newsletter, April 2000, Issue No. 34.

Description: Discusses the drawbacks of using adjusted book value instead of market value for the valuation of common stocks in a non-insured pension plan.

Description: The author discusses how the use of a weighted average dollar duration book yield, WADD, rather than the more traditional book yield determined by book value or market value weighting, can provide a better basis for determining the crediting rate on the liabilities.

Description: 1999 Market Triathlon Results by Frank M. Grossman from Risks and Rewards Newsletter, September 2000, Issue No. 35.

Description: Feature article discussing arithmetic means.

Description: This paper shows that the Esscher transform is an efficient technique for valuing derivative securities if the logarithms of the prices of the primitive securities are governed by certain stochastic processes with stationary and independent increments. From the Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1994, Vol. 46.

Description: The article describes the IRS Industry Issue Resolution (IIR) process as applied to the Insurance Industry's Bad Debt Issue. The article describes the IRR process in general, how that process was applied to the bad debt issue, and the safe harbor approach available for insurance companies. The safe harbor is described in LB&I Commissioner Heather Maloy's Directive dated July 30, 2012 (LB&I-4-0712-009).