Description: Insurance companies are not immune to liquidity risks.

Description: The Federal funds rate increased by 4.25% in 2022 with further increases in 2023, which have already resulted in a liquidity crisis for a few banks. As the rapid increase of the interest rates pushed the new money rates above the yields of many life insurers’ investment portfolios, insurance companies are facing a dilemma between compressed margins from peer pressure and the concern with liquidity shortfalls and realized capital losses should mass surrenders happen. This paper discussed main emerging risks under rising interest rate environment, and several ways to mitigate these risks.

Description: This research report explores investment year methodology to set renewal credited rates. There is an accompanying Excel workbook created as a teaching aide.

Description: The purpose of the article is to summarize the results and conclusions of the C-1 Risk Task Force Report prepared for the Committee on Valuation and Related Areas. A key question: Is the risk to insurance companies of defaults on junk bonds sufficient to justify increasing required surplus levels?

Description: Dollar-Cost Averaging 'DCA' means investing a constant amount at regular intervals into a single stock or mutual fund. This is in contrast to Unit Purchase 'UP', which denotes buying a constant number of shares at each interval. This article compares the relative merits of these two investment strategies.

Description: This panel discussion looked at investment philosophy and strategy for insurance companies. Discussion focused on the matching of assets and liabilities, the effect of an inflationary environment, and performance measurement for investment results.

Description: This article from The Actuary, April 1971, volume 5, Issue 4 is about a pension section meeting. The moderator opened the meeting by laying down some general principles. Using market value instead of book, accounting for unrealized gains, taking cognizance of different cash flows, objectives, constraints on the manager, and other characteristics of the funds to be compared-all met with general acceptance, in this audience at least.

Description: U.S. bond markets have undergone dramatic changes due to the 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the COVID-19 pandemic. In taking a retrospective view, we can see that bond markets, viewed through the lens of major bond indices, have been evolving for quite some time. Within this paper, TD Asset Management Inc. (TDAM) will explore underlying changes that have occurred within the U.S. Corporate Bond Index, a sub-component of the larger U.S. investment grade bond market, over the past decade. We will highlight key structural changes that have occurred within bond markets and why they are noteworthy

Description: This presentation is a concurrent session from the 1991 Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held May 16-17 in New York. The panelists discuss determining an optimal investment strategy in the current economic environment, taking into account prospects for the future, and how investment decisions are affected by product features. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 2.

Description: For those who care, there are both pleasure and profit to be gained from buying a ticket on the bull train in a timely manner.