Description: The excess spread approach introduced in this paper addresses the true economic profitability of investment oriented products by looking at the spread between the earnings rate on the assets and the rate required to be earned on the assets to satisfy the liabilities. For many products, an important part of the liability cost is the value of interest rate options embedded in the policies. The excess spread approach incorporates an option-pricing technique that is sufficiently flexible to handle different interest rate environments.

Description: This presentation is a panel discussion from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. The panelists discuss how some products have evolved in such a way that they are more compatible with available investments, that is the product design translates to a feasible investment strategy, which provides not only sufficient yield but also acceptable performance in various interest-rate environments. The panelists consider whether the trend will continue, and discuss the role of regulation, implications on educational activities for actuaries to understand better the asset side, and other issues. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4A.

Description: The author encourages the use of sound actuarial principles to develop reasonable retirement spending budgets instead of rule of thumb approaches commonly used.

Description: This paper presents the probabilistic concepts underlying measurement of asset adequacy in a simplified way. Discussions of this paper are included.

Description: An overview of the principles, underlying theories, and the various strategies employed in Asset/Liability management. From Asset-Liability Integration, M-FI02-1.

Description: A discussion of how in recent years, the unpredictability of cash flows has become a bigger source of risk than it was in the past for insurers. Includes a discussion of how some of the risk due to this unpredictability might be managed through asset management strategies. From Asset-Liability Integration, M-0FI02-1.

Description: Discussion of the insurance purchase decision for corporations, using an ALM perspective of utilizing insurance to maximize the net present value of cash inflows minus out flows. Also discusses how ALM concepts can be used to value a corporation, using discounted values of cash inflows minus outflows and the risks the corporation faces with respect to the amounts or timing of those cash flows. From Asset-Liability Integration, M-FI02-1.

Description: Vendor representatives discuss their ALM systems, what they do and don't do, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Also includes a comparative survey of the capabilities of a number of the existing systems. From the 1987 Record of Society of Actuaries, Vol. 13, No. 3.

Description: This session discussion is about various asset related items that are needed to perform necessary projections. From Record of the Society of Actuaries Vol. 15, No. 2.

Description: This session at the SOA 1990 Hartford Spring Meeting is about asset segmentation, i.e. segmenting assets among lines of business or liabilities, and how this enhances asset/liability mangement.