Description: This paper is from Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1955 Volume 7, Number 17. The author notes that recent advances in calculating equipment make possible producing graduations much more elaborate than any done previously. The paper confines itself to the problem of graduating a single column of rates, such as an ultimate column, using a Whittaker-Henderson B graduation of the fourth order. The author provides a detailed description of the process with significant mathematical theory.

Description: This paper is from Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1955 Volume 7, Number 17. The authors note that ‘mortality experiences of large closed groups carried through until the termination of all the lives are not often available,’ but that they provide ‘relatively reliable mortality experience at the very advanced ages.’ This paper presents the results of the mortality study of probably the only such closed group to date in the United States, the pension roll of Union Civil War veterans.

Description: An analysis of population mortality at the older ages in the United States. The analysis is based principally on data obtained for calendar years 1968-69 in the operations of the Medicare program. In addition, the author develops mortality rates by single ages at the very high ages 85 and over, using the extinct cohort method based on deaths recorded through the vital statistics system in calendar years 1951-68.