Description: 1993 SOA Meeting, Quebec. This session is about equity strategies of life insurance company general accounts. Topics included: 1. Various kinds of equity investments,what their features are, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. 2. What is the most efficient way, given the risk profile that most life companies have, to invest in equities? 3. Can you live with the capital standards that nervous regulators require? 4. Can you live with boards of directors who believe that we don't sell that many products with long liability tails, so we don't need equities?

Description: This presentation is a panel discussion from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. Citing the current environment of recent insurance company insolvencies, bad investments, and capital erosion, the panelists discuss issues of interest to the investment actuary, including Financial accounting Standards Board [FASB] activity in market-value [MV] accounting, ways to evaluate asset quality and default risk in an MV environment, the impact of MV accounting on investment strategy, the new benchmark of ‘Return on MV Surplus,’ MV behavior of assets and liabilities, use of derivative instruments to hedge MV surplus volatility, and investment aspects of risk-based capital. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4B.

Description: This teaching session covers primarily hedging strategies, including mechanisms, assumptions, and simulation. Hedging used for guaranteed living benefits on variable annuities is frequently discussed. Session 7TS of the 2005 Valuation Actuary Symposium.

Description: This presentation suggests a possible flexible solution to the time and resource problems of running a large number of stochastic interest rate scenarios, by selecting a representative subset. Each interest rate scenario consists of 30 future spot yield curves, where a reasonable number of points are specified on each curve such as 12. The distribution of the scenarios is approximated by the subset and each scenario in the subset has equal weight. The method is independent of the inter rate generator used.

Description: 1992 SOA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C. This session on cash-flow testing for product actuaries covered the following topics: 1. Guidance notes designed to help in writing up reports on cash-flow testing. 2. Investment strategies in product design. 3. Surplus requirements.

Description: This session will serve as a guide on how to implement a factor-based optimization in the Strategic Asset Allocation process. The session will review a factor-based investing approach and cover the top-down macroeconomic drivers of risk and return for various asset classes. We will then illustrate implementation of this investing approach and determination of an optimal Strategic Asset Allocation through a pension fund case study. There will be an interactive element to the session as the factor sensitivities of various portfolios can be examined in real-time.

Description: This session from the 1983 SOA Spring Meeting discusses disintermediation and intermediation risk - C-3 Risk, investment strategy and product design including market value adjusted products. From Record of Society of Actuaries Vol. 9, No. 2.

Description: In session 131 PD of the New York Annual Meeting panelists discuss the nature of derivatives and emerging practice with respect to the financial reporting for these instruments. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 24, No. 3.

Description: The management of the investments of an insurance enterprise has undergone a considerable evolution since the pioneering work of Redington in the mid 20th century. Best practices have evolved to incorporate ever more complex insurance liabilities, expanding investment asset classes and global market opportunities. Strategic asset allocation (SAA), liability driven investing, and other robust optimization approaches form the core of the professional management of insurance company investments.

Description: From the 1960 Transactions Vol. 12 No. 32, this ‘Digest of Informal Discussion’ addresses current developments and proposals with respect to life insurance company investments and inflation. The panelists address questions related to the extent and appropriateness of investment in common stocks, and the impact on actuarial practices and standards.