Description: The goal of the sessions was to learn how advisors are reaching out to this market and to uncover the roadblocks that they think are deterring greater mid-market use of financial services.

Description: This article discusses Asset-Backed Securities as a low volatility alternative to Intermediate Government Bonds.

Description: Most investors give convertible securities less prominence than stocks and bonds in their investment portfolios. The attention span given to learning the intricacies and finer points of this hybrid security is quite narrow. In fact, most of us may not even know that a “golden age” existed or whether it has peaked. It’s far beyond our immediate concerns.

Description: ETFs have seen explosive growth in the past decade. Due to its flexibility and embedded risk management features, insurance companies and pension funds, are showing increasing interest in this asset class. This session covers an introduction to ETFs and the risk/rewards for insurance companies and pension funds as an additional asset class.

Description: The article discusses the characteristics of the high-yielding bank loan asset class.

Description: This presentation, session number 102PD, took place at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 17-20 in San Francisco. The panelists discuss the characteristics of more popular forms of asset-backed securities, including receivables, home equity loans, home improvement loans, and manufactured housing loans. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 3.

Description: Gold has been one of the worst performing investment assets of the last two decades due to the steady to low inflation. In the future, if the US economic environment takes a turn for the worst or inflation reemerges, gold will once again be a high performing investment.

Description: This article discusses how FHLB advances, i.e. low cost loans, can supply valuable risk management benefits. By carefully structuring an advance to mature coincident with the anticipated premium inflows generated by insurance products, a company can largely eliminate future net cash flows and consequently the need to invest them in uncertain capital markets.

Description: Measuring Fair Value for Participation Units of Stable Value Pooled Funds

Description: This article is about junk assets. Insurance companies own over one third of the junk assets in the U.S. which has raised concerns and caused certain states to enact laws or regulations regarding junk investments.