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: This presentation is a section meeting from the 1991 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries, held October 20-23 in Toronto. The guest speaker discusses prospective returns on financial assets, noting that the past, particularly the 1980s, is in many respects irrelevant in making projections of future returns, noting the decade of the 1980s was a nonrecurring and unsustainable period. He provides his thoughts in terms of projected real economic growth, projected inflation, projected real interest rates, and using that data makes projections of returns from a variety of financial assets. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of Society of Actuaries, Volume 17, No. 4B.

Description: This discussion focuses on the changing pattern of life insurance investing into public utilities, railroads, real estate, mortgages, corporate bonds and common and preferred stocks. This session also looks at the importance of the investment department, the impact on policyholder earnings, direct placement investing and a history of stock market performance since 1918. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1959, Vol. 11, No. 29 AB.

Description: This report presents the results of the 1986-92 Credit Risk Event 'CRE' Loss Experience Study which represents a continuation of the 1986-89 pilot study analyzing loss experience by institutional investors on private placement bonds. This continuing study is being conducted under the auspices of the Society of Actuaries and involves thirteen institutional investors which accounted for between 34% and 42% of outstanding life insurance company private placement bond holdings during the study period. The study measures incidence rates, loss severities and economic loss rates associated with credit risk events for privately placed debt during the years 1986-92. From Transactions of Society of Actuaries 1997-98 Reports.

Description: This presentation is from session number 36, presented at the 1999 Valuation Actuary Symposium, held September 23-24 in Los Angeles. Today’s low interest rate environment has helped spark enthusiasm for new investment vehicles with a potential for higher returns than more traditional asset classes. The panelists discuss structured securities, convertible bonds, mortgage backed securities, and other investment vehicles.

Description: The Investment Symposium is a day-and-a-half long seminar that will focus on the issues and questions faced by investors and risk managers, especially related to insurance companies and retirement plans. Presenters will discuss the big picture issues and explore practical solutions to today’s challenges. Experts will share new approaches to portfolio management and cutting edge research in asset-liability management. Technology, regulation and the economic environment will

Description: 1990 Valuation Actuary Symposium luncheon speech that discusses the demine of the junk bond market and other asset value problems.

Description: Insurance companies utilize derivatives in a variety of ways to manage and mitigate risks that are inherent in their investment or liability portfolios. They can be characterized by three main features: medium long-term duration; large volumes; and significant market risk exposure. Given the persistent low interest rate environment across the curve since the 2008 financial crisis, large companies need to hedge their liabilities, as illustrated by the significant recent increase from $786 billion as of fiscal year 2010 to $1,885 billion as of FY 2014 by insurance companies.As the Variable Annuities (VA) guarantees embedded within those liabilities hold a strong convex risk profile with respect to the underlying stock, VA carriers need to buy some convex hedge assets such as options to match the liability risk profile to improve hedge effectiveness, implying the growing cost of hedging. Such market impact of the quantity on the cost of hedging is further magnified in the recent period with the short-lived, but sharp transitions from low volatility to high volatility, when market volatility suddenly increases, even when there were no well-known fundamental catalysts. This partially stems from the growing managed volatility funds embedded within VA ($bn 400).VA carriers willing to trade a large quantity of options will see such market impact as an important dilemma, as the cost of placing one large order to close position will be far greater than the sum of infinitely small orders differed in time. In that context, managing market impact requires introducing an explicit market impact function, the influence of which the agent will try to minimize. The effect on hedge asset prices significantly depends on whether there is or not significant delta hedging activity. In case of no significant delta hedging activity, the risk appetite has a significant influence on the optimal execution strategy. If there is significant delta hedging activity, the optimal trading involve

Description: Suspension of 30-year Treasury auctions will have minimal impact on bond market structure in the near term, but over the mid- to long-term, consequences could be profound. This article discusses that impact the suspension of the 30-year treasury will have.

Description: In this presentation, session number 10PD at the 1999 Annual Meeting of the Society of Actuaries held October 17-20 in San Francisco, the panelists discuss their experiences with asset valuation methods. Topics include characteristics of an effective asset valuation method, the extent to which recent economic activity should influence the smoothing period selected, whether one method smoothes valuation assets more than another, whether different methods for funding and expense make sense, and whether the current asset valuation method is accomplishing its intended purpose. Discussion from participants is included. From the Record of the Society of Actuaries, Vol. 25, No. 3.