Description: Although crisis management remain often seen through a “communication lens”, it has in reality more in common with risk management than usually thought. Both crisis and risk management are anticipatory endeavors, with most of the work being carried out in peace time; both require a deep understanding of the organization’s activities and ecosystem; both have the same overarching objective to enable the organization to survive a brutal change to its usual operating conditions. Developing integration between the two functions would thus go a long way toward a more resilient organization.

Description: The article is based on a study of causes of insolvency and decisions made by management, regulators, and policyholders over the life cycle of the insolvency.

Description: We can do a better job of communicating the degree of "riskiness" that is inherent in our models of risk. The "Coefficient of Risk" is one way to present fatness of model tails in simple terms using widely understood basic concepts.

Description: A discussion of the possible effort required and impacts resulting from the implementation of C3 Phase II for establishing risk-based capital for variable annuities. This article will describe practical considerations gleaned from actual valuation calculations recently performed by a consulting firm.

Description: Feature article that discusses the importance of developing a risk tolerance statement.

Description: In this article, we provide practical guidance for understanding how to develop and apply an effective risk appetite statement.

Description: Summary of recent surveys to life actuaries regarding assumptions surrounding policyholder behavior in the tail for universal life with secondary guarantees and minimum guarantees on variable annuities. This information is intended to examine and ultimately give guidance to actuaries on how to set policyholder assumptions in extreme scenarios.

Description: An overview of the articles in the August 2012 issue of Risk Management and a list of winners of the most recent call for papers, “Risk Metrics for Decision Making and ORSA.”

Description: An exploration of Canada’s federal regulator of financial institutions (OSFI) and its more formal assessment of the actuarial function of insurers.

Description: The letter from the editor discusses some recent loss events driven by model error and provides an overview of the articles in this issue of Risk Management.